Chapter 6 - Follow the Money
At 2:30 p.m., I sat inside a high-security conference room at the Federal Building in downtown Manhattan.
Agent Vance sat at the head of the table alongside Assistant District Attorney Rachel Sterling, a sharp woman with short dark hair and a reputation for crushing corporate embezzlers.
On the table between us lay three thick black binders detailing the financial records of Rutherford Development.
“The engineering fraud is rock solid, Elena,” Attorney Sterling said, tapping the structural report. “Thanks to your ultrasonic scans, we have enough to hold Desmond and Julian on reckless endangerment charges. But if we want to ensure they never build another death trap again, we need to prove where the missing money went.”
“Missing money?” I asked.
Agent Vance slid a financial flow chart across the glass table.
“Rutherford Development drew down eighty-five million dollars from state construction loans specifically designated for high-grade steel rebar and deep-sea foundation piling,” Vance explained. “Our financial auditors checked their supplier receipts. They only spent twenty-two million on actual materials. Where did the remaining sixty-three million go?”
I looked at the corporate structure chart. At the top was Rutherford Development Corp. Below it were dozen small subsidiaries—Kestrel Property Management, Blue Horizon Logistics, Apex Capital.
My eyes stopped on a small, unassuming entity registered in the Cayman Islands: Vance-Rutherford Holdings.
My blood ran cold.
“They registered a shell company using my last name?” I asked, my fingers tracing the outline of the box on the paper.
“They registered it four days before your engagement party,” Attorney Sterling said darkly. “They opened bank accounts in Nevis and Grand Cayman using a digital copy of your passport—the one Julian asked you to bring when you booked your honeymoon in Italy.”
I sat back in my chair, the horror settling deep into my stomach.
Julian hadn't just tried to force me to sign an indemnity contract on our wedding day.
He and his father had spent six months setting me up as the master financial criminal behind a sixty-three-million-dollar construction embezzlement scheme. If the building had failed three years from now, the shell company carrying my name would have been left holding the entire financial paper trail while Julian and his father sat comfortably behind corporate shields.
“They didn't just want an engineer,” I whispered, realizing the depth of their malice. “They wanted a scapegoat with a diploma.”
“Precisely,” Vance nodded. “Which is why we need you to help us locate the private encryption key. Julian hid the transaction ledgers behind a double-blind server. Do you know where he would keep a physical backup?”
I closed my eyes, remembering a conversation from four months ago.
Julian had taken me to his family’s private estate in East Hampton. He had shown me a small, hidden wall safe behind an oil painting in his father’s study, laughing about how his father trusted old-fashioned steel more than cloud servers.
“Old steel never gets hacked, Elena,” Julian had bragged. “If the empire ever burns, the keys to the kingdom are in that box.”
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I opened my eyes and looked directly at Agent Vance.
“I know exactly where the key is,” I said. “And I know how to get it.”
