Chapter 9 - THE MAN WHO CHANGED THE RECORDS
Dr. Lane froze when he saw Agent Grant.
Two officers immediately moved toward him.
He raised both hands.
“I came to cooperate.”
Agent Grant took my laptop from him.
“Where did you get this?”
“Ethan gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“Where is he now?”
“I do not know.”
Agent Grant ordered him to sit.
Dr. Lane looked smaller than he had inside his university office.
The authority had vanished from his face.
Only fear remained.
“You altered my academic records,” I said.
He swallowed.
“Yes.”
My mother closed her eyes.
Agent Grant began recording his statement.
Dr. Lane admitted my father had contacted him four months earlier.
Bennett Technologies provided millions of dollars in university contracts.
Richard threatened to cancel those contracts and expose Dr. Lane’s private financial problems unless he cooperated.
“He knew I had gambling debts,” Dr. Lane said.
“So you framed me.”
“I thought the accusation would disappear after you signed the contract.”
“You tried to destroy my entire career.”
“I was desperate.”
“So were the students who lost their scholarships.”
He looked down.
Agent Grant asked about the archive fire.
Dr. Lane denied starting it.
He admitted giving Ethan access to his tablet.
But he claimed Ethan promised only to remove the graduation files.
“Did Richard order Ethan to burn the archive?” I asked.
“I never heard that.”
“What about my apartment?”
“I had nothing to do with it.”
He opened my laptop under Agent Grant’s supervision.
Most of the files had been deleted.
The drive had been reformatted twice.
But Ethan had overlooked a hidden recovery partition.
Lighthouse had created it automatically.
I began restoring the system.
A folder appeared containing footage from the cameras inside my apartment.
The final recording showed Ethan entering with two men.
He directed them toward my laptop and backup drives.
My mother covered her mouth as she watched her son search my bedroom.
Then another figure entered the frame.
My father.
He stood beside my desk and read the notes I had written about Northbridge.
“Take everything,” he ordered.
One of the men asked about the hidden camera.
“Leave it.”
My father smiled toward the lens.
“She needs to know we can see her.”
The video ended.
Agent Grant contacted the team preparing the search warrant for my father’s house.
My mother remained motionless.
“He came into your bedroom,” she whispered.
“You gave him the emergency key.”
“I thought he wanted to speak with you.”
“You knew he had cameras inside my home.”
“I knew he was monitoring your computer.”
“That is not better.”
The restored files revealed something else.
Someone had connected an external drive to my laptop after taking it from the apartment.
The drive’s serial number matched a device registered to Bennett Technologies.
Its owner was the company’s chief financial officer, Martin Shaw.
Agent Grant searched the database.
Martin’s name appeared in records connected to Northbridge.
“He handled the transfers,” I said.
My phone vibrated.
The midnight meeting with Ethan was less than one hour away.
Agent Grant looked at the message.
“He may have the ledger.”
My mother stood.
“I am coming with you.”
“No,” I said.
“Ethan will talk to me.”
“He has been lying to you his entire life.”
“So has Richard.”
She looked toward the family portrait.
“I helped create this.”
“Then help us end it.”
We left Dr. Lane with the officers.
As I reached the door, my laptop produced an alert.
One recovered file had been scheduled to open automatically.
It was a video recorded by Ethan.
He appeared on the screen with a bruise across his jaw.
“If you are watching this, Dad knows I found the ledger.”
He looked over his shoulder.
May you like
Then he spoke the sentence that turned our investigation into a race.
“He is going to kill Martin Shaw before Martin can testify.”
