Chapter 9 - Catherine—Control
Graham Pike spoke for six hours.
By the end of his first day cooperating, investigators understood that Richard Welles had not built a single scheme.
He had built systems.
Cedar Meridian moved money.
Halcyon collected information.
Northstar concealed assets inside Catherine’s identity.
And the private archive stored leverage.
Graham described it as Richard’s insurance policy.
“Against what?” prosecutors asked.
“Everyone.”
According to Graham, Richard rarely threatened people directly.
He preferred evidence that could ruin them.
Affairs.
Drug use.
Tax problems.
Embarrassing messages.
Financial mistakes.
Anything that could make a witness hesitate.
Graham admitted approving false consulting invoices.
He admitted routing settlement payments.
He admitted knowing Laura Benton’s settlement did not arise from legitimate consulting.
“Did you know Richard assaulted her?” Maya Chen asked.
Graham stared at the table.
“I knew she accused him.”
“And you helped pay her.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He said the accusation was false.”
“Did you believe him?”
Graham’s silence answered.
“What about Emily Carter?”
“I saw her name in the ledger.”
“When?”
“Two weeks before the incident.”
That fact changed the assault case.
Richard had not merely reacted after Catherine caught him.
Evidence suggested he had already created a strategy for discrediting Emily.
But investigators still needed the private archive.
Graham said Richard accessed it through an encrypted drive.
He had seen Richard connect the drive in the mansion library.
The same room where Emily was attacked.
Detective Ortiz obtained a warrant based on the developing evidence.
Investigators searched Richard’s authorized areas and devices.
They found no encrypted drive.
Emily was not surprised.
“He took it.”
Catherine stood beside her attorney outside the mansion while investigators worked.
“Maybe.”
Emily looked at her.
“You always say maybe when you’re afraid the answer is yes.”
Catherine almost smiled.
“That sounds like something my father would have said.”
“Was he right a lot?”
“Too often.”
The search uncovered something else.
Behind a false panel inside Richard’s desk sat seven small envelopes.
Each contained a woman’s name.
Laura Benton.
Marissa Cole.
Janine Walsh.
Beth Avery.
Nicole Grant.
Samantha Reed.
Emily Carter.
Emily’s envelope was empty.
The others contained copies of employment records, photographs, financial information and handwritten notes.
Richard had researched vulnerabilities.
Marissa had debt.
Janine had a brother with a criminal conviction.
Beth had once been fired from another employer.
Nicole was involved in a custody dispute.
Samantha had undocumented relatives.
Laura had her daughter.
Emily had student-loan debt and a mother living on disability income.
Emily stared at the inventory prepared by investigators.
“He investigated my mother?”
Catherine’s face hardened.
Emily’s mother had never stepped inside the Welles mansion.
Yet Richard had apparently known her address.
“What was he planning?”
Detective Ortiz answered.
“We don’t know how much of this he personally collected.”
Emily pointed toward her envelope.
“He wrote my name.”
“Yes.”
“He wrote seventy-five thousand beside my initials.”
“Yes.”
“He planted jewelry.”
“Yes.”
“So stop saying you don’t know what he was planning.”
Ortiz did not argue.
“You’re right. We know enough to understand the direction.”
Emily looked away.
“Sorry.”
“You don’t owe me an apology.”
Meanwhile, Jonah Price and federal forensic accountants traced Northstar.
The trust was fraudulent.
But the money moved through it was real.
Nine million from the mansion loan.
Seven million from Bellmont consulting budgets.
More from the foundation.
Twenty-eight point seven million total.
Of that amount, investigators identified eleven million in accounts connected to Richard.
Five million had funded settlements and surveillance.
Several million had disappeared.
Then Jonah found a transfer that made no sense.
Two months before Emily’s attack, Richard moved four million dollars into a legitimate brokerage account.
The owner was Catherine.
Not the fake trust.
Her actual account.
Catherine stared at Jonah.
“Why would he put stolen money in my account?”
Naomi answered.
“To implicate you.”
Richard had constructed a trap.
If regulators investigated Bellmont, money would appear to lead to Catherine.
If Catherine challenged him, he could accuse her of fraud.
If divorce began, Northstar held the mansion in her name while secretly controlled through documents created by his allies.
Every road returned to her.
“He wasn’t planning to leave me,” Catherine whispered.
Naomi understood.
“He was planning to own you.”
That afternoon, Catherine returned to the mansion accompanied by Naomi and a court-authorized property representative.
She stood in the library.
The chandelier glowed overhead.
The hidden camera she installed remained sealed as evidence.
Catherine looked at Richard’s desk.
Something bothered her.
A memory.
Three months earlier, Richard had become furious when a cleaning employee moved an antique chess set from the library.
He had insisted every piece be returned exactly.
Catherine walked toward it.
Naomi said, “What?”
“The chessboard.”
She lifted a black rook.
Nothing.
A bishop.
Nothing.
Then the king.
Heavier.
Catherine turned it over.
A seam ran around the base.
Naomi immediately stopped her.
“Don’t open it.”
Investigators returned.
A technician photographed the piece before unscrewing its base.
Inside was a tiny metal key.
Not a digital drive.
A physical key.
Attached was a number.
317.
Detective Ortiz frowned.
“Locker?”
Catherine stared at it.
Then remembered the photograph mailed to her.
Richard and Graham outside a private bank.
“Safe-deposit box.”
Within hours, investigators confirmed the bank maintained numbered boxes.
Box 317 was registered to a holding entity.
The entity’s authorized representative was Martin Shaw.
Catherine’s former lawyer.
The next morning, lawful process opened the box.
Inside were two encrypted drives.
A stack of passports.
Cash.
And a sealed envelope.
May you like
Written across it in Richard’s handwriting:
IF CATHERINE FINDS THIS, SHE ALREADY KNOWS TOO MUCH.
