Chapter 3 - Margaret’s Ledger Disappears In Lobby
Margaret emptied the handbag onto the elevator bench.
Wallet.
Glasses.
Founder certificate.
Henry’s sealed envelope.
No ledger.
She had checked it in the car.
Alexander stopped the elevator before it reached the executive floor.
Security reviewed lobby footage.
During the confrontation, Jessica had grabbed Margaret’s appointment letter.
But another employee had approached from behind the desk.
A young facilities coordinator named Evan Cole.
He bent near Margaret’s handbag while pretending to gather the torn paper.
Then he walked away.
Security found Evan in the parking garage.
He surrendered immediately.
The ledger was inside his jacket.
He looked terrified.
“I was told to take it.”
“By whom?”
Evan showed them a message.
If the older woman arrives with a brown bag, recover the black book before she reaches 41.
The sender used an unregistered number.
But the message included a photograph of Margaret leaving her home that morning.
Someone knew what she carried.
Evan said he had been paid five thousand dollars.
He did not know what the book contained.
Alexander opened it.
Most pages were written in Henry’s handwriting.
Dates.
Company names.
Dollar amounts.
Initials.
Near the final pages was a repeated notation:
T.R.
Thomas Reed shared those initials.
So did someone else.
Theresa Rowan, Carter Medical’s former chief financial officer.
Theresa had died four years earlier.
Margaret looked at Alexander.
“Your father told me Theresa stole from the company.”
Alexander remembered.
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The alleged theft had destroyed Theresa’s reputation.
The ledger suggested Henry had never believed that story.
