Chapter 15
The Missing Page
The case contained a ledger page, a key, and a strip of photographic film.
The page authorized a transfer of one billion dollars from Quinn Meridian to Northbridge. The signature at the bottom was Mara’s.
“I didn’t sign this.”
Daniel enlarged the page on screen.
“The ink is genuine. The paper is from Quinn Meridian’s legal stock.”
“Then how is it false?”
“The pressure points are wrong. Whoever copied it knew the shape but not the motion.”
The witness stamp had been applied two days after the transfer date.
Mara understood. Someone had created a criminal identity for her: the heiress who authorized a billion-dollars theft and disappeared when the company fell.
Adrian watched her read the page.
“Your father may have been trying to protect you from this.”
“By leaving me a hundred billion dollars in debt?”
“By making the debt look like the only crime.”
They developed the photographic film in a private lab beneath the Mercer Crown legal office.
The image showed a conference room.
Mara’s father sat at one end. Victor Mercer sat at the other. Nathan sat between them with his back to the camera.
The fourth person turned toward the lens.
Mara’s mother.
The note on the back of the film contained one sentence:
The signature was mine. The authorization was not.
Mara looked at Adrian.
“Your brother knew.”
“He knew someone forged the transfer.”
“He knew my mother was alive.”
“I suspected.”
“Stop using that word.”
“I knew my brother was investigating your mother.”
“And you still bought my debt.”
“I bought it because Victor was preparing to erase the evidence.”
“You are not saving me.”
“No.”
“Then what are you doing?”
Adrian looked at the false signature.
“Trying to find out whether your father was the only person my family killed.”