Chapter 6 - What the Watch Was Hiding
Lorenzo found Nathan's office empty.
The desk had been cleared too quickly.
His computer was gone.
The drawers were open.
Clara stood in the doorway.
“He knew.”
“Yes.”
“He knew we were looking.”
Lorenzo looked at the watch.
“My father wore this every day.”
“Can I see it?”
He removed it and handed it to her.
Clara examined the back.
The engraving was almost invisible.
C-17.
She remembered something from the audit.
Company C-17.
A holding company that had been dissolved years ago.
Except its bank account was still receiving money.
Clara's heart raced.
“Lorenzo, this isn't just a watch.”
He frowned.
She pointed to the inner mechanism.
“Your father used the watch to mark something.”
“Mark what?”
“Maybe a location.”
They opened the back carefully.
Inside was a tiny folded strip of paper.
Lorenzo stared at it.
His father had hidden something inside the watch all those years ago.
The paper contained only four words.
NORTH ARCHIVE. BOX 17.
Clara looked at him.
“The audit records.”
They hurried to the foundation's old north archive.
Box 17 contained twelve contracts.
Eleven were ordinary.
The twelfth was different.
It had no company logo.
Only signatures.
Clara read the first page.
Then stopped breathing.
The signatures belonged to the foundation's original trustees.
One belonged to Lorenzo's father.
Another belonged to Richard Bell.
And a third belonged to someone who was supposedly dead.
Lorenzo took the document.
His face hardened.
“Who is that?”
Clara pointed.
“Martin Vale.”
Lorenzo stared at the name.
“My father's financial adviser.”
“He died in a car accident twelve years ago.”
“That's what everyone was told.”
Clara turned the page.
There was one handwritten note.
IF THE MONEY DISAPPEARS, LOOK AT THE PERSON WHO BENEFITS FROM THE CONFUSION.
Lorenzo slowly looked up.
“Richard.”
Clara shook her head.
“Not yet.”
She pointed at another name.
May you like
Someone else had benefited from every missing payment.
And that person was still alive.
