Thomas put the phone on speaker and called the financial-crimes team. Within minutes, the farmhouse had become a temporary command center. Documents covered the dining table, laptops glowed beneath the dim kitchen lights, and every person in the room understood that the investigation had just changed direction.
Agent Porter enlarged the Northbridge transaction on her screen. The amount was not enormous compared with the two-million-dollar insurance policy, but it was large enough to attract attention. More important, the transfer had been initiated through a dormant account that should have been inaccessible.
"Someone still has credentials," Porter said.
Daniel leaned closer. "Could the account have been compromised earlier?"
"It could have. But the authorization occurred twenty minutes before the freeze."
Thomas looked at Rosalind. "Who knew about the freeze?"
"Only the investigators, Daniel, and me."
Aaron shook his head. "And whoever was monitoring the case."
Rosalind felt a chill.
They had spent days assuming the enemy was reacting to them. What if the opposite was true? What if someone had been watching every move they made since the courtroom?
Thomas immediately requested access logs from the bank.
While they waited, Rosalind remembered something she had almost forgotten. On the morning of the hearing, before entering the courthouse, she had seen a man standing near the elevators. He had been holding a phone against his ear and watching the courtroom doors.
She had never recognized him.
Now she wondered whether she had been wrong.
Daniel noticed her expression.
"What is it?"
"I remembered someone."
She described the man.
Porter asked for details about his clothing, height, and appearance. Rosalind remembered a charcoal coat, silver-framed glasses, and a small scar near his left eyebrow.
Aaron went pale.
"I know him."
Everyone turned.
"Who?"
Aaron swallowed.
"He worked for Meridian."
Thomas asked, "Name?"
"I only heard people call him Leonard."
Porter searched the database.
A few seconds later, she found him.
Leonard Voss.
Consultant.
Security adviser.
Former investigator for a private recovery company.
His employment history included a short contract with Victor Hale's firm.
Rosalind stared at the photograph that appeared on the screen.
It was the man from the courthouse.
The person Robert had warned her about had not been physically present that day.
But Leonard had.
And if Leonard had been watching them, the possibility of a leak inside the investigation became immediate.
Porter called another agent and instructed him to check every person who had accessed the case files.
The results came quickly.
One access record had been made using credentials that should not have been active.
The login belonged to a clerk's account.
The location was the courthouse.
Thomas looked at Daniel.
"Someone inside the courthouse has been feeding information."
Daniel shook his head.
"That doesn't mean the judge is involved."
"No," Porter agreed. "But it means somebody close to the case is compromised."
Rosalind remembered the courtroom again.
Zachary and Giselle had laughed when she entered.
But they hadn't looked surprised.
They had looked confident.
As if someone had already told them exactly what the judge would see.
Thomas asked Rosalind to describe every person she remembered from that morning.
She mentioned lawyers, clerks, the court officer, family members, and the man with the silver-framed glasses.
Then she remembered someone else.
A woman had approached Giselle during the recess.
Rosalind had not heard their conversation.
Giselle had looked frightened afterward.
Porter found the woman's identity.
Her name was Meredith Cole.
She was a paralegal who had worked for one of the attorneys involved in the guardianship petition.
Daniel recognized the name immediately.
"She prepared some of the financial exhibits."
Thomas stared at the screen.
"Find her."
They located Meredith at her apartment that evening.
She did not resist when officers arrived.
Instead, she sat at the kitchen table with her hands folded in front of her.
"I knew you would come," she said.
Meredith admitted she had copied documents for the guardianship petition. She said she believed she was helping a family resolve a financial dispute.
"When did you realize it was something else?" Porter asked.
"When they asked me to alter the date on one of the bank statements."
"Who asked you?"
Meredith hesitated.
Then she named Leonard Voss.
She also admitted that Leonard had paid her to monitor court filings and report developments.
"Did he tell you why?"
"He said Mrs. Miller couldn't be allowed to regain control of the Northbridge policy."
Rosalind felt the room spin.
Meredith continued.
"There was another person."
"Who?"
"I never met him."
"How did you communicate?"
"Through encrypted messages."
"What did he call himself?"
Meredith looked directly at Rosalind.
"The Architect."
The name sounded absurd until she saw Porter's face.
"Did he give you instructions about Robert Miller?"
Meredith nodded.
"He said Robert's death had solved one problem but created another."
Rosalind's fingers tightened around the edge of the chair.
"What problem?"
"His wife."
Silence filled the apartment.
Meredith began crying.
"I didn't know they were going to hurt you."
"You helped them," Rosalind said.
"I know."
"Why?"
"Because I was afraid."
Rosalind thought of Giselle, David, Zachary, and even herself.
Fear had become the currency of the entire story.
Everyone had been making decisions while terrified of what would happen next.
But Robert had made his final decisions knowing fear would come.
Porter stood.
"Where is Leonard now?"
Meredith gave them an address.
But when officers arrived there, the apartment was empty.
The closet had been cleared.
The computer was gone.
Only one thing remained on the kitchen counter.
A photograph.
It showed Rosalind leaving the courthouse.
On the back, someone had written:
You should have taken the offer.
Click here to continue reading: PART 18: Leonard Disappeared Before We Could Reach Him, but the Photograph He Left Behind Proved the Enemy Had Been Inside Our Case From the Beginning
They Thought the Woman Walking Into Court With a Cane Was Too Broken to Remember What They Had Done
Part 17 of 20
