I called Rebecca back before I even pulled out of the terminal.
“There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“This morning. Before you got there. Victor had something under his arm.”
“A notebook?”
“No. Bigger. A leather portfolio.”
“Did you see what was inside?”
“No.”
“Did he leave the office with it?”
“I don’t know.”
Rebecca asked me to wait.
For nearly a minute, I listened to distant office sounds on her end.
Then she returned.
“Rachel is checking the security cameras.”
“You have cameras inside the office?”
“Not inside. Hallway and exits.”
I looked at my route clock.
“I’m supposed to leave for Cleveland.”
“Go. We don’t need you here.”
“Call me if—”
“We will.”
I stopped myself.
This was not my investigation.
That was harder to accept than I expected.
For two weeks, everything Victor had done affected my paycheck directly. Now that people with authority were finally looking, my role had become simple.
Drive the truck.
Answer questions.
Preserve evidence.
Let someone else open the boxes.
I pulled onto the highway.
The Cleveland route was routine.
Dry pavement.
Light traffic.
A sealed trailer of packaged medical equipment.
Normally I liked nights like that. The road gave my mind something simple to do.
That night, the simplicity did not help.
I kept replaying the morning.
Victor outside the office.
The portfolio.
His warning that I did not understand what happened when “people like Julian” started making decisions.
At the time, I thought he was angry.
Now I wondered whether he had already removed something.
My phone rang through the hands-free system nearly an hour north of the terminal.
Sarah.
“You sound awake,” she said.
“I am driving a forty-ton vehicle.”
“That was not an answer.”
“I’m awake.”
“Good.”
I told her about the notebook.
She was quiet.
“You remembered the portfolio after Elliot mentioned it?”
“Yeah.”
“That doesn’t mean the notebook was inside.”
“I know.”
“But you think it was.”
“I think Victor doesn’t carry leather portfolios unless somebody from corporate is coming.”
“How often does corporate come?”
“Almost never.”
She made a small sound.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Sarah.”
“You’re going to hate this.”
“Probably.”
“You need to write down exactly when you saw the portfolio.”
I smiled despite myself.
“I already did.”
“Look at you.”
“You’ve trained me.”
“Good.”
The next morning, Rebecca called while I was unloading.
“We found the video.”
I stepped away from the dock noise.
“What video?”
“Hallway camera.”
My stomach tightened.
“What does it show?”
“At eight forty-six yesterday morning, Victor entered his office carrying a black notebook and a brown leather portfolio.”
“So Elliot was right.”
“Yes.”
“At nine fourteen, he left the office with only the portfolio.”
I tried to follow.
“The notebook stayed inside?”
“We believed so.”
“Believed?”
Rebecca took a breath.
“At nine nineteen, before you arrived, Victor reentered the office.”
“And?”
“When he came back out, the portfolio was visibly thicker.”
I closed my eyes.
“You think he put it inside.”
“I think the video supports that possibility.”
“Did he take the portfolio when he left on administrative leave?”
“No.”
That confused me.
“Then where did it go?”
“That is the question.”
I could hear keyboard clicks.
“Security footage shows him carrying the portfolio toward the break room at nine twenty-three.”
“Before my meeting.”
“Yes.”
“The break room doesn’t have cameras inside.”
“No.”
“Did he come back with it?”
“No.”
“What happened to it?”
“We are reviewing other angles.”
I pictured the terminal.
The break room had two doors.
One led to the hallway.
The other opened onto a small loading area used by vending machine suppliers and maintenance crews.
“Rebecca.”
“Yes?”
“There’s an exterior door in that break room.”
“We know.”
My chest tightened.
“You think he took it outside.”
“We know someone opened that door at nine twenty-six.”
“Who?”
“The camera angle does not show the person clearly.”
I leaned against the warehouse wall.
“Vehicle?”
“We are checking parking footage now.”
I wanted to ask a dozen questions.
Rebecca stopped me.
