Chapter 5 - The Audit Committee Meeting
The woman was Sylvia Grant, a former accountant who had served on the shipping company's audit committee. She was retired and living outside the state. Brooks arranged an interview after locating her through public records. Sylvia remembered Henry as meticulous and frustrated by the way management treated missing cargo paperwork as a minor inconvenience.
She confirmed that Henry planned to meet her privately after discovering irregular payments. She said they had arranged a meeting at a motel conference room because the company's offices were not secure. When she arrived, Henry wasn't there. A man she didn't know told her the meeting had been canceled. She left and later assumed Henry had decided not to proceed.
"Did you know he'd been reported missing?" Brooks asked.
"Not for months. The company told us he resigned suddenly. I didn't know his family was searching."
The distinction mattered to Mei. She had spent twelve years believing everybody at Henry's employer knew he was missing. In reality, some people may have been told he quit. A company's ability to control information through routine announcements had done almost as much harm as the original disappearance.
Judith's folder contained correspondence showing Henry intended to report the accounting discrepancies to independent authorities. He also wrote a personal note saying he regretted agreeing to an earlier expense classification he no longer believed accurate. He had not been an innocent outsider watching others commit wrongs. He had made a decision he later tried to correct, and that might have increased the pressure against him.
Mei read the note alone. "I should have asked you," she whispered to the empty room. "I should have asked what was keeping you awake."
Then she reminded herself that Henry had been an adult who chose which facts to share. She could regret not knowing without taking responsibility for his secrecy. Lily needed a father who had existed in full, not a mother who spent her life trying to carry every decision he made.
The agents examined records of the motel's old payment system. A company card paid for the room. Security footage no longer existed, but an archived door-lock audit showed an entry shortly after Sylvia said she left. The card used belonged to a maintenance supervisor who had been dismissed after allegations of falsifying inspection records. The supervisor denied ever visiting the motel. The lock data alone could not identify him, but it provided a new timeline to examine.
Marco's role remained contested. He had arranged temporary travel, admitted keeping Henry's secret from the family, and owned a company that benefited from questionable payments. He might have been helping Henry, protecting himself, or both. Mei had called his stained suit proof of what he'd done; now she understood how much more there was to establish.
At the shop a regular customer, an older man who always paid in cash, asked why Mei didn't close and let someone else handle the business. She said the store was where she raised her daughter and paid her employees. "Henry is part of my life," she answered. "He's not the whole of it."
Lily began helping at the counter during her winter break. She learned the tagging system and laughed when Carla taught her how to distinguish red wine from fruit juice by smell. One afternoon she found a suit with a handwritten note inside the pocket: THANK YOU FOR KEEPING THIS PLACE OPEN. No name. Mei folded the note into her apron and wondered how many people had watched her life continue without knowing what it took.
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Then Brooks called with a major development. A retired investigator had preserved a list of vehicles entering an old industrial property used by Henry's employer. On the night of the motel meeting, a rental car linked to Henry's travel arrangements was recorded entering the property. It never appeared in the outbound log.
The property had been demolished years earlier, but its drainage infrastructure remained beneath the redeveloped lot.
