Chapter 3 - The Ashford County Scandal
Sarah spent the next morning reading archived reports.
Ashford Academy had been expanding a decade earlier.
A new athletic complex.
Budget: $18 million.
Then auditors discovered nearly $3.2 million missing.
Two men handled the project finances.
Daniel Caster.
And Marcus Hayes.
Marcus came from money.
Daniel did not.
When the scandal broke, Marcus claimed Daniel had manipulated invoices and forged approvals.
Daniel disappeared from the industry.
Marcus was cleared internally.
No criminal conviction ever followed.
Sarah stared at that detail.
Cleared internally.
Not by a court.
Not by an independent investigation.
By a board chaired by Marcus’s father.
Then she found something stranger.
Daniel had filed a whistleblower complaint three days before the missing funds were discovered.
The complaint itself was sealed.
Sarah called the attorney listed on the docket.
Retired.
But alive.
His name was Martin Sloan.
When Sarah said “Daniel Caster,” he went silent.
“He’s dead?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Construction accident.”
Another pause.
“That’s what they told you?”
Sarah went cold.
“What does that mean?”
Martin refused to explain over the phone.
They met that afternoon.
He brought an old file.
Daniel had not been accused first.
He had discovered that subcontractor invoices were being inflated.
The difference was being routed through companies connected to Marcus Hayes’s father.
Daniel confronted Marcus.
Marcus initially claimed ignorance.
Then Daniel recorded a meeting.
Martin tapped the folder.
“That recording vanished.”
“Who took it?”
“We never proved it.”
“Did Marcus know?”
“Yes.”
Sarah thought of the patch.
“Why Caster?”
Martin looked confused.
“What?”
“Marcus saw Daniel’s old patch and became terrified.”
Martin’s expression changed.
“Daniel kept it?”
“Yes.”
“Then Marcus probably thinks the other thing survived too.”
“What other thing?”
Martin leaned back.
Daniel had used the patch as a marker.
The word CASTER was sewn onto a small unit insignia from a private rescue team Daniel volunteered with in college.
Inside the patch, he once hid a microSD card during the investigation.
Sarah stared.
“The patch Lily has?”
“Maybe.”
Sarah’s heart raced.
She had never examined it closely.
Martin continued:
“If it’s the same one, Daniel used it to transport evidence after his office was searched.”
“Evidence of what?”
“Payments. Audio. Board emails.”
Sarah whispered:
“Enough to prove Marcus lied?”
Martin answered carefully.
“Enough to prove Daniel believed Marcus knew more than he admitted.”
That distinction mattered.
Sarah returned home.
She inspected the patch.
No obvious compartment.
No card.
Then Lily said:
“Dad used to have two.”
Sarah turned.
“What?”
Lily pointed at the patch.
“He had another one in the garage.”
Sarah felt cold.
May you like
Daniel had left more than one Caster patch.
And if Marcus thought Lily had the one containing evidence, his fear suddenly made sense.
