Chapter 16 - THE SOUND IN THE ROOM
The bank froze the transfer temporarily.
Not permanently.
Its legal department required evidence of fraud.
Roberto had six hours.
Marcus attacked the digital trail.
Tomas reviewed access logs.
Daniel Reeves challenged the transfer legally.
Nothing moved fast enough.
Then Sofía entered Roberto’s office.
“What are you listening to?”
Roberto had replayed security audio from the blackout dozens of times.
“Something from last night.”
“Play it again.”
“Sofía—”
“Please.”
He did.
Static.
Generator hum.
Footsteps.
A metallic click.
Sofía tilted her head.
“Again.”
Roberto replayed it.
“That isn’t Vanessa.”
Everyone looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“Her shoes.”
“What?”
“She walks differently.”
Sofía stood and demonstrated with her fingers against the desk.
“Vanessa puts her heel down hard.”
“This person drags one foot.”
Marcus rewound the audio.
Sofía was right.
One step carried a faint scrape.
“Who walks like that?”
Roberto thought.
Then remembered.
Sebastian had injured his ankle skiing years earlier.
When tired, his right foot dragged slightly.
Roberto called him immediately.
No answer.
Police went to Sebastian’s apartment.
Empty.
His phone was abandoned.
His passport was gone.
Marcus stared at Roberto.
“He lied.”
Roberto felt sick.
Sebastian had confessed enough to appear cooperative.
Not enough to reveal everything.
They searched his office.
Behind a false cabinet panel, investigators found computer equipment.
Copies of Roberto’s fingerprints lifted from signed documents.
Security credentials.
Trust certificates.
And offshore banking instructions.
Sebastian had not merely helped Vanessa.
He was her partner.
Then Tomas found another recording on Sofía’s hidden device.
Sebastian’s voice.
“Once the money clears, I’m done.”
Vanessa answered.
“You were done five years ago.”
“You just didn’t know it.”
Sebastian sounded afraid.
“What does that mean?”
Vanessa laughed.
“Ask Richard.”
The recording ended.
Roberto understood.
Vanessa had never intended to share anything.
Not with Richard.
Not with Sebastian.
Not with anyone.
She used people until they became liabilities.
Marcus suddenly looked at the transfer instructions.
“What if the six hundred million isn’t for Vanessa?”
Roberto frowned.
“Explain.”
“The destination account.”
“It belongs to a holding company.”
“Who controls it?”
Marcus typed quickly.
Then stopped.
The final beneficiary appeared.
Sebastian Cross.
Roberto stared at the name.
Vanessa had structured the transfer to make Sebastian look like the thief.
She planned to leave him holding the evidence.
If the transfer completed, Sebastian would become the obvious criminal mastermind.
Vanessa could claim she had been manipulated too.
Roberto almost admired the trap.
Then Sofía said quietly, “She told him she would meet him at the place with bells.”
Roberto looked at her.
“When?”
“I heard her say it on the phone last week.”
“What place?”
“I don’t know.”
“She said, ‘Midnight, where the bells covered your first mistake.’”
Roberto’s memory returned instantly.
Elena’s funeral had been held at Saint Gabriel’s Church.
Its bell tower rang throughout the service.
Sebastian had stood beside him that day.
Five years earlier.
Covering his first mistake.
Roberto looked at the clock.
11:12 p.m.
May you like
They had forty-eight minutes.
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