Chapter 10 - The Shadow Copy
Shards of safety glass rained down into the truck bed as the vehicle swerved wildly out of the alley and onto the main thoroughfare. Sarah, shivering violently in the back seat beside a startled Lily, pulled her knees up to her chest, her face pale and streaked with tears. Clara twisted around as far as her seatbelt allowed, offering her scarf to the trembling auditor while Mark kept his eyes locked on the rearview mirror, checking for any sign of pursuit.
"Are you okay, Sarah?" Clara asked, her voice steady despite her racing heart. "Did they hurt you?"
"I—I'm fine, just cold," Sarah stammered, her teeth chattering as she clutched a heavy canvas zipper bag tightly against her chest. "They broke through my front window just as Evelyn knocked on my door. If she hadn't come up the fire escape when she did..." She couldn't finish the sentence, burying her face in her hands.
Evelyn turned around in the passenger seat, her eyes sharp and assessing as she looked at the canvas bag. "Did you get the deposit box key, Sarah? Do we have the physical authorization documents?"
Sarah nodded slowly, reaching into her coat pocket and pulling out a small brass key attached to a faded red ribbon, holding it up like a talisman. "It’s all here. The original bank statements, the forged trustee signatures, and the wire routing logs linking Richard’s personal accounts directly to the offshore shell companies in Zurich. This isn't just embezzlement, Evelyn. It's treason against every investor in the city."
Mark kept the truck moving at a steady, cautious speed, avoiding the main downtown avenues where corporate security cameras and police patrols were most active. "We can't wait until morning to go to the federal courthouse," Mark said, his jaw set in a hard line. "David Vance has already filed emergency injunctions against our assets. By nine o'clock, any filings we make will be blocked by a corrupt circuit judge."
"Then we don't go to the courthouse," Evelyn said calmly, turning back to face the dark road ahead. "We go directly to the home of Judge Thomas Miller. He's the senior federal magistrate for this district, and he has despised Richard Halm’s corporate monopoly for a decade."
Clara looked up from the backseat, a flicker of doubt crossing her face. "Waking up a federal judge in the middle of the night? Won't that be seen as a breach of protocol? They could dismiss our evidence on a technicality."
"Judge Miller doesn't care about protocol when he sees forty million dollars missing from municipal pension funds," Evelyn replied with a grim smile. "He lives in the estate district on Ridge Road. Drive, Mark. Before Richard realizes Sarah managed to escape with the primary archive."
May you like
The truck veered onto the winding, tree-lined avenue of Ridge Road, where sprawling mansions sat hidden behind iron gates and towering hedges, their holiday lights casting a festive yet haunting glow against the falling snow.
---
