The Fall of the Caldwell Dynasty and the Restored Legacy of Whitaker House
“It’s encrypted,” I said when she answered. “I need a password for the drive.”
“Wait,” Dina said. “The ledger had another note next to the code.”
“It was a phrase. ‘The foundation stone.'”
“Try that,” she said. “No spaces, all lowercase.”
I typed the letters quickly: *thefoundationstone*.
I hit enter.
A progress bar appeared, loading a directory of files.
“It’s opening,” I said, my breath catching.
“What do you see?” Dina asked.
A list of folders appeared, organized by year, dating back five years.
I clicked on the folder labeled with the current year.
Inside were dozen of spreadsheets and scanned bank statements.
I opened the primary spreadsheet, titled *Whitaker_Capital_Allocation_2024*.
The columns were color-coded, listing donor names, dates, and amounts.
But there was a second tab at the bottom of the sheet.
It was labeled simply *Reserve_B*.
I clicked the tab.
A completely different set of numbers appeared.
Large lump sums had been transferred out of the main charity account.
The recipient was an entity called *Caldwell Development Partners LLC*.
“Dina,” I said, my voice shaking. “They’ve been doing this for years.”