Chapter 7 - Lucas Searched For The Ledger
Lucas denied stealing anything.
He admitted entering Samuel’s office.
Margaret had called him after leaving Ethan’s mansion.
She told him Richard’s old documents could expose confidential company
information.
Lucas panicked.
He used an old building access code to search for File 117.
“That’s still breaking into an office,” Ethan said.
Lucas looked ashamed.
“I know.”
“Did Mom tell you about Northstar?”
“Not everything.”
Lucas knew there was an old accounting problem involving Bennett money.
Margaret told him Richard had resolved it privately.
She warned that Emily might use the issue to seize control of Hale
Development.
Emily laughed.
“I didn’t know any of this existed two days ago.”
Lucas looked at her.
“I know that now.”
Ethan asked about the Northstar ledger.
Lucas had never seen it.
But he remembered Richard keeping a locked drawer in his home study.
Margaret emptied that study after Richard died.
Ethan returned to the mansion.
The study had been remodeled.
The old desk was gone.
Margaret said she donated it.
Records showed it had been sent to a church resale warehouse.
The warehouse still had it.
Inside the locked drawer, investigators found no ledger.
Only a photograph.
Richard and Henry Bennett stood beside the first Northstar property.
On the back Richard had written:
WE BOTH TRUSTED THE WRONG PERSON.
Beneath the photograph was a small key.
Not for a desk.
For a bank safe-deposit box.
Samuel recognized the bank.
Richard had maintained a private box there until his death.
Margaret, as executor, had closed it.
The bank inventory showed one item removed.
May you like
A leather ledger.
Margaret had signed for it three days after Richard’s funeral.
