Chapter 4 - What Happened to Joanne ParkerMason called Evelyn before he called anyone else.
“Lock the doors.”
Her voice sharpened.
“What happened?”
“Is Lily home?”
“Yes.”
“Keep her inside.”
“Why?”
“I’ll explain when I get there.”
“Mason—”
“Please.”
Twenty minutes later, Mason arrived with two private security officers.
Lily was sitting on the couch beside her grandmother.
She stood when he entered.
“You look mad.”
“I am.”
“At me?”
“No.”
Mason showed Evelyn the photograph.
Her face went pale.
“Where did you get this?”
“Someone sent it to me.”
Lily stepped closer.
“That was tonight.”
“I know.”
“Who took it?”
“That’s what we’re finding out.”
Evelyn sat down heavily.
“This is what Joanne was afraid of.”
Mason nodded.
“I’ve contacted an attorney and former federal investigator who works with my company.”
“Police?”
“Soon.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“Why soon?”
“Because I don’t yet know how far this goes.”
She looked furious.
“My granddaughter is being photographed.”
“I know.”
“Then what more do you need?”
Mason understood her anger.
“The person who approached me today knew where Joanne’s evidence was—or at least knew I was looking for something. Victor knew I visited the hospital within hours.”
“You think someone there is helping him?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“It shouldn’t be.”
Lily had been quiet.
Then she asked, “Can we go see Mom?”
Mason looked at Evelyn.
Evelyn nodded.
At the hospital, security had restricted Joanne’s visitor access.
When Lily entered her room, Joanne’s exhausted face softened instantly.
“Baby.”
Lily climbed carefully beside her and hugged her.
Mason remained near the door.
He felt like an intruder.
Joanne noticed.
“Did you find it?”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
“The recorder?”
“Yes.”
Fear crossed her face.
“Then you heard them.”
“I did.”
Lily looked between them.
“Heard what?”
Joanne hesitated.
Mason stepped forward.
“Your mom kept evidence proving people at the hotel were lying.”
Lily’s eyes widened.
“About stealing?”
“Yes.”
“So everyone will know she didn’t do it?”
Mason looked at Joanne.
“Yes.”
The answer seemed to release something inside Lily.
She buried her face against her mother’s shoulder.
Joanne held her with one weak arm.
For the first time since Mason had met her, Lily cried without trying to hide it.
“I told them you weren’t a thief.”
“I know.”
“They wouldn’t listen.”
“I know, sweetheart.”
Mason turned toward the window.
The scene hurt in a way he hadn’t expected.
Because all of it had happened under his company’s name.
Not by his command.
But behind the doors he owned.
Joanne looked at him.
“You found the shell companies?”
“Yes.”
“Victor?”
“His family.”
“Brandon?”
“His brother-in-law.”
She closed her eyes.
“I knew.”
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“What happened before your stroke?”
Evelyn stiffened.
“Joanne doesn’t need to—”
“I need to know.”
Joanne looked at her mother.
“It’s okay.”
Then at Mason.
“The week after I quit, Brandon came to the house.”
Lily sat upright.
“You never told me that.”
“You were at school.”
“What did he want?”
Mason asked.
“The folder.”
“How did he know about it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That I had sent everything to an attorney.”
“Had you?”
“No.”
Despite the situation, Mason almost smiled.
“Good bluff.”
Joanne’s mouth moved faintly.
“He believed me.”
“What happened then?”
“He told me to be careful.”
“Threat?”
“He said accidents happen when people are under stress.”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
“You never told me.”
“I didn’t want you scared.”
“You should have!”
Joanne’s eyes filled with tears.
“I was already scared enough for everyone.”
Lily took her hand.
“What happened the day of the stroke?”
Joanne looked away.
“Mama?”
Joanne breathed slowly.
“I got a phone call.”
“From whom?”
“A man.”
“What did he say?”
“He said they knew where Lily went to school.”
Lily’s face drained.
“He said if I kept copies of anything, my daughter could get hurt.”
Mason’s jaw tightened.
“What did you do?”
“I drove to the bus station.”
“You hid the evidence.”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“I came home.”
She paused.
“My head started hurting.”
Evelyn whispered, “She collapsed in the kitchen.”
Lily began crying again.
Joanne stroked her hair.
