Chapter 6 - The Briefcase
Inside the briefcase were no stacks of cash.
There were ballots.
Hundreds of them.
Each supposedly came from a hotel employee, retired worker or survivor-benefit recipient.
Every ballot approved dissolving the relief fund.
The assets would transfer into a private family foundation controlled by Victoria.
Afterward, Mason’s security company would purchase the foundation’s hotel properties at a reduced price.
Victoria would receive twenty percent.
Mason would receive ten.
The remaining interest belonged to an unnamed investor.
Thomas lifted one ballot.
His own signature appeared at the bottom.
“I never voted.”
Mrs. Lewis, the retired housekeeping director, found hers too.
She had supposedly approved losing her medical coverage.
A cook’s widow had voted three months after her death.
An injured porter’s ballot claimed he rejected his own housing benefit.
The fraud depended on insulting logic.
Poor workers would not understand investments.
Retired employees would lose paperwork.
Widows would be too tired to challenge legal notices.
Those assumptions became signatures.
Mason looked toward the guests.
“The fund was financially unsustainable.”
Thomas answered:
“Only after you removed ninety-six million dollars.”
Victoria insisted the restructuring protected long-term value.
Richard opened the purchase agreement.
“The buyers receive the buildings.”
“The workers receive nothing.”
“They received benefits for years.”
Thomas looked at him.
“They received part of what they paid for.”
The fund charter contained an emergency clause.
If anyone forged beneficiary votes, the dissolution failed automatically.
Temporary authority transferred to an elected worker-and-survivor council.
The election began in the ballroom.
Employees joined from kitchens, loading docks, security desks and retirement apartments.
A housekeeper took the first seat.
A retired guard took the second.
A cook’s widow took the third.
A disabled maintenance worker took the fourth.
Thomas was nominated for the fifth.
He declined.
“I brought the records.”
“They should control them.”
He nominated the night housekeeper Mason had fired.
She won overwhelmingly.
The council froze the fraudulent sale.
Mason lost financial authority.
Victoria was suspended as foundation chair.
Then Atlas tapped the open briefcase again.
Not three times.
Four.
May you like
Thomas’s expression changed.
“Four means a concealed compartment.”
