CHAPTER 10: Thomas’s Original Investigation
Eleanor asked the board to leave the room.
Only Daniel, Lydia, and the federal investigators remained.
“My father started Reed International as a shipping company,” Eleanor explained. “In the early years, some of our vessels transported military equipment overseas.”
Thomas discovered that several shipments had been secretly redirected.
The records contained Eleanor’s electronic authorization.
“I never approved them,” she said. “But my signature was there.”
Thomas initially believed Eleanor might be involved.
Instead of confronting her, he investigated privately.
That secrecy created distance between them during the final months of his life.
“He died wondering whether he could trust me,” Eleanor whispered.
Daniel shook his head.
“He left the password in your name. He trusted you.”
“Eventually. But by then, Malcolm knew Thomas was searching.”
Malcolm had been Reed International’s attorney, giving him access to contracts, signatures, and confidential shipping records.
He used Eleanor’s identity to authorize illegal shipments for Wynn Defense Systems.
Then he convinced the Wynn family that Thomas had become a threat to everyone involved.
Daniel stared through the boardroom windows at the city below.
Malcolm’s plan was no longer only about ownership.
If the forged files were released without context, Eleanor could be charged for crimes Malcolm had committed under her name.
“How do we stop him?” Lydia asked.
The federal investigator pointed to Malcolm’s video.
“We need to locate the room.”
A reflection had appeared in the window behind Malcolm.
It showed a clock tower and part of a river.
Daniel recognized it.
The Reed family’s first corporate building stood beside that tower in Philadelphia.
It had been abandoned after a flood twenty-two years earlier.
The building contained the original paper archives from Reed International’s shipping division.
Malcolm was not merely hiding there.
He was searching for the final documents capable of proving Eleanor’s innocence.
Daniel and federal agents reached the building shortly before sunset.
The lower floor was empty.
On the second floor, they found boxes torn open and files scattered across the hallway.
Then Daniel heard a woman’s voice behind a locked office door.
“Daniel!”
It was Victoria.
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She was supposed to be inside a federal detention center.
And Malcolm Sterling was standing beside her with a gun in his hand.
