“Possibly. Clothing, photographs, an old phone, and a sealed metal box. Everything is being documented. We also located disturbed ground outside, so specialists are examining it.”
She did not tell me more, and I did not press. The possibility that Mara had died there filled the room with a silence neither of us could improve.
The metal box contained business records, but most pages were damaged by moisture. A forensic examiner began recovering the ink and comparing the entries with archived banking data. One visible heading named a shell company I recognized from the Mercer Group’s proposed offshore transfer.
“That company shouldn’t still exist,” I said.
Ortiz leaned forward. “Why?”
“Because I found it during an audit four years ago. It was receiving fees without delivering services. I ordered our connection to it terminated.”
“Did Nolan know?”
“He was present when I made the decision.”
Ortiz wrote the date in her notebook. “Then he knew exactly which old system he was trying to reopen.”
