Chapter 6 - Naomi Pierce
Naomi’s phone went straight to voicemail.
Her company devices were offline.
Her home security system showed no activity.
Mara’s team checked airport departures.
Victor and Naomi had booked separate flights to Zurich.
Neither boarded.
Their passports had not been scanned.
“They wanted us looking at the airport.”
Cassidy said.
Mara nodded.
“Likely.”
Daniel continued tracing accounts.
Naomi had not received suspicious Halcyon payments.
That bothered Cassidy more.
If Naomi was involved, she had been paid another way.
Mara opened personnel records.
Naomi’s father.
Arthur Pierce.
Former trust attorney.
Retired ten years earlier.
Cassidy recognized the name.
He had helped administer Jonathan Mercer’s original estate.
Cassidy’s grandfather.
She stood.
“Naomi never told me.”
Mara looked surprised.
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
Cassidy had hired Naomi through an executive placement firm.
Seven years earlier.
Before Cassidy publicly assumed Halcyon control.
Before she married Brendan.
That meant Naomi entered Cassidy’s life before the Holloways.
Mara said.
“This may go back farther.”
Cassidy felt cold.
Then Margaret laughed quietly from across the room.
Everyone turned.
“You finally understand.”
Cassidy stared at her.
“Understand what?”
Margaret looked almost satisfied.
“Your grandfather trusted the Pierce family until he discovered they were stealing from him.”
Mara stepped forward.
“How do you know that?”
Margaret’s expression changed.
She realized she had said too much.
Cassidy walked toward her.
“How do you know anything about my grandfather?”
Margaret looked at Brendan.
Then away.
Cassidy understood.
The Holloway connection did not begin with Brendan either.
“Your husband knew Jonathan Mercer.”
Margaret said nothing.
Cassidy’s pulse climbed.
“Answer me.”
Finally Margaret said.
“My husband worked for him.”
Brendan stared.
“Dad?”
“Yes.”
Thomas Holloway had been a regional executive at Mercer Industrial before founding Holloway Logistics.
Cassidy had never known.
Margaret continued reluctantly.
“He left after a dispute.”
“What dispute?”
“Ownership.”
Cassidy laughed bitterly.
Of course.
It was always ownership.
Jonathan Mercer accused Thomas Holloway and Arthur Pierce of diverting assets into private companies.
Thomas denied it.
Pierce settled quietly.
Thomas left and built Holloway Logistics using capital nobody could fully trace.
Cassidy stared at Brendan.
His father’s company may have been built with money stolen from her grandfather.
Brendan looked sick.
Margaret snapped.
“Your grandfather destroyed Thomas’s reputation.”
Cassidy answered.
“Did Thomas steal from him?”
Margaret did not respond.
That was answer enough.
Then Mara’s analyst called.
Naomi’s location had finally surfaced.
Not Switzerland.
Not the airport.
May you like
She was inside a Halcyon-owned records warehouse in Oakland.
And the building’s fire alarm had just activated.
