Chapter 3 - The Dead Man’s Name
Emily stared at the message until the letters blurred.
Ask your father what happened at Westbridge.
Her father.
Thomas Parker.
Dead twelve years.
Killed in what police called a single-car accident on a rainy highway outside Cleveland.
No drugs.
No alcohol.
No witnesses.
Just a twisted guardrail, a burned sedan, and a file box missing from the trunk.
Emily had never told anyone at Harrison Global about the file box.
She had barely told anyone at all.
Richard noticed her face.
“What is it?”
Emily locked her phone.
“Nothing.”
Richard studied her.
“That did not look like nothing.”
Emily forced herself to breathe.
“It’s personal.”
“Connected to Westbridge?”
She hated how quickly he saw it.
“I don’t know.”
His voice lowered.
“Emily, if someone threatened you using your father’s name minutes after Vanessa was taken by federal agents, it is not personal anymore.”
She looked at him.
“How do you know it mentioned my father?”
Richard’s silence answered before his mouth did.
Because his face changed.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
Emily stepped back.
“You know something.”
Richard’s eyes lowered.
“Your father worked with Harrison Global years ago.”
Emily felt the room tilt.
“No, he didn’t.”
“Not directly.”
“My father was an auditor for a regional accounting firm.”
“Yes,” Richard said. “And his firm handled outside reviews for companies we acquired.”
Emily’s pulse pounded.
“Did he work on Westbridge?”
Richard did not answer fast enough.
She almost whispered, “Oh my God.”
“Emily—”
“Did he?”
Richard exhaled.
“Yes.”
The word hit harder than Vanessa’s insults.
Her father had spent the last three months of his life anxious, distracted, sleeping badly. Her mother had said it was work stress. Then he died. After the funeral, two men in suits came to their house and took his office computer “for insurance purposes.”
Emily had been sixteen.
Too young to understand.
Old enough to remember.
“What happened?” she asked.
Richard looked toward the glass wall, where employees moved like shadows beyond the room.
“Not here.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No. It’s a warning.”
Emily laughed once, bitterly.
“I’m getting a lot of those today.”
Richard lowered his voice.
“Your father discovered irregularities in a group of shell companies tied to a medical supply network. Westbridge was one of them.”
Emily’s hand went to the chair beside her.
“He died because of it?”
Richard’s face tightened.
“I don’t know.”
“But you suspected.”
“I suspected enough to ask questions.”
“And then?”
“And then I was told there was nothing to find.”
“By who?”
Richard looked away.
Emily understood.
“Vanessa.”
“No,” Richard said. “Vanessa wasn’t senior enough then.”
“Then who?”
Before he could answer, the conference room door opened.
Linda Carver from HR stepped inside.
She wore a navy dress, pearls, and the frozen smile of someone who had practiced compassion without ever feeling it.
“Emily,” she said. “I’m glad I found you.”
Richard’s face hardened.
“Linda, this is not a good time.”
Linda ignored him.
“I need Ms. Parker to come with me.”
“For what?”
“A formal employment review.”
Richard’s voice turned dangerous.
“After what just happened, you still want to discipline her?”
Linda smiled wider.
“This review was scheduled before today’s unfortunate interruption.”
Emily looked at her.
“Unfortunate interruption?”
Linda’s eyes flicked toward her.
“Federal inquiries can be disruptive. They are not convictions.”
Richard stepped between them.
“Cancel it.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
“You work for this company.”
“And I am following company procedure.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“Procedure does not override CEO directive.”
Linda lifted a folder.
“It does when the matter involves data theft, unauthorized document access, and possible dissemination of confidential files to outside authorities.”
Emily felt the words cut through the air.
Richard turned.
“Emily?”
“I didn’t send anything to the FBI.”
Linda tilted her head.
“Then how did they know to arrive precisely during today’s meeting?”
Emily had no answer.
Because she did not know.
She had not called them.
She had not emailed them.
She had only prepared her folder and walked into the boardroom expecting to lose her job.
Linda opened the folder.
“Ms. Parker, your badge access has been suspended pending investigation.”
Richard snapped, “Absolutely not.”
Linda looked at him calmly.
“The suspension has already been processed.”
Emily reached for her badge.
It beeped red when she tried the conference room reader.
Her stomach dropped.
Linda smiled.
“Please collect your belongings.”
Richard turned to security.
“Reinstate her access.”
The security officer checked his tablet, then frowned.
“Sir… I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?”
“It’s been overridden.”
“By whom?”
The officer looked pale.
“Board authority.”
Richard went still.
Only one person could override a CEO using board authority.
The chairman.
Arthur Bell.
Richard’s oldest friend.
And Vanessa Cole’s biggest supporter.
Emily backed away slowly.
Linda stepped forward.
“Come with me, Emily.”
At that moment, Emily’s phone buzzed again.
A photo appeared.
Old.
Grainy.
Taken twelve years earlier.
Her father standing beside three people.
One was Richard Harrison.
One was Arthur Bell.
May you like
And the third was Vanessa Cole.
You are not the first Parker who found the numbers.
