Chapter 2
The notebook spent two days drying in a forensic lab.
Nobody photocopied wet pages.
Nobody passed photographs around the family.
Claire insisted on a documented chain of custody because if the contents mattered, sloppy handling would become Grant’s first defense.
Vincent waited.
He hated waiting.
On Tuesday morning, Claire placed the first transcription in front of him.
Forty-three pages.
Shipment numbers.
Container codes.
Warehouse locations.
Employee initials.
Dates.
Dollar amounts.
Some entries had check marks.
Others had question marks.
Twelve shipment codes matched losses Vincent already knew.
Bellacorte Freight had reported approximately $6.4 million in unexplained cargo shrinkage over the previous fourteen months.
Electronics.
Specialty machinery.
Luxury automotive components.
Medical equipment.
No single category.
That had made the losses difficult to connect.
Insurance covered some.
The company absorbed the rest.
Grant had repeatedly blamed poor warehouse controls.
He also repeatedly recommended selling the Midwest distribution division.
Claire pointed to several names.
“Who are these?”
“Dispatch supervisors.”
“And these?”
“Receiving managers.”
One name appeared more than any other.
Everett Sloan.
Vincent knew him.
Senior inventory-reconciliation manager.
Twenty-two years with the company.
“Didn’t he resign?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Why?”
Claire turned another page.
“According to HR, performance issues and insubordination.”
Vincent frowned.
Everett had never been charming.
He was meticulous.
The kind of man who corrected decimal points during Christmas dinner if somebody let him see a spreadsheet.
“What does Grant say?”
“He says Everett became unstable after being disciplined.”
“About the notebook?”
Claire looked at him.
“Grant says he has never seen it.”
Vincent slowly leaned back.
“He tried to take it from Lila.”
“He says he saw confidential company information in a child’s hands and reacted.”
“He shoved her into a pool.”
“He says she stumbled while pulling away.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
Claire tapped the table.
“Evidence.”
He nodded once.
They continued.
One handwritten amount appeared beside every suspicious shipment.
The numbers were not always equal to the cargo values.
That was strange.
A shipment worth $620,000 had $410,000 written beside it.
A $300,000 machinery load had $185,000.
A $900,000 electronics container showed $540,000.
“What are these numbers?” Claire asked.
Vincent did not know.
Then he noticed the dates.
Most suspicious losses occurred within ten days of monthly financial reporting.
Three fell immediately before lender reviews.
Two occurred before a board valuation meeting.
Vincent looked at the pattern.
“Someone cared about timing.”
Claire nodded.
“Possibly.”
The notebook did not prove who.
May you like
But it was beginning to suggest that whoever tracked these losses was interested in more than stolen cargo.
They were watching what the losses did to the business afterward.