“I don’t remember much after that.”
Mason felt anger rise.
The stroke might have been medical.
But the terror preceding it had been deliberately created.
That mattered.
A great deal.
“I’m taking this to the authorities tonight,” he said.
Joanne looked relieved.
“Good.”
“But I want something from you first.”
“What?”
“Permission.”
“For what?”
“To clear your name publicly.”
Joanne stared at him.
Mason continued.
“I can’t undo what happened. But I can state that the accusation against you was fabricated.”
Her lips trembled.
“I don’t want money.”
“I didn’t say anything about money.”
“I want my daughter to stop hearing people call her mother a thief.”
Mason looked at Lily.
“That I can do.”
Back at the Grand Crest, Mason gathered senior staff in a private conference room.
Victor sat at one end.
Brandon beside him.
Ethan was present.
So were legal counsel and two outside forensic accountants.
Mason placed a stack of documents on the table.
Victor looked bored.
“What is this?”
“Four years of restaurant purchasing records.”
Brandon leaned back.
Mason continued.
“We have identified more than one point four million dollars in suspicious vendor payments.”
Victor’s expression barely changed.
“That sounds like an accounting problem.”
“It’s a fraud problem.”
“Careful.”
Mason slid one invoice forward.
“Alamo Heritage Foods.”
Victor looked at it.
“What about it?”
“The registered owner is your sister.”
Silence.
Mason slid another.
“Cole Specialty Imports.”
Brandon’s face stiffened.
“Registered to your brother-in-law.”
Brandon stood.
“This meeting is over.”
“No.”
Mason remained seated.
“For you, it’s just beginning.”
Victor laughed.
“You think family connections prove fraud?”
“No.”
Mason placed the recorder on the table.
“This helps.”
He pressed play.
Victor’s recorded voice filled the room.
Mason sees spreadsheets. He doesn’t see kitchens.
Nobody moved.
Then Brandon’s voice.
If Joanne keeps asking questions, get rid of her.
Brandon sat back down.
Victor looked at Mason.
“Recording private conversations is illegal.”
“Joanne recorded a conversation she could hear from her work area.”
“You’d better ask your lawyers.”
“I already did.”
Victor looked at legal counsel.
No one came to his defense.
Mason turned off the recording.
“And there’s the forged email carrying my name.”
For the first time, Victor looked genuinely worried.
Mason leaned forward.
“You took an employee who discovered theft, framed her, destroyed her reputation, threatened her family, and used my name to do it.”
“You can’t prove threats.”
“Maybe.”
Mason’s voice was quiet.
“But somebody sent me a picture of Lily tonight.”
Brandon looked at Victor.
It was quick.
Too quick.
But everyone saw it.
Mason noticed.
“So one of you knows who sent it.”
Victor stood.
“I’m leaving.”
Mason didn’t stop him.
Victor paused.
“You said nobody leaves.”
“That was this morning.”
Mason looked toward the door.
“Tonight, you’re free to go.”
Victor frowned.
Then smiled.
“Finally making sense.”
He left.
Brandon followed several minutes later.
Ethan waited until the door closed.
“Why did you let them walk?”
Mason looked toward the security monitor.
A camera showed Victor entering the parking garage.
Another showed Brandon calling someone.
Mason picked up his phone.
“Because now they think they still have time to hide the rest.”
Ethan stared at him.
“You’re following them?”
“Not me.”
The former federal investigator Mason had hired was already waiting across the street.
Thirty minutes later, Mason received a message.
Victor and Brandon separated. Brandon heading north. Victor heading toward warehouse district.
Then another.
Victor stopped at 1847 Calder Industrial Road. Building appears connected to Alamo Heritage Foods.
Mason looked at Ethan.
“That supplier supposedly doesn’t have a warehouse.”
Ethan’s eyes widened.
“Then what’s at Calder?”
Mason stood.
“That’s what Victor is about to show us.”
But neither man knew that across town, Victor Davenport had just made a second phone call.
And this one had nothing to do with missing invoices.
“Move the files,” Victor said.
A voice answered.
“What about the woman?”
Victor stared into the darkness.
“She’s already caused enough trouble.”
“And the girl?”
May you like
Victor was silent for a moment.
Then said, “Make sure Mason Vance understands what happens when he keeps digging.”
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