Chapter 7 - DOUGLAS VALE HAD BEEN USING MY COMPANY AS HIS PRIVATE ATMThe forensic audit went back ten years.
Not because Sophie magically proved every crime.
Because Mara’s records gave investigators where to look.
Douglas had skimmed approximately $3.4 million over eleven years.
Not one giant theft.
Hundreds of small transactions.
Restoration subcontractors.
Emergency-response vendors.
Temporary equipment rentals.
After Mara disappeared, he became more careful.
He also manufactured enough evidence to make her look responsible for the original $940,000 discrepancy.
Digital certificate copied.
Vendor credentials reused.
Internal timestamps manipulated.
Sophisticated.
Not perfect.
Technology improved.
Old logs remained.
Mara’s archive showed the contradictions.
Douglas’s motive for keeping Sophie hidden was not inheritance.
Not paternity scandal.
Evidence continuity.
If Sophie came to me, Mara’s final papers came with her.
Those papers could reopen everything.
That was what he feared.
A child carried a backpack.
May you like
Adults saw documents.
She just wanted her mother.
