Chapter 7 - DANIEL’S PHOTOGRAPHS
Daniel Reyes had not been hired randomly. His family’s maintenance company serviced Mercer properties before Claire died, and he remembered her as the only executive who personally asked contractors whether invoices matched the work performed.
After her death, Graham gradually moved maintenance contracts to Bluewater.
Daniel lost most of the Mercer business.
Then Vanessa called him back to the mansion on Thursday.
“Why you?” Adrian asked when they met in Rebecca’s office.
Daniel looked down at his bandaged wrist.
“She said I knew the old pool system.”
“That’s true.”
“Yes. But Graham knew I also knew Claire.”
Daniel explained that Claire had once asked him to inspect unusual equipment installed during the original pool renovation. A contractor claimed the new system required a second service gallery, even though the existing pump room was adequate.
Claire questioned the cost.
Graham assured her the gallery housed network controls for energy management and property security.
She ordered an independent inspection.
Daniel completed it.
The second gallery contained more equipment than the approved plan listed, including early versions of the server cabinet.
Claire photographed everything.
Then her illness worsened.
The inspection report disappeared from Daniel’s company records after Graham canceled the contract.
Daniel assumed the matter ended.
It had not.
The recent call brought him back to the same concealed equipment.
Inside the gallery he recognized Claire’s old inspection markings on the wall.
He photographed them before Graham took his phone.
The marks were not random construction notes. Claire had written short labels beside cable routes and service panels so a later auditor could reconstruct where each device connected.
The recovered photographs included one label that interested Rebecca immediately.
ORIGINAL BACKUP — DO NOT WIPE.
Beneath it was a small arrow pointing toward a locked steel compartment.
Police had not opened that compartment because it was part of the electrical infrastructure and required specialist assistance.
Daniel believed it contained removable backup storage.
Adrian remembered Claire saying she wanted financial records maintained in more than one location because Graham controlled much of the company’s ordinary IT administration.
She had not trusted him.
Not completely.
Rebecca obtained authority to examine the compartment.
Inside were three older encrypted drives, two written audit summaries and a sealed envelope addressed to Adrian.
The envelope contained Claire’s handwriting.
If you are opening this, I either ran out of time or Graham gave you a reason to look.
Adrian sat down before reading further.
His wife had been dead three years.
Yet she had left a path through the wall beneath their swimming pool.
The chapter ended with Claire’s next sentence.
The trust problem is not the beginning. Find out why Graham bought the land before he joined Mercer Holdings.
Adrian looked at Rebecca.
May you like
Graham had worked for the company for almost a decade.
If Claire was right, his financial scheme began before he ever became Adrian’s trusted executive.
