Chapter 4 - THE LETTER HIS FATHER HID
The envelope contained four pages.
The first was a letter from David Carter to Charles Brooks.
Dated eleven years earlier.
Three days before the warehouse fire.
Ethan began reading.
David had discovered suspicious transfers between company accounts.
The money had been moved through vendor contracts and reserve funds.
He believed someone inside Brooks Hospitality was manipulating the books.
He had asked Charles for an independent audit.
The letter ended with a warning.
If these transactions are not investigated, innocent people will be blamed.
Ethan read the sentence twice.
Then turned the page.
The second document was a response from his father.
Short.
Cold.
Dismissive.
David, I have reviewed your concerns. There is no evidence of wrongdoing. Do not discuss these matters with outside parties.
Ethan felt sick.
His father had known.
At least enough to investigate.
And he had chosen silence.
The third document was a photograph.
David Carter standing beside Daniel Reed.
Both men smiling at a company event.
Ethan recognized Daniel immediately.
His chief financial officer.
The man who had worked for the Brooks family for twenty-two years.
The man who kept explaining away missing money.
The man who had insisted Bellweather's problems were ordinary business fluctuations.
The fourth page contained a handwritten note.
Ethan recognized his father's handwriting.
Reed says Carter is becoming dangerous. Handle quietly.
Ethan stared at those words.
His father had not simply ignored David's concerns.
He had trusted Daniel Reed to handle them.
And David had died three days later.
Ethan called Rachel Stone.
“Rachel.”
“Mr. Brooks?”
“I found something.”
“What?”
“Evidence my father knew about financial misconduct before David Carter died.”
Rachel was silent.
Then she said:
“Don't touch anything else. Preserve the documents.”
Ethan looked at the photograph.
“Rachel?”
May you like
“Yes?”
“I think Daniel Reed has been stealing from us for eleven years.”
