Chapter 6
Grace’s original audit request had not disappeared completely.
The accounting firm retained a preliminary work file.
They would release it only through proper legal authority.
Rebecca obtained it.
The preliminary notes identified three suspicious vendors.
Lane Cultural Events was one.
Another was controlled by a longtime Adrian associate.
The third existed only on paper.
Grace had personally marked several invoices for follow-up.
Beside one payment to Victoria’s company, she wrote:
Why is A. protecting this?
Dante recognized Grace’s handwriting instantly.
No interpretation required.
She had suspected Adrian.
The accountant who began the review remembered speaking with her once.
“She sounded upset.”
“About what?”
“She kept asking whether invoices could be manufactured after payment.”
Rebecca glanced at Dante but said nothing.
The accountant continued.
“Then she asked whether someone with administrator access could make an approval look as though it came from her.”
That was exactly what had happened with the cancellation email.
“What did you tell her?”
“That system logs could usually identify where an approval originated.”
“And then?”
“She said she would call back.”
She never did.
Three days later, the audit was canceled from Adrian’s office.
Grace died seven weeks afterward.
Rebecca raised the subject before Dante could.
“The crash investigation was extensive.”
“I know.”
“The other driver caused it.”
“I know.”
“There were highway cameras, witnesses, toxicology, and a guilty plea.”
Dante looked at her.
“You’re telling me not to turn this into murder.”
“I’m telling you evidence matters even when suspicion feels better.”
Dante nodded.
He needed that.
Grace’s death did not have to be another conspiracy for the betrayal to matter.
The people who lied to her while she was alive had simply been lucky enough that an unrelated tragedy prevented her from finishing what she started.
That possibility was somehow uglier.
Maria supplied another detail that evening.
Grace had argued with Adrian in the music room five days after the audit request.
Maria heard Grace say:
“You brought her into my house.”
Then Adrian lowered his voice, and Maria could not hear the answer.
Dante asked the obvious question.
“Her?”
Maria nodded.
“I didn’t know who she meant.”
Dante did now.
May you like
Or thought he did.
But he still needed proof.
