Chapter 12 - The Man in the Gray Sedan
Rachel did not tell Maya about the threatening message immediately.
She wanted facts first.
That decision lasted exactly four hours.
At 11:07 a.m., Maya called from Ann Arbor.
“Mom, why is there a man taking pictures of my apartment?”
Rachel stood so quickly that her chair rolled backward into the clinic wall.
“What?”
“I noticed him when I left for class. Gray sedan, Illinois plates. He was parked across the street. When I came back for my laptop, he was still here.”
Rachel’s pulse exploded.
“Maya, stay inside.”
“Mom—”
“Lock the door. Do not go downstairs.”
Rachel was already moving.
She waved Daniel toward her office and mouthed Maya.
His expression immediately sharpened.
Rachel switched to speaker.
“Maya, tell me exactly what you saw.”
“The guy has been sitting in the car for at least forty minutes. He has a camera.”
“Did he approach you?”
“No.”
“Did he say anything?”
“No.”
Daniel quietly wrote something on Rachel’s notepad.
CALL CAMPUS POLICE.
Rachel nodded.
“Maya, campus police are coming. Stay on the phone with me.”
Maya went silent.
Then her voice changed.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“The car is leaving.”
“Can you see the plate?”
Maya stepped carefully toward her window.
“Michigan... no, wait. Illinois. Seven... K... I can’t see the rest.”
Rachel heard an engine accelerate through the phone.
Then silence.
Campus police arrived six minutes later.
By noon, Sarah had contacted federal investigators working the Aura Ventures case.
At one thirty, an FBI agent named Rebecca Sloan arrived at Rachel’s clinic.
Sloan was compact, direct, and unimpressed by corporate intimidation.
She listened to Rachel describe Grant’s call without interrupting.
When Rachel finished, Sloan folded her hands.
“Grant Ward returned to the United States four days ago.”
Rachel stared at her.
“You knew?”
“We knew he entered through Toronto using a valid U.S. passport. We did not have sufficient grounds to arrest him.”
“What about Aura Ventures?”
“He was careful. Elise and Victor signed most of the visible transfers.”
Sarah leaned forward.
“So Grant lets everyone else touch the money.”
“That appears to be his pattern.”
Sloan placed a photograph on the table.
Grant Ward was fifty, broad-shouldered, silver-haired, and expensive-looking.
He did not resemble Elise much except around the eyes.
The same confidence.
The same assumption that everyone else was less intelligent.
“Grant specializes in distressed-asset acquisitions,” Sloan explained. “He buys companies already in trouble, creates additional pressure, then acquires valuable assets cheaply.”
Rachel looked at the photograph.
“He created this claim because he thinks Alden Enterprises is vulnerable.”
“Yes.”
Arthur, attending in person now, crossed his arms.
“But the land is Rachel’s.”
“Then prove it quickly,” Sloan said. “Because Grant doesn’t need to win permanently. He only needs uncertainty.”
That sentence stayed with Rachel.
Uncertainty.
Victor had used uncertainty against her for years.
He had made her question whether she was attractive enough, grateful enough, accommodating enough.
Grant was doing the corporate version of the same thing.
He did not need the land.
He needed everyone to become afraid that Rachel might lose it.
At four that afternoon, the Alden Enterprises board convened.
Two directors were already nervous.
One wanted to suspend the new distribution expansion.
Another suggested negotiating with Grant.
Rachel listened quietly.
Then Marcus Sterling slammed his palm against the table.
“Absolutely not.”
The seventy-year-old investor glared at the directors.
“The last time this company panicked, Victor nearly drove it into federal receivership. We are not rewarding extortion because someone found an old piece of paper.”
Rachel appreciated Marcus’s support.
But she noticed something else.
At the far end of the table, board member Leonard Pike kept looking at his phone.
Pike had been with Alden Enterprises for nine years. He rarely spoke during crisis meetings. He specialized in institutional finance and maintained relationships with several large private lenders.
When Rachel mentioned Grant Ward’s twenty-five-million-dollar demand, Pike’s hand froze.
Only for a second.
But Rachel saw it.
After the meeting, Arthur caught up with her beside the elevators.
“You saw Pike.”
“Yes.”
“You think he knows something?”
“I think he reacted before I finished saying Grant’s name.”
Arthur exhaled.
“I’ll review his corporate communications.”
“Quietly.”
The elevator doors opened.
Daniel was waiting in the lobby downstairs.
Rachel blinked.
“What are you doing here?”
“Your receptionist told me you skipped lunch.”
He handed her a sandwich in a brown paper bag.
Rachel almost laughed.
“You drove downtown because I missed lunch?”
“No.”
Daniel held up his keys.
“I drove downtown because Sarah called and told me you planned to drive to Ann Arbor tonight by yourself after receiving a threatening phone call.”
Rachel looked at Sarah, who was standing ten feet away pretending to inspect a painting.
“Traitor.”
Sarah smiled sweetly.
Daniel opened the passenger door of his SUV.
“You can be furious on the highway.”
Three hours later, they reached Maya’s apartment.
Maya ran outside and wrapped her arms around Rachel.
For several seconds, Rachel held her without speaking.
Then Maya whispered, “I’m okay.”
“I know.”
Rachel pulled back.
“But somebody wanted me to believe you weren’t.”
Inside the apartment, Agent Sloan called.
“We found the gray sedan.”
Rachel put the phone on speaker.
“Who owns it?”
“A private investigation company in Chicago.”
“Who hired them?”
“We’re working on that.”
Rachel looked at Maya.
Sloan continued.
“There’s something else. One of our financial analysts found a payment made to that same investigative company yesterday.”
“From Grant?”
“No.”
A pause.
“The payment came from an account controlled by an Alden Enterprises board member.”
Rachel’s eyes narrowed.
“Which one?”
“Leonard Pike.”
Maya slowly sat down.
Daniel stopped moving.
Rachel stared at the dark window.
May you like
The attack was no longer outside her company.
Grant Ward already had someone inside.
