Chapter 10 - The Truth About Martin Vale
They left the foundation before dawn.
Lorenzo took Clara to a private apartment outside the city where no one associated with the gala knew to look.
There, Clara rebuilt the audit from memory.
She realized something important.
Martin Vale had never been the person stealing the money.
He had been moving it.
For years, he had used the Moretti Foundation's expansion projects to acquire strategic properties.
Hospitals.
Warehouses.
Land surrounding transportation routes.
The money wasn't disappearing.
It was buying an empire.
Richard Bell had helped him.
But why?
Clara found the answer in an old contract.
Richard's daughter had been seriously ill twelve years earlier.
The medical expenses had been paid through the same network.
Richard had not started the fraud for wealth.
He had been trapped.
Martin had paid his daughter's treatment.
Then he had demanded loyalty.
That explained Richard's fear.
But it didn't excuse what he had done.
Lorenzo read the contract.
“He used my family's money to control people.”
“Yes.”
“And my father discovered it.”
“Yes.”
“What happened after?”
Clara pointed to a line in the audit.
A payment had been made to a private clinic three days before Lorenzo's father died.
The doctor's name was still active.
Dr. Samuel Price.
Clara searched his records.
The doctor now worked at a small clinic in Connecticut.
Lorenzo stood.
“We're going.”
Clara stopped him.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because someone knows we're close.”
She showed him the threatening message.
“They want us to rush.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“So we don't.”
For the first time, Clara smiled.
“You're learning.”
He almost smiled back.
Then his phone rang.
Richard Bell.
Lorenzo answered.
Richard's voice was broken.
“I know where Martin is.”
Lorenzo's eyes hardened.
“Tell me.”
Richard whispered:
May you like
“Don't come alone.”
The line went dead.
