Chapter 3 - Someone Entered His Locked Office
There were only two physical keys to my office at Rosemere House.
One stayed with me.
The other remained in a sealed emergency envelope inside Nolan Price’s safe.
At least that was the policy.
Nolan arrived upstairs eight minutes after Brooke called him.
He was fifty-one, broad-shouldered, usually calm even when wedding parties were melting down around him.
He stopped when he saw the ruined bridal suite.
Then he saw Maisie without her wig.
“What happened?”
“Later,” I said. “Who opened my office yesterday?”
His expression changed.
“Nobody.”
Brooke placed the access record in front of him.
“Somebody did.”
Nolan read it twice.
“My safe key is still sealed.”
“Show me.”
We went downstairs while Audrey stayed with Maisie.
Celeste followed because I wasn’t willing to let her wander through Rosemere alone.
The ballroom staff had already been instructed to delay the ceremony.
Guests were being served champagne and told there had been a wardrobe issue.
I hated the lie.
But Maisie came first.
Nolan’s office sat behind reception.
He unlocked his safe.
The emergency envelope was inside.
The red tamper strip looked unbroken.
He held it under the light.
Then swore.
“What?”
He handed it to Brooke.
The seal had been cut with something extremely thin and pressed back down.
Someone had opened it carefully enough that none of us would have noticed casually.
Nolan tore the envelope open.
The key was there.
Brooke examined it.
“Could have been copied.”
Nolan looked sick.
I turned to Celeste.
“Still nothing to say?”
“I told you I didn’t forge anything.”
“But you knew the amendment existed.”
She looked away.
I stepped closer.
“Who told you?”
Celeste said nothing.
Then Audrey appeared in the doorway.
Maisie was no longer with her.
My heart jumped.
“She’s with my sister in the family lounge,” Audrey said quickly. “She wanted juice.”
I nodded.
Audrey held something in her hand.
A small navy-blue plastic card.
“I found this under the bridal-suite vanity.”
Celeste stared at it.
I recognized it.
Rosemere’s staff access badge.
The name printed across the front was AUDREY KLINE.
Audrey looked confused.
“That’s not mine.”
“It has your name.”
“My current badge is in my cardigan pocket.”
She pulled it out.
Two identical cards.
Same name.
Same employee number.
Nolan took both.
“That shouldn’t be possible.”
Brooke looked toward the computer terminal.
“Check the building access logs.”
Nolan typed.
Audrey’s badge had been used to enter the administrative corridor yesterday at 4:31.
Then my office at 4:36.
Then the records room at 4:52.
Audrey had spent yesterday afternoon with Maisie at a pediatric appointment.
I knew because I had met them there afterward.
Somebody had cloned her badge.
Celeste sat down slowly.
I watched her.
She wasn’t pretending to be shocked anymore.
She looked angry.
“Did you know about this?”
“No.”
“Celeste.”
“I knew somebody could get inside.”
That was the first honest answer she had given me.
Brooke folded her arms.
“How?”
Celeste stared at the floor.
“Because I asked him to.”
The room went silent.
There it was.
Not the whole truth.
But enough.
“Who?” I asked.
Celeste rubbed her forehead.
“Grant, you need to understand something before you decide I planned all of this.”
“You shaved my daughter’s wig fifteen minutes ago.”
“I was angry.”
“You told a three-year-old she didn’t belong in your wedding.”
“I know what I said.”
“Then choose your next words carefully.”
Her eyes filled, but I felt no sympathy yet.
“I needed access to some documents.”
“What documents?”
“Financial projections.”
Nolan frowned.
“You could have asked me.”
“I didn’t want Grant knowing.”
“That isn’t helping you,” Brooke said.
Celeste looked at me.
“I was trying to secure financing.”
“For what?”
She hesitated.
“For Rosemere.”
I almost laughed.
“You were about to receive thirty-five percent of Rosemere for free.”
“Equity doesn’t pay for expansion.”
“What expansion?”
Celeste’s silence answered before her mouth did.
She had plans for my company I had never approved.
Nolan returned to the access logs.
“There’s another problem.”
He pointed at the screen.
The cloned badge hadn’t only been used yesterday.
It had been used fourteen times during the previous three months.
Always when Audrey was away.
Always after business hours.
Records room.
Finance office.
My office.
Vendor management.
The bank-document archive.
Brooke looked at Celeste.
“How long has this person been helping you?”
Celeste whispered, “Since February.”
Five months.
Five months before our wedding.
Five months of someone walking through my business wearing Audrey’s identity.
“Name.”
Celeste finally looked up.
Before she could answer, Nolan’s computer chimed.
An automated accounting alert had appeared.
Large outgoing transaction detected.
Brooke leaned toward the screen.
I saw the amount.
$487,000.
Transferred from a Rosemere operating credit facility that I had never opened.
The transfer had cleared that morning.
Recipient:
IVORY NORTH CONSULTING.
I looked at Celeste.
Her expression told me she knew the name.
Brooke asked the question I was already thinking.
“What did you buy for almost half a million dollars?”
Celeste shook her head.
“I didn’t buy anything.”
Nolan opened the recipient information.
The company had been formed eleven months earlier.
Its registered mailing address appeared onscreen.
I knew the address.
So did Celeste.
May you like
Because until the previous summer, she had lived there.
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