Chapter 15 - The Home Office
Victor Sloane did not run when police entered Dominic's home office.
He sat behind the desk as though he had been invited.
A glass of Dominic's bourbon rested beside the keyboard.
"Naomi," he said when she entered. "Still making entrances."
Two detectives stood behind him.
Owen had already removed a pistol from Victor's ankle holster.
"You forged Dominic's approval," Naomi said.
Victor smiled.
"Can you prove that?"
"You're sitting at the computer that authorized it."
"So are six fingerprints."
Dominic stepped forward.
"Why are you in my house?"
Victor looked genuinely amused.
"Because your fiancée pays better than you do."
Dominic stopped.
There it was.
No loyalty.
No tortured motive.
Money and ego.
Sometimes evil was less cinematic than people wanted.
A detective bagged the laptop.
Victor looked at Naomi.
"You know this doesn't clear you, right?"
"I don't need you to clear me."
"The Price family already accepted the settlement."
Naomi's eyes sharpened.
"What settlement?"
Victor realized too late.
Naomi took one step closer.
"Daniel's family never told me about a settlement."
Victor said nothing.
Dominic looked at Martin.
Martin pulled out his phone and searched old vendor records.
"There was a payment," he said quietly. "Two hundred forty thousand to Sloane Risk Advisory, then one hundred eighty to... Price Family Trust."
Naomi felt physically ill.
"Daniel didn't have a family trust."
Victor stopped smiling.
Owen leaned over the screen.
"Then where did the money go?"
Martin opened the routing detail.
A shell account.
Beneficiary owner hidden.
But an address appeared.
Naomi recognized it.
Vanessa's former Manhattan office.
The room went silent.
Victor's confidence finally cracked.
"That wasn't my arrangement."
"Whose was it?" Naomi asked.
He looked toward the detectives.
"Lawyer."
One word.
The oldest shield in the world.
As police escorted him out, Naomi's phone buzzed.
Vanessa.
A text.
You wanted the truth about Daniel? Come ask me yourself. No Dominic. No police.
A location followed.
The ballroom.
Naomi showed Owen.
"It's a trap," he said.
"Yes."
"You're not going."
"Also yes."
Dominic frowned. "That sounded like you're going."
Naomi picked up her coat.
"I'm going with police watching every entrance, Owen on the audio channel, and you nowhere near the room."
"Why?"
"Because Vanessa thinks the Daniel file can make me emotional."
Dominic looked at her.
"Can't it?"
Naomi opened the door.
"Of course it can."
Then she looked back.
"She just doesn't understand that emotion and control are not opposites."
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