It stopped a few inches from my hands.

I didn’t touch it yet.

“What is in there?” I asked.

“Every cash payment he took for the renovation projects,” she said. “The ones he didn’t report to the tax office. The ones he didn’t put into the company accounts.”

“Why would he write them down?” I asked.

“Because of his father,” Sophia said.

I leaned in slightly. “Richard?”

“Richard insisted on it,” she said. “Richard told him that if he didn’t keep a physical record of the cash, he would lose track of who owed him what. He said computer files leave a digital footprint that the forensic accountants can find in a second.”

“So they kept a paper trail instead,” I said.

“Yes,” Sophia said. “Richard was the one who managed the cash. He took the money from the safe and put it into safe deposit boxes at three different banks. He used his old connections from the banking industry to keep things quiet.”

This was the link we needed.

We knew Daniel was hiding assets, but we hadn’t been able to tie Richard directly to the concealment.