Page 78 of Silent Vendetta (Vendetta Duet)

“Before your accountant left, he did provide the details we requested about that financial transaction. It took a little time for the forensic accountant to sift through it, but he prioritized it, given our tight schedule.”

Tight was a kind word; it had been less than four days since we’d spoken last about the funds.

“And?” I pressed, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.

“He found who the money went to,” Barry said.

I sat back in my chair, looking at the closed manila folders he’d laid out on my desk, wondering if the name of my father’s killer was inside them.

“Did he trace the full five million?” I asked.

Barry nodded.

“Was he an employee?” I asked.

“No. It wasn’t an inside job. Nobody related to the recipient had connections with the company.”

Grayson and I shared a puzzled look.

“If he didn’t work for the company, how did the guy get the money?”

“Someone from the company paid it to him,” Barry said.

My mind raced, trying to piece it together. “For what?”

“That, I don’t know,” Barry said. “But whoever paid him went to a lot of trouble to conceal where the money went. You don’t do that unless you have something to hide.”

“And this is the same money my father reimbursed?”

“Yes.”

I rubbed my jaw. “Do you knowwhopaid this guy that five million?”

“My forensic accountant is still digging, but whoever it was knew how to hide the trail.”

I stood up, walked to the window, and looked out at the simplicity of the landscaping—the emerald lawns, the birds chirping, while in here, a complex cyclone of problems was unraveling.

“And this money vanished days before my father was murdered?”

“Yes.”

“Which means this guy’s likely involved in my dad’s death.” My neck hardened with tension.

“That would be my take, yes. I haven’t found anything else in your father’s life that was out of sorts before he died.”

My heart launched into a rhythmic warning. My sixth sense told me this guy didn’t just have the answers that eluded me my entire life. He probably knew who killed my father. Hell, he might be the killer himself, even if I hadn’t pieced the motive together.

One thing I’d learned as a prosecutor was how often humans get tangled up in motive. If we can’t understand the why, we’re tempted to dismiss it.

But this couldn’t be dismissed. This was the key to everything. I could feel it.

I needed to go there, shake the guy down for answers, and if he was the man who killed my father?

I would slit his throat.

Luna wanted me to stop my ways, but would she forgive me if I did this one last thing?

Doing so would be a tremendous risk, not just to my possible relationship with her, but also because Mayor Kepler was looking into everyone in her life, trying to uncover the identity of the Vigilante. Maybe even having them watched.

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