Chapter 10 - NAOMI'S AUDIT TRAIL
Naomi called me from a parking garage.
“Don’t say my name if anyone is with you.”
I looked around the hotel suite.
Irene was asleep.
“I’m alone.”
“I found the London pickup request.”
My suspicion sharpened.
“You said IT didn't send it.”
“We didn't.”
“Then who did?”
“Someone with administrator access created a temporary service ticket inside our system, then deleted it.”
“Can you recover it?”
“I already did.”
That answer surprised me.
Naomi had spent eleven years protecting our systems.
She knew where deleted records went.
The recovered ticket showed an approval token from Martin Vale’s legal-administration account.
He had access because Vale Legal Group managed corporate data-retention requests.
“Why didn't you tell the board immediately?”
“Because Martin was standing behind me.”
I closed my eyes.
I had doubted her.
Martin was doing more than forging evidence.
He was making me suspicious of anyone who might help me.
Naomi continued.
“The courier wasn't from our contracted service either. It was booked through a private concierge company.”
“Name?”
“Kingston Executive Services.”
“Who paid?”
“Vale Legal Group.”
That was strong.
Not final.
But strong.
She sent the recovered ticket directly to Detective Brooks and our newly hired independent counsel rather than to me.
Smart.
“There's something else,” Naomi said.
The digital certificate on my tablet had been accessed at 11:08 p.m. London time.
That was 5:08 p.m. back home.
Hours before the attack.
Someone had prepared the proxy well in advance.
“Can you identify the device that accessed it?”
“Not yet. The audit record was partially wiped.”
“By Martin?”
“I can't prove that.”
Then she lowered her voice.
“I need you to know he asked me last month whether your certificate could authorize shareholder documents remotely.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“What did you tell him?”
“That technically it could, but you would still need identity verification.”
“Passport.”
“Yes.”
A copy of my passport was stored in Vale Legal Group’s estate files.
Martin had everything he needed.
Except my physical presence.
Which was why London mattered.
I apologized to Naomi for doubting her.
She didn't make me feel better.
“You should doubt everybody right now,” she said. “Including people trying to help you.”
The line went quiet.
Then she added one final detail.
The internal audit on Alder Crest had been scheduled three weeks earlier.
I hadn't ordered it.
Neither had the board.
Irene had not requested it.
Naomi traced the request to my late father’s archived compliance calendar, where an automated review rule had remained dormant for years.
Something in the new refinancing data triggered an alert my father had created before he died.
Charles Wentworth had been worried about Alder Crest long before Irene found those invoices.
May you like
And Martin had spent five years sitting on top of whatever my father knew.
📖 Naomi cleared herself and tied Martin to my stolen identity, but my father’s dormant audit rule suggested this conspiracy began years before my marriage to Irene. 👇