“Marcus, I need you to let us handle this.”
“I am.”
“Good.”
Her voice softened slightly.
“You did the right thing by remembering it.”
After the call, I finished the unload.
When I returned to the cab, an email waited from Apex HR.
Mandatory witness interview scheduled.
The time was for the following morning.
Sarah came with me to the terminal parking lot, though she stayed in the car.
“I’m not going inside,” she said.
“I know.”
“But I want to be close enough that if somebody tries nonsense, you can call.”
“What kind of nonsense?”
“I don’t know. Corporate nonsense.”
I leaned through the open car window.
“You’ve watched too many legal dramas.”
“You married a man whose boss allegedly forged his signature.”
“Fair point.”
Rebecca conducted the interview with Martin present.
This time they recorded audio.
She began with the portfolio.
“Describe it.”
“Brown leather. Maybe twelve inches wide. Zippered.”
“Did you see Victor open it?”
“No.”
“Did you see him put anything inside?”
“No.”
“Did you see him carry it when he left the office later?”
“No.”
That answer bothered me.
“What happened to it?” I asked.
Rebecca hesitated.
“We recovered it.”
My eyebrows lifted.
“Where?”
“The maintenance shed behind the terminal.”
I stared at her.
“That’s outside the fenced parking area.”
“Yes.”
“How did it get there?”
“We have video of Victor leaving the break-room exterior door.”
“So you know it was him.”
“We have sufficient video to establish that he exited carrying the portfolio.”
“What was inside?”
Rebecca glanced at Martin.
Then opened a folder.
“The notebook.”
I felt a strange chill.
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
“Was Elliot right?”
“We are still analyzing it.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the notebook contains driver names, dates, abbreviations, route notes and symbols that require context.”
“Does my name appear?”
Rebecca studied me.
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
“Several.”
I looked down at the table.
“What does it say?”
“We cannot interpret everything yet.”
“Read one.”
Martin shifted slightly.
Rebecca considered my request.
Finally she turned a page toward herself.
“March eighteenth. Your name. Trailer 5521. A notation beside it.”
“The air leak.”
“That corresponds with the maintenance complaint you filed.”
“What notation?”
She looked up.
“‘Reduce premium routes two weeks.’”
I stopped breathing for a moment.
Sarah had been right.
The drop in hours had not been coincidence.
It had been deliberate.
Rebecca continued.
“There are similar entries for Elliot Briggs, Danielle Harper and Troy Jenkins.”
“How far back does it go?”
“Nearly four years.”
I stared at the tabletop.
Four years.
Long enough for people to lose thousands of dollars.
Long enough for some to leave.
“How many drivers?”
“We are still counting.”
“More than thirty-seven?”
“Yes.”
That answer hurt in a way I had not expected.
Thirty-seven had already sounded enormous.
More meant the problem had stretched beyond the box in Victor’s office.
Martin leaned forward.
“Marcus, did Victor ever tell you that safety complaints would affect premium assignments?”
“No.”
“Did he ever tell you certain drivers were placed on restricted scheduling?”
“No.”
“Did you know such a category existed?”
“No.”
Martin wrote something down.
Rebecca asked, “Do you recall any driver quitting after complaining about assignments?”
I thought.
Names came slowly.
Danny Lopez.
Priya Carter.
Leon Wright.
People whose empty lockers I had barely noticed after they left.
“Several.”
“Why did you think they left?”
“Money. Better jobs. Normal stuff.”
“Did any of them say hours had been reduced?”
“Danny did.”
“What did he say exactly?”
I searched my memory.
“He said Victor was starving him out.”
Martin stopped writing.
“When?”
“Maybe two years ago.”
“Did you believe him?”
I hated my answer before I gave it.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Danny was angry about everything.”
The room went quiet.
I looked at Rebecca.
“Victor always said Danny was unreliable.”
Rebecca made a note.
“That may be relevant.”
