Chapter 11 - The Safety Deposit Box in Geneva
Jared stepped forward, his fists clenching at his sides. “What did she say, Reynolds? What else did that monster do to my family?”
Reynolds gestured for the agents to guard the entrance of the archival room, then took a seat opposite us.
“Lauren wasn't just Julian Sterling’s operative,” Reynolds explained, his voice low and serious. “She was Harrison Sterling’s illegitimate daughter.”
The room went dead silent.
Jared’s jaw dropped. He staggered back against the book stacks, looking as if the ground beneath him had opened up. “She... she was Julian’s half-sister?”
“Yes,” Reynolds nodded grimly. “Harrison never publicly acknowledged her, but he provided for her through offshore trusts. When Harrison suffered his incapacitating stroke, Julian discovered that their father’s will contained a codicil: thirty percent of the Sterling empire would revert to the Blake family if the 1974 patent infringement was ever proven in court.”
I closed my eyes, the immense weight of the truth washing over me.
“Julian sent his half-sister to marry Jared,” I murmured, connecting the final financial threads. “He promised Lauren a twenty-million-dollar cut of the family trust if she could dismantle Jared’s company and steal his shares before Jared ever looked into his grandfather’s estate.”
“Precisely,” Reynolds said. “And when Lauren saw how much money Jared was making, she got greedy. She started taking the eight thousand dollars a month that Jared set aside for your living expenses, using Marcus Vance to launder it into real estate. She wanted to drain both of you so completely that Jared would have to surrender the company to Julian just to stay afloat.”
“Where is Julian now?” Jared asked, his voice shaking with righteous fury.
“He’s boarding a private Gulfstream at O’Hare right now,” Reynolds said, checking his watch. “He’s attempting to flee to Zurich. But the Swiss authorities won’t freeze his accounts without immediate, conclusive proof of corporate fraud and interstate extortion. We have Lauren’s testimony, but her credibility is compromised because she’s facing twenty years for wire fraud. We need an unassailable financial audit. We need the original ledger, Arthur.”
I looked down at Diane’s blue-cloth binder, then at the uncashed cashier's check that had sat forgotten in the journal for twelve years.
“I have the ledger, Mr. Reynolds,” I said with absolute authority. “And I have the uncashed check from First Community Trust. But more than that... I have the forensic proof that Thomas Blake’s estate was unlawfully converted into Sterling BioTech’s initial capital in 1974.”
“Can you prove it within twenty minutes?” Reynolds asked, leaning in. “Julian’s plane takes off at midnight.”
I pulled my reading glasses from my pocket, sat down at the table, and pulled my audit notebook toward me.
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“Mr. Reynolds,” I said, a cold, fierce smile spreading across my lips. “Give me fifteen.”
***