Chapter 14 - Claire Halston Walked Into Her Own Boardroom Trap
At noon, Claire Halston returned to the building carrying no security detail.
Mason objected.
Grant objected louder.
Claire ignored both.
“The board meeting is mine.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Half the board may be involved.”
“Then they can explain themselves on camera.”
Mason raised an eyebrow.
“You’re recording?”
Claire held up a small pin.
“I learn quickly.”
The fourteenth floor remained sealed.
The emergency board meeting took place on thirty-eight.
Ten directors sat around a glass table.
Three chairs were empty.
Victor Sloane’s chair remained at the head.
Claire left it empty deliberately.
She stood.
“Before we begin, every person in this room should assume anything said today may become part of an investigation.”
One director objected immediately.
Another demanded outside counsel.
A third asked whether Claire had become “emotionally compromised.”
Claire almost laughed.
“Someone followed my fourteen-year-old daughter to school. My chief auditor disappeared because he uncovered fraudulent accounts. My father spent years documenting corruption inside the company he founded. If by emotionally compromised you mean interested, yes.”
Silence.
Mason monitored from a service room with Grant.
Daniel watched incoming network activity.
Elena remained elsewhere.
Nobody outside their inner group knew she was alive.
Claire placed copies of selected documents on the table.
Not everything.
Enough.
One director, Malcolm Price, stared too long at a transfer sheet.
Claire noticed.
“So,” she said, “which page worries you, Malcolm?”
His head lifted.
“Excuse me?”
“You’ve been looking at page six since I placed it down.”
“It contains my division.”
“No. Page seven contains your division.”
Malcolm’s eyes shifted.
Tiny mistake.
Claire continued.
“Page six contains Reed Logistics.”
Mason watched through the monitor.
Daniel whispered:
“Interesting.”
Claire leaned toward Malcolm.
“Why would that name concern you?”
“It doesn’t.”
“Then why did you recognize it?”
Malcolm stood.
“This meeting is absurd.”
He moved toward the door.
Grant whispered:
“Want me to stop him?”
Mason shook his head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Let him run.”
They followed digitally.
Malcolm exited the building.
Entered a taxi.
Used a phone registered to a shell consulting company.
Daniel traced the call metadata legally through information already supplied by investigators.
The destination number connected to a private aviation hangar outside Tacoma.
Claire ended the board meeting.
Within twenty minutes she was downstairs.
Mason met her.
“You baited him.”
“Yes.”
“I’m impressed.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I’ve watched you threaten three directors with accounting documents. I’m adjusting.”
Grant interrupted.
“Private hangar belongs to Cascade Strategic Holdings.”
Daniel arrived behind them.
“Cascade appears seven times in Sarah’s list.”
Elena’s voice came through speakerphone.
“I know Cascade.”
Mason looked at the device.
“How?”
“Vale used them for international movement.”
“Voss?”
“Sometimes.”
Claire asked:
“Who owns it?”
Daniel turned his laptop.
The listed owner was a trust.
Beneficiary hidden.
But the legal representative was someone Claire recognized.
She went pale.
“Rebecca Lane.”
Mason waited.
“My father’s personal attorney.”
Grant frowned.
“She handled Adrian’s estate?”
“Yes.”
“She knew about the master access card?”
“Yes.”
Claire realized the implication.
Rebecca had helped distribute Adrian’s belongings.
Including the children’s book given to Zoe.
Yet the metal access credential survived.
Either Rebecca had missed it.
Or intentionally allowed it through.
Mason asked:
“Friend or enemy?”
Claire shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Her phone rang.
Rebecca Lane.
Everyone stared.
Claire answered.
“Rebecca.”
“Claire, do not go to Tacoma.”
Mason and Grant exchanged looks.
Claire put her on speaker.
“How do you know?”
“Because Malcolm called me.”
“Why?”
“Because he thinks I’m still helping them.”
“Are you?”
A pause.
“No.”
“Were you?”
“Yes.”
Claire shut her eyes.
Another betrayal.
Rebecca continued.
“Your father discovered my role eight years ago.”
“And kept you as his attorney?”
“He turned me.”
Mason understood.
Adrian had been building his own network inside theirs.
“What is in Tacoma?” he asked.
Rebecca recognized his voice.
“Mason Reed?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry about Sarah.”
His jaw tightened.
“Answer the question.”
“The original Northstar accounting server.”
Daniel inhaled sharply.
“Physical server?”
“Yes.”
“Why keep it?”
“Leverage.”
“Whose?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Caleb Voss.”
Mason frowned.
“Voss owns the hangar?”
“No.”
“Then whose leverage?”
Rebecca whispered:
“Against Thomas Vale.”
Claire asked:
“Why would Voss keep evidence against his own boss?”
“Because men like Voss never plan to retire without insurance.”
Mason thought of Voss refusing Vale at the depot.
Not loyalty.
Survival.
Rebecca continued.
“If Malcolm reaches that server first, it disappears.”
Claire grabbed her coat.
Mason groaned.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“What?”
“Every time somebody says ‘don’t go,’ you immediately go.”
“That’s rich coming from you.”
Grant smiled.
“She has you there.”
Mason looked at both.
“I dislike this team.”
They drove south.
But fifteen minutes before reaching Tacoma, Lily called.
“Dad.”
“You’re supposed to be with Elias.”
“I am.”
“What happened?”
“I found something in Mom’s laptop.”
Mason waited.
“A scheduled email.”
“To who?”
“You.”
“When?”
Lily’s voice shook.
“It was supposed to send the day she died.”
Mason forgot Tacoma.
“What does it say?”
Lily took a breath.
“Dad, I think Mom knew she wasn’t coming home.”
May you like
And then she began reading.
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