Chapter 8 - The Red Ledger
The anonymous email had been sent through a privacy service.
Maya told Ethan not to reply.
He replied anyway.
Who are you?
No response.
Samuel stared at the photograph.
“That’s Jonathan’s old study.”
“Before Victoria renovated it?”
“Yes.”
Ethan remembered the room.
Dark shelves.
A green leather chair.
A wall safe hidden behind a painting of Carter Hall in winter.
“Dad had a safe.”
Samuel nodded.
“Victoria knows.”
“Of course she does.”
Maya asked, “Was the safe removed?”
Ethan thought.
Victoria had remodeled the study around five years earlier.
The exact period of the disputed deed.
At the funeral reception, Ethan had passed the room.
It was now pale gray with built-in cabinetry.
He had not looked for the safe.
Maya contacted Victoria’s counsel seeking preservation of Jonathan’s office, files, computers, safe contents, and specified records including any red ledger.
Marcus responded within an hour.
No such ledger is known to exist.
Ethan laughed when Maya read it.
“He knows exactly what it is.”
“Maybe.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“I believe he chose his wording carefully.”
That night another anonymous email arrived.
Three words.
ASK THE ACCOUNTANT.
Carter Development’s longtime chief financial officer was Margaret Sloan, no relation to Ethan.
She had served Jonathan for twenty-three years.
Ethan remembered her as intimidating even when he was a teenager.
Maya contacted her through counsel.
Margaret Sloan refused to discuss confidential company records but agreed to speak about Jonathan personally.
They met in a private club downtown.
Margaret looked Ethan up and down.
“You got older.”
“So did you.”
“Bad opening.”
“Sorry.”
She almost smiled.
Then she became serious.
“Jonathan regretted how things ended with you.”
Ethan had heard that enough times lately to hurt in new ways.
“Did he have a red ledger?”
Margaret’s expression did not change.
“Yes.”
Ethan leaned forward.
“What was in it?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“What did you know?”
“Jonathan kept handwritten notes regarding transactions he believed were irregular.”
“North Line?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“Victoria’s company.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he use normal accounting systems?”
“He did. The ledger was not the accounting record. It was his investigative notebook.”
“Investigating what?”
Margaret looked toward Maya.
“Am I exposed discussing this?”
Maya said, “I represent Ethan, not you. If you have concerns regarding company confidentiality or personal liability, consult your own attorney.”
Margaret nodded appreciatively.
“I already have.”
She continued.
“Three years ago Jonathan discovered North Line was paying unusually large consulting fees.”
“To whom?”
“Various entities.”
“Grant Harlow?”
“Some connected to Harlow.”
Ethan’s pulse quickened.
“What did Dad think was happening?”
“He believed Victoria was moving money among companies to conceal losses and preserve the appearance that North Line remained solvent.”
“Fraud?”
“I’m not using that word.”
Maya smiled faintly.
Ethan sighed.
“Lawyers everywhere.”
Margaret continued.
“Jonathan ordered an internal review.”
“What happened?”
“It stopped.”
“Why?”
“Victoria threatened divorce.”
Ethan frowned.
“That stopped him?”
“No.”
Margaret’s eyes hardened.
“His first heart attack stopped him.”
Silence.
Jonathan’s major heart attack had occurred three years earlier.
He recovered but never fully regained stamina.
“Afterward?”
“Victoria became more involved in his affairs.”
“Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“Grant?”
“Eventually.”
“Where is the ledger?”
Margaret looked at Ethan.
“Jonathan gave it to me.”
He froze.
“You have it?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“He asked me to put it somewhere Victoria would never think to look.”
“Where?”
“I followed his instruction.”
Ethan leaned closer.
“Where?”
Margaret looked almost amused.
“He said if anyone ever came asking, I was not to answer that question.”
“My father is dead.”
“I noticed.”
“Margaret.”
“He gave me a second instruction.”
“What?”
“If Ethan Carter comes personally and asks about the ledger after Jonathan’s death, give him this.”
She removed an envelope from her handbag.
Ethan stared.
Another dead-man message.
He opened it.
Son,
If Sloan gives you this, you have reached the financial part.
Do not confuse ownership of Carter Hall with the reason Victoria needs it.
Those are separate problems.
The trust protects your mother’s property.
The ledger explains why Victoria is desperate to convert that property into cash.
Do not use the ledger for revenge.
Use it to protect the people whose pensions, jobs, and savings depend on Carter Development.
Ethan read the last line twice.
Below it was an address.
A small community bank.
And a box number.
Maya looked at Margaret.
“Safe-deposit box?”
“No.”
“What then?”
Margaret’s expression softened.
“Jonathan hated safe-deposit boxes.”
“Why?”
“He said too many people knew where banks kept things.”
She stood.
“Go to the address.”
The bank was forty minutes away.
It closed at five.
They arrived at four twenty.
Jonathan’s letter named the bank president, Robert Kline.
Kline was waiting.
He recognized Ethan instantly.
“Your father told me you might come.”
“How many people did he tell that?”
“Enough, apparently.”
Robert led them downstairs.
Not to safe-deposit boxes.
To an old records room.
At the back stood a fireproof cabinet.
Robert opened it with his own key.
Inside sat the red ledger.
Ethan reached toward it.
Robert stopped him.
“One condition.”
“What?”
“Your father required two witnesses before I released it.”
Maya said, “We have three people.”
“Not people.”
Robert looked at Ethan.
“Documents.”
He handed Ethan copies of two records.
The first was Jonathan’s death certificate.
The second was a court filing.
The temporary injunction preventing Victoria from selling Carter Hall.
Ethan stared.
“Dad required me to challenge the sale before getting the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Robert looked toward the old book.
“He said if you were only interested in money, you would go after the estate.”
“And?”
“If you understood the problem, you would stop the sale first.”
Ethan felt strangely judged by a dead man.
Robert finally handed him the ledger.
It was heavier than expected.
On the first page Jonathan had written:
NORTH LINE / VICTORIA / HARLOW / VALE.
Below that:
$11,830,000 UNACCOUNTED FOR.
Maya went still.
Ethan looked at her.
“That’s not eight million in losses.”
“No.”
He turned the page.
Jonathan had written:
LOSS IS REAL.
MISSING MONEY IS SEPARATE.
Ethan’s mouth went dry.
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Victoria did not merely need Carter Hall to cover a failed business.
According to Jonathan, nearly twelve million dollars had gone somewhere else.
