Chapter 8 - Michael Leaves a Second Ledger
The blood belonged to Michael.
The amount suggested injury, not necessarily death.
A hospital fifty miles away reported a man matching his description
admitted under another name after a roadside accident.
Michael was alive.
He had a fractured wrist and a head wound.
Once medically stable and represented by counsel, he explained.
He returned because an anonymous email told him Evelyn’s ledger still
existed.
Michael had known about Harbor Ridge.
But not from Thomas.
From Martin Cole.
Before Martin died, he confessed that he and Thomas had created Harbor
Ridge together.
At first it held risky private investments.
Then pension money entered.
Martin wanted out.
Thomas refused.
Evelyn discovered the scheme.
Michael learned pieces years later but chose not to expose them.
“Why?” Ryan asked.
Michael looked ashamed.
“Because the company would’ve collapsed.”
“So you protected it.”
“Yes.”
“By hiding what Dad did.”
“Yes.”
Michael had spent years quietly repaying some missing pension money from
company profits.
But he never disclosed the original fraud.
Then someone began moving money out again.
Michael returned to find the red ledger and identify who had revived
Harbor Ridge.
He stole it from the antique chest.
The motel attack occurred after he refused to hand it over.
He never saw the attacker clearly.
But he saved photographs.
The ledger contained a second set of initials beside recent
transactions.
V.B.
Everyone looked at Vanessa Bennett.
Vanessa laughed once.
“Of course.”
Another convenient suspect.
Then Michael turned to the final page.
Thomas had written the initials out once.
Not Vanessa Bennett.
Victor Blake.
Ryan knew the name.
Victor was Bennett Marine’s current chief financial officer.
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And he was downstairs at police headquarters at that very moment,
supposedly helping investigators understand the company accounts.
