over forty acres, so a cool ten million? Considering supply and demand, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the corporations wouldn’t eat the cost, take a loss in the short run for a chance to obtain the land for the future.”
“Makes perfect sense. But how do you hide something like that?”
“Guess it depends how involved Lucy, and now Grace, are in the day to day operations.”
“Surely, she’d know.”
“Would you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re essentially Lucy and I’m Mark.”
“You’re the CEO, so you’re more like Lucy than me.”
“Not really. I’m the operations guy. You’re the finance guy. I have a feeling they worked the same. She managed the books. He ran the land. It would be very easy to skim off the top.”
“How? The harvest is the harvest. You can’t hide grapes.”
Asher draws at his chin. “Actually, it’d be really easy. All you’d have to do is divert a truck here and there. Look, the grapes are cut by hand, loaded into bins, placed in the trucks, and brought here for de-stemming, pressing, and fermentation. All he’d have to do is have one truck in ten divert elsewhere.”
“Sneaky bastard. I’m itching to look into his finances. That kind of shit adds up. Maybe that’s why he wants to buy Grace out.”
“He does?”
“She mentioned it, but he offered two million—”
“Two million.” Asher rubs his hand over his face. “That’s outright theft when it’s easily worth five times that. You gotta tell Grace.”
“Not until I know more.” I shift on the couch. “And it’s easy to do this? Where would the grapes go?”
“To a central processing area. Most of the grapes grown around here are grown on vines that are leased on private land. The landowners aren’t involved in any of it. Those grapes get harvested and taken to central processing facilities. He could be pocketing money on the side by collecting on delivery.”
“Smart move. And there’s no way Lucy would know.”
“Unless she had some reason to suspect. She’d need to know how many trucks were filled and compare that to what’s received. Honestly, with her illness and all the medical appointments, he could’ve pulled this off easily.”
“I suppose, but this is all speculation.”
“You’re the numbers guy. Follow the money. Isn’t that what you always say?”
“Right, but I need access to his records and personal statements. Until I have irrefutable proof, this stays between us.”
Asher gestures toward the computer. “Right now, Mark’s an open book.”
“Hmm, not sure of the legality of that.”
“Legality of what?” Cage saunters in, one eye on the screen of his camera and one on where he’s going. He drops into the couch beside me and shows me a picture. “I’ve got a great idea for marketing.”
“We’ve got bigger problems,” Asher says.
“Problems?”
“Yeah.” While I stew about options, Asher fills Cage in on our conversation.
“That’s some shady shit.” Cage pushes off the soft couch and wanders around to the desk. “You need snooping, I’m your guy. What’re we looking for?”
“Technically, I can’t be involved in any of this,” I affirm my position.
“Why not? Isn’t this like vital info for your company to know?” Cage spins around and opens the top drawer of a filing cabinet. He rifles through the folders before slamming the drawer shut and moving on to the next. His body tenses and interminable seconds pass. No need for words; I read my brother’s body language perfectly because it’s the same as mine.
“What did you find?”
Cage rips a folder out of the cabinet and scans a document. “I don’t think there will be any need for Sterling Enterprise's CFO to go digging around in Mark’s computer.”
“Why’s that?” I stand and stride over to my brother.
“Because…” He hands me a contract to sell Atwood Estates.
I flip through the legalese, searching for the important parts. “Twelve million?” My gut clenches.
“Let me see that.” Asher yanks the contract out of my hand. He sits at the desk and pours over it. “Hey, Brody,” he glances up, storm clouds brewing in his gaze, “it’s signed.”
“Signed?” I didn’t get that far before Asher ripped it out of my hands. “How can that be? He doesn’t own the rights.”
“It’s signed by both parties.” Asher points at a signature page and looks up.
“That’s not legally binding. Mark doesn’t own the land. Lucy does.”
“Are we sure about that?” Cage leans against the filing cabinet and crosses his arms.
“I’m pretty sure. Grace told me he’s tried to buy her out.” I search back through my conversations with Grace, wishing I paid better attention. “This is the worst