Page 100 of False Evidence

She turned back to Lee. “It’s safe to start the audio now.”

He nodded and hit Play.

“What are you going to do about it, stupid bitch?”

“That’s Brent Forbes’s voice,” Alexandra said.

“Well, there’s no denying I’m stupid. All those lies, and I believed every fucking one.”

“And that, of course, is Kendall.” It hurt to hear her voice, let alone the words.

“You can’t tell. You’re in this as deep as anyone. You’re the one who signed off on the cost estimates that put money in Russ’s hands.”

“I was forced to do it. You know why.”

Alexandra experienced a throat-clogging rage on Kendall’s behalf. Brent and Russ had spent more than a decade gaslighting and belittling her. Brent’s so-calledlovehad turned Kendall into a shadow of her former self.

“I can ruin everything. I can end this sale. Make it impossible for Calvin Moss to purchase T&D. But the best part is you’ll go to prison for embezzling.”

“If that were to happen, you’d be in prison right alongside me.”

“Brent, I’ve lived in a prison of your creation for sixteen years. You think you scare me now?”

There was a long silence before Brent said,“But there’s your problem. You can’t pin any of this on me. There is nothing—nothing at all—that connects me to any of the transactions. I never even got a payout. It was Russ who got the kickbacks from Drake. It was you who made sure the payouts continued after Drake was gone. I was just a midlevel guy working for a company that I’ve given my entire career to. I didn’t even worry that Talon was never going to promote me. I put up with so much shit, and everything is documented by HR. I’ve got a sweet lawsuit against Talon in the works for smearing my reputation to the degree that I couldn’t get a job elsewhere. Ihadto stay.”

“That’s bullshit. You could have left at any point, and that’s why HR never worried about you and your complaints. You were lucky you weren’t fired. And you stayed because you knew that if you walked out the door, you’d lose everything, including that sweet little bank account in the Cayman Islands.”

“What bank account? I already told you I got nothing.”

“You know Uncle Sam doesn’t like people who cheat on their taxes. Lee Scott can find your bank account and whatever you squirreled away. Bitcoin isn’t worth anything if you can’t access it. You must’ve turned it into cash at some point. Lee will find your money. See, he doesn’t have to worry about it being an illegal search. He doesn’t care about being able to present the evidence to a jury. But he does own one-third of T&D. And you can bet your ass that if he gets wind that you colluded with Russ and Drake”—the name was said with deep disdain—“he will find proof.”

“And then, dear Kendall, he’ll find out whatyoudid. Everyone will. Even your precious Alex. Everyone will know exactly why the false evidence against Russ disappeared.”

“That evidence wasn’t false. The only fake was whatyouplanted. But don’t you worry, I have it still. I held on to it all these years. Anything happens to me, and Alex will get it. She’ll tell JT everything.”

“Nice try. Everyone knows she hates him.”

“Everyone is stupid, then. She’s never hated him. The only person she hates is Russ. Well, and you.”

“Are you prepared for her to hateyou?”

Kendall’s voice shook in her reply.“I’m pretty sure she already does. I did nothing but betray her. Foryou.”

ChapterThirty-Eight

“Are there other recent files on the hard drive?” Alexandra asked Lee.

“No. I’ll do another scan in case I missed something, but…”

In spite of everything, she laughed. Lee didn’t miss anything in this area. He could pull exonerating videos out of thin air.

“Looks like I’ve been tasked with going over Kendall’s work in relation to Drake’s projects that she managed after he was arrested,” Lee said.

“Didn’t Rob Anderson take over those?”

“He did, but when I left and he took over running the office, several of the projects went to Calvin Moss.”

“Calvin, who is buying the company,” Erica said.

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