Chapter 8 - The Cousin Ryan Trusted
Adrian Harrison had been part of Ryan’s life since childhood.
Their fathers were brothers.
They attended the same schools.
Spent summers at the same lake house.
Built Harrison Energy together after Ryan left graduate school.
When investors doubted Ryan, Adrian stood beside him.
When the company nearly collapsed in its second year, Adrian convinced a bank to extend their credit line.
Ryan had trusted him more than almost anyone.
Almost.
Emily had never trusted him.
“You remember what I told you?” she asked.
They sat inside her office Monday morning.
“That Adrian was moving money?”
“I said someone was moving money.”
“But you suspected him.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you say his name?”
“Because I didn’t have proof.”
Ryan laughed bitterly.
“And I destroyed our marriage before you could get it.”
Emily did not answer.
Ryan opened David’s report.
“The email came through Adrian’s credentials.”
“That isn’t proof he sent it.”
“No.”
“He could claim someone accessed his account.”
“He will.”
Emily leaned back.
“So we need more.”
Ryan looked at her.
“You said James Cole was investigating.”
“He disappeared halfway through the divorce.”
“Disappeared?”
“Stopped answering calls.”
Ryan frowned.
“He’s alive.”
“You checked?”
“This morning.”
Emily stared.
Ryan turned his laptop.
A photograph appeared.
James Cole.
Older now.
Standing outside a courthouse in Denver.
Ryan continued.
“He left New York five years ago.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily thought of all the unanswered emails.
The silence.
The abandoned investigation.
Ryan said quietly.
“I think Adrian got to him.”
Emily felt anger rise.
“Then we find him.”
Ryan looked at her.
“We?”
“Don’t make this romantic.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were thinking it.”
Ryan almost smiled.
“Maybe.”
She pointed at him.
“Don’t.”
The smile disappeared.
“Understood.”
They contacted James through an intermediary.
For six hours there was no response.
Then Emily received an email.
One sentence.
Do not call me from a Harrison device.
Her hands went cold.
A second message arrived.
If Ryan is with you, tell him his cousin knows about Project Meridian.
Ryan read the screen.
“What is Project Meridian?”
Emily stared at him.
“I was hoping you knew.”
He shook his head.
Emily typed back.
Where do we meet?
James responded ten minutes later.
No meeting.
Not yet.
Then he attached a photograph.
It showed a bank transfer from Harrison Energy to an offshore company called Meridian Holdings.
The amount was $18.4 million.
The authorization signature at the bottom belonged to Adrian Harrison.
And beside it was something even worse.
A digital approval code registered to Ryan himself.
Ryan stared at the screen.
“I never approved this.”
Emily believed him.
Because the date on the transaction was impossible.
Ryan had been in surgery after a skiing accident that day.
Someone had used his identity.
May you like
Someone who had access to everything.
And five years earlier, Emily had come dangerously close to discovering it.