The interview continued for nearly three hours.
When it ended, I walked out feeling heavier than when I entered.
Sarah was still in the car.
She had bought coffee and was reading on her phone.
One look at my face and she set the phone down.
“What?”
“They found the notebook.”
Her eyes widened.
“What was in it?”
I opened the passenger door and sat.
“My name.”
She closed her eyes.
I told her the rest.
Four years.
Premium routes reduced.
Names matched to safety complaints.
Her anger was quieter than mine.
“That cost us money.”
“I know.”
“No, Marcus.”
She looked directly at me.
“That cost us choices.”
I understood what she meant.
The postponed braces.
The vacations we never took.
The repairs we delayed.
The nights I accepted extra work because I thought the slow weeks were normal.
“Maybe we never know exactly how much.”
“We should.”
I looked through the windshield.
“Sarah.”
“What?”
“This isn’t about getting rich.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
“I just don’t want this turning into revenge.”
Her face softened.
“It already turned into consequences the moment he wrote those names down.”
I had no answer.
My phone buzzed.
A message from Elliot.
COMPLIANCE JUST CALLED ME.
I typed back.
Tell them everything.
His reply came almost instantly.
I PLAN TO.
That afternoon, Apex sent a company-wide notice to terminal employees.
Victor Vance would remain on leave pending an internal investigation.
Safety complaints were to be reported directly through a temporary regional hotline.
Scheduling decisions would receive dual approval until further notice.
The notice did not mention forged signatures.
It did not mention the notebook.
It did not mention names.
But people talked.
By evening, everybody knew something had been found.
Rumors moved faster than freight.
Victor had stolen money.
Victor had altered logs.
Victor had been arrested.
None of those were true.
At least not yet.
I refused to join the speculation.
When drivers asked me what happened, I gave the same answer.
“Talk to compliance.”
Some respected that.
Others did not.
One younger driver, Caleb, cornered me near the vending machines.
“You got him fired.”
“He isn’t fired.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t.”
Caleb lowered his voice.
“Victor gave me my first good route.”
“That doesn’t mean he treated everyone fairly.”
“He was hard on people who deserved it.”
I looked at him.
“You sure about that?”
He hesitated.
“I never had a problem with him.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
His expression hardened.
“You got lucky because the guy you rescued had money.”
That sentence caught me.
I heard something in it I had already thought myself.
“If Julian had been broke,” Caleb continued, “none of this would’ve happened.”
He walked away before I answered.
I stood there longer than I meant to.
Because he was right about one thing.
If Julian had been an ordinary stranger with no connection to Apex, Victor’s warning might still be sitting in my file.
The notebook might still be hidden.
The list might still be used.
That did not make the investigation wrong.
It made the silence before it worse.
That night, Rachel called.
“I wanted you to hear this before the general announcement.”
“What?”
“Corporate counsel is taking over part of the investigation.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Because we found evidence that scheduling changes may have affected wages and employment decisions across multiple years.”
“What does that mean for Victor?”
“It means nothing has been concluded yet.”
“For the drivers?”
“We are beginning a compensation review.”
I looked across the kitchen at Sarah.
She could tell from my face that something had changed.
Rachel continued.
“We may need several weeks of payroll and route records.”
“Okay.”
“One more thing.”
Her tone shifted.
“Someone attempted to access the suspended dispatch account this afternoon.”
I straightened.
“Victor?”
“We don’t know.”
“From where?”
“A remote login.”
“Did they get in?”
“No.”
“Could it have been automatic?”
“IT says the password was entered manually.”
I looked at Sarah again.
“Who else knows his password?”
“That is exactly what we intend to find out.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 7: The Investigation Reached Beyond Victor When Someone Tried to Enter His Disabled Account and Delete Records Nobody Had Mentioned Publicly
The Storm Put a Family in My Path, and My Dispatcher Made It Clear Exactly What Stopping Would Cost Me
Part 6 of 35
