Chapter 5
Lila asked when she could swim again.
That surprised Vincent.
He had expected fear.
Instead, she seemed angry at the pool.
“Pool didn’t do anything,” he told her.
“It got me wet.”
“That is generally what pools do.”
She frowned.
Vincent smiled.
Then she asked:
“Uncle Grant coming?”
“No.”
“Because notebook?”
“Because he hurt you.”
Lila thought about that.
“Notebook bad?”
“No.”
“Then why he want it?”
Vincent could have explained too much.
He did not.
“Adults sometimes become frightened when they think something will reveal a mistake they made.”
“Big mistake?”
“Maybe.”
She accepted that.
Children often tolerated uncertainty better than adults.
Dr. Hannah Mercer, the child therapist Claire recommended, later told Vincent not to turn the notebook into a heroic object.
“She did not solve your company case.”
“I know.”
“She found something.”
“Yes.”
“She brought it to you because she was scared.”
“Yes.”
“Keep it there.”
Vincent understood.
Lila was a child who asked her father for help.
Not an informant.
Not a witness the family could parade around.
That afternoon the financial investigation found another discrepancy.
Bellacorte Freight’s monthly loss reserve—the accounting amount set aside for damaged or missing cargo—had increased sharply over the same period covered by the notebook.
That reserve reduced reported profit.
The division looked worse on paper than its actual cash position suggested.
Vincent asked the accountants:
“Are you saying the company did not really lose the money?”
“Some losses were real.”
“And the rest?”
“Potentially exaggerated, shifted between periods, or deliberately misclassified.”
One accountant pointed to a graph.
“The pattern is unusual.”
“How?”
“Losses spike before reporting dates.”
Vincent looked at him.
“You’re telling me someone schedules theft around accounting.”
“Maybe.”
The accountant hesitated.
“Or maybe theft isn’t the main objective.”
Claire looked up.
“What would be?”
The accountant tapped the profit line.
“Making this division look worse at specific moments.”
That sentence changed the investigation.
Everyone had been asking where the missing cargo went.
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Now Vincent began asking a different question.
Who benefited when Bellacorte Freight looked like it was failing?
