Chapter 8 - The Strategy Session
Within fifteen minutes, Victoria had let herself in using her spare key, dropping her briefcase onto the kitchen island and tossing a set of encrypted flash drives onto the marble counter.
"What did you find?" Victoria asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee from the pot Clara had brewing.
Clara turned her phone around, sliding the encrypted ledger and the CEO’s signature file across the counter.
Victoria scrolled through the documents, her eyes narrowing with every page. The cool, detached corporate demeanor she usually projected vanished, replaced by a cold, murderous fury.
"Arthur Sterling," Victoria whispered, her voice dangerously low. "The untouchable golden boy of the Chicago pharmaceutical scene. He sits on the mayor’s economic advisory board."
"He didn't just approve Victor's promotion," Clara said, rocking Lily gently in her arms as the baby dozed peacefully against her shoulder. "He engineered the entire financial shortfall at the warehouse. Victor was skimming from the top, but Sterling was using the warehouse inventory logs to mask illegal clinical trial shipments to overseas buyers."
"And when the federal auditors came knocking, Sterling told Victor how to clear his debts: get rid of the inventory supervisor who managed the digital override codes," Victoria finished, her fists clenching so hard her knuckles turned white. "Sterling didn't just want you dead for insurance money, Clara. He wanted you buried where digital forensics couldn't reach your hard drives."
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"If we go to the police with this right now, Sterling’s legal team will bury it before it hits the desk of an honest DA," Clara said firmly. "His political connections in this city run deeper than the foundations of this building."
"Then we don't go to the police," Victoria said, a dark, brilliant smile spreading across her face. "We set a trap."
