Chapter 9 - The First Countermove

For weeks, Simone had reacted.

To grief.

To David.

To Rebecca.

To bank notices, police questions, forged documents, and threats.

That night, she decided to make the next move herself.

She called the directors of all six rehabilitation clinics she owned.

“Effective immediately,” she said, “we are changing every delivery schedule, every receiving code, and every vendor credential.”

One director asked, “Is there a security breach?”

“Yes.”

“Should we notify patients?”

“Not yet. No patient data was accessed.”

“Who did this?”

Simone looked at Marcus.

“We don’t know.”

It was the legally safest answer.

By midnight, the clinic network was locked down.

By morning, the pharmaceutical distributor had agreed to randomize delivery windows for sixty days.

Then Simone called Atlantic Crown Bank.

She moved her trust assets into a new structure requiring dual authorization from herself and Marcus for any transfer over ten thousand dollars.

“You’re building a wall,” Evelyn said.

“I’m building several.”

David called during lunch.

This time, Simone answered.

“What did you do to the clinic routes?” he demanded.

She glanced at Marcus, who activated the recorder.

“Why do you care?”

“You’re making things worse.”

“For whom?”

“Don’t play games.”

“You promised my clinics to Calder.”

“I told you I never used them.”

“Someone tried yesterday.”

David went silent.

“You didn’t know?” Simone asked.

“No.”

She believed his surprise.

That frightened her more.

“Who has your administrator password?”

“Nobody.”

“Rebecca?”

“No.”

“Grant Mercer?”

A pause.

“Grant had access to my office.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did you pay him fifty thousand dollars?”

David cursed softly.

“How do you know that?”

“Answer me.”

“I paid him a security bonus.”

“For cutting the dock?”

“No!”

The force of his answer echoed through the speaker.

“Then for what?”

David lowered his voice. “To watch Calder’s people.”

Simone frowned.

“You paid Grant to spy on Calder?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I was trying to get out.”

Marcus wrote: ask when.

“When?” Simone said.

“Before the lake.”

“How long before?”

“Two weeks.”

“Then why meet Calder there?”

“To negotiate.”

“You expected me to believe you were secretly fighting the criminal you had promised my medical routes to?”

“I was trying to protect us.”

“You changed my insurance beneficiary.”

“I didn’t know Rebecca changed the final form.”

Simone looked toward Rebecca’s signed statement on the desk.

“She says you instructed her.”

“She’s lying.”

“Why?”

“Because she knows she’s going to prison.”

The possibility hung between them.

Simone asked, “Did you sabotage the dock?”

“No.”

“Did Grant?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did Calder?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did you know someone planned to hurt me?”

David’s answer took too long.

“David.”

“I knew Calder was angry.”

“That wasn’t my question.”

“I knew he might pressure you.”

“How?”

“Threats. Scaring you.”

“Did you tell him where we’d be?”

“No.”

Marcus underlined something on the pad.

Simone asked, “Then how did Calder know to meet you at that property two days before?”

David stopped breathing for a second.

When he spoke again, his voice was careful.

“That photograph doesn’t mean what you think.”

“Then tell me what it means.”

“I can’t over the phone.”

“Why?”

“Because Calder listens.”

Simone almost dismissed it.

Then a new thought struck her.

“Is that why you came to Grandma’s house instead of calling?”

“Yes.”

Marcus shook his head, warning her not to trust him.

David continued, “Simone, Grant wasn’t working for me at the end.”

“What does that mean?”

“I think Calder turned him.”

“Convenient.”

“I have proof.”

“What proof?”

“A recording.”

“Send it.”

“I don’t have it.”

“Then you don’t have proof.”

“It’s in a safe-deposit box.”

“Where?”

David hesitated.

“At Atlantic Crown.”

“Under your name?”

“No.”

“Whose?”

His answer stunned her.

“Yours.”

Lena also recommended that Simone create a separate incident log for the clinics. Every suspicious login, strange delivery request, unfamiliar caller, and altered invoice would be recorded with a time stamp.

“Criminal networks survive on people treating odd events as isolated,” Lena said. “Patterns appear only when someone writes them down.”

Simone sent the instruction to every clinic manager.

Within two days, three minor incidents surfaced: a driver asking for an unscheduled loading entrance, a caller seeking refrigeration capacity, and an email requesting vendor credentials.

None proved a crime.

Together, they showed someone had been probing the system for weeks.

Simone forwarded everything to investigators.

For once, the discovery did not make her feel powerless.

It made her feel prepared.

At Evelyn’s suggestion, Simone also changed something less technical: she stopped taking private calls from unknown numbers. Every unexpected contact went through Marcus or the clinic security team first.

“It feels ridiculous,” she admitted.

“It feels ridiculous because normal life trained you to be polite,” Evelyn replied. “Danger does not deserve manners.”

May you like

[COMPLETED] “GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DRESS! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT AN OLD SEAM...

[COMPLETED] At the Mafia Boss's Engagement Party, I Served His Hungry So...

[COMPLETED] The Mafia Boss’s Fiancée Tried to Dismiss His Father’s Loyal...

That afternoon an unknown caller left no message and tried again four times. Lena traced the number to a prepaid phone purchased near one of Calder’s warehouses.

The call proved nothing by itself, but it confirmed Simone’s new rule was not paranoia. It was procedure.