Chapter 5 - The Company That Owned Nothing
West Briar Renovations had no public office.
No employee directory.
No active construction license in Florida.
Its registered address was a mailbox inside a shipping store outside Tampa.
Yet over three years it had billed Vale Resorts $8.4 million.
Electrical upgrades.
Security installations.
Pool renovations.
Emergency structural work.
Cassandro stared at the invoices inside the conference room at Vale headquarters.
His CFO, Martin Hale, looked sick.
“How did this get through us?”
Cassandro’s voice was quiet.
“That’s what I want to know.”
Martin pulled up the approval chain.
Each payment contained legitimate internal signatures.
Some belonged to Martin.
Some belonged to Cassandro.
And dozens belonged to Vivienne.
Cassandro enlarged one of his signatures.
“I never signed this.”
Martin looked at him.
“It’s digital.”
“With my authorization token?”
“Yes.”
Cassandro leaned back.
Damian had supervised security upgrades in Cassandro’s executive office the previous year.
Including the biometric access system.
Detective Brooks joined them.
“West Briar is owned by another LLC.”
“Which one?”
“Garrison Development.”
Cassandro had never heard of it.
“Who owns Garrison?”
“We’re working through the filings.”
Martin suddenly stopped scrolling.
“Cassandro.”
He opened an old payment.
West Briar had purchased a property eighteen months earlier.
A secluded estate outside Ocala.
Forty acres.
Main house.
Guest cottages.
Private road.
The listing photographs showed a deep red two-story house surrounded by live oaks.
Cassandro stood.
“Red house.”
Brooks raised a hand.
“Slow down.”
“My daughter said red house.”
“She’s two.”
“And the recording says Elena was being taken somewhere.”
“That still doesn’t give us legal authority to storm a property.”
Cassandro’s jaw tightened.
Brooks continued.
“I believe you. But I need something tying the Knoxes to that location.”
Cassandro turned toward Martin.
“Find it.”
They searched payment records for hours.
At 7:42 a.m., Martin found a charge.
Damian’s security company had billed Vale Resorts for “temporary equipment storage” at the Ocala property.
Three weeks after Elena disappeared.
Brooks immediately called a prosecutor.
Cassandro walked to the window.
Below him, downtown traffic moved like nothing in his life had changed.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A distorted voice said:
“Stop digging.”
Cassandro said nothing.
“You want your daughter to keep breathing?”
The call ended.
Brooks had heard enough.
“Give me the phone.”
Cassandro handed it over.
His fear changed shape.
Until now, he had been searching for Elena.
Now someone was threatening Audrey.
And only a small circle of people knew investigators were looking at West Briar.
Cassandro turned to Martin.
“Who accessed those records this morning?”
Martin checked.
His face went pale.
“Vivienne’s assistant.”
May you like
Vivienne had been taken into custody after the pool assault.
But someone inside Cassandro’s company was still helping her.
