Sofia Chen had not thought much about Raymond Stone after their brief encounter in the parking lot. The man had been a janitor, polite but unremarkable, and he had disappeared from the company shortly after Derek's assault. She had filed a report about the incident but had not followed up on what happened to him. In her experience, the company rarely held executives accountable for anything, particularly executives like Derek who had family connections.
So when the unusual stock purchases began appearing in the system, Sofia gave them only passing attention at first. It was Derek who had actually brought the matter to her attention, asking her to identify who was acquiring such massive quantities of Sterling Industries shares through shell companies.
"It's suspicious," Derek had said dur
