“Paul had problems.”
“What kind?”
“Personal.”
“Such as?”
Charles hesitated.
“I heard he was under stress.”
“From whom?”
“I don't remember.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Did you know he recorded a conversation with Catherine Monroe?”
Charles's fingers stopped moving.
“No.”
“We have an audio file requiring authentication.”
“Then authenticate it.”
“We will.”
Charles leaned back.
“Evelyn, let me give you some advice.”
Jonathan looked almost amused.
Evelyn said:
“Go ahead.”
“You've owned Sterling for three weeks.”
“Correct.”
“I built it over forty years.”
“I know.”
“You're seeing shadows and assuming monsters.”
“No. I'm seeing anomalies and ordering an investigation.”
Charles smiled.
“You're very good with words.”
“Words matter.”
“So does perspective.”
He leaned forward.
“A company this size is messy. People make mistakes. Employees become disgruntled. Managers make unpopular decisions. If you investigate every complaint as though it's a federal case, you'll paralyze the organization.”
Evelyn studied him.
“Is that how you handled complaints?”
“I trusted my executives.”
“Even when employees raised concerns?”
“I trusted the system.”
“And if the system failed?”
Charles's expression hardened.
“You cannot build a company by assuming everyone is corrupt.”
“No.”
Evelyn leaned forward.
“But you can destroy one by assuming powerful people never are.”
The two stared at each other.
Finally, Charles stood.
“I think we're finished.”
Evelyn nodded.
“For tonight.”
He reached for his coat.
Then stopped.
“Be careful, Evelyn.”
Jonathan's expression changed.
Evelyn remained calm.
“About what?”
Charles smiled.
“About humiliating people publicly.”
“I haven't.”
“You suspended Catherine and Richard on your first morning.”
“Paid administrative leave pending investigation.”
“You embarrassed them.”
“They will have a fair process.”
Charles shook his head.
“Power is temporary.”
Evelyn stood.
“I agree.”
Charles looked surprised.
She continued.
“That's why people should be careful how they treat others while they have it.”
He stared at her.
Then left.
Jonathan waited until the door closed.
“Well.”
Thomas Bell exhaled.
“That was unpleasant.”
Evelyn remained standing.
“Did either of you notice his reaction to Blue Harbor?”
“Yes,” Jonathan said.
Thomas nodded.
“But a reaction isn't evidence.”
“Correct.”
Evelyn looked toward the door.
“So we keep investigating.”
The breakthrough came at 2:13 the next morning.
Evelyn was asleep on a sofa in her temporary office when someone knocked.
She opened her eyes.
For a moment, she didn't know where she was.
Then she saw the city lights.
The documents.
The cleaning cloth.
Another knock.
“Come in.”
Caleb Foster entered.
He looked exhausted.
But excited.
“You need to see this.”
Evelyn sat up.
“What time is it?”
“Two thirteen.”
“Wonderful.”
“Sorry.”
“No, you're not.”
“No.”
He opened his laptop.
“We reconstructed part of the deleted Blue Harbor directory.”
Evelyn became fully awake.
“What did you find?”
“Account 47 isn't a bank account.”
“What is it?”
“An internal clearing ledger.”
“Melissa suspected that.”
“Yes, but here's the important part.”
He opened a spreadsheet.
“Money went into Account 47 from vendor payments.”
“Then where?”
“Multiple destinations.”
“Offshore?”
“Some.”
“How much?”
“We're still calculating.”
“Estimate.”
Caleb hesitated.
“Potentially more than sixty million dollars over five years.”
Evelyn stared.
“Sixty?”
“At least based on entries requiring verification.”
“That exceeds the three vendors.”
“Yes.”
“How many vendors?”
“We've identified eleven potentially relevant entities.”
Evelyn stood.
“Eleven?”
“Some may be legitimate. We haven't finished validation.”
“Good. Don't call them fraudulent until we know.”
“Agreed.”
“Where did the funds go?”
Caleb opened another file.
“That's the strange part.”
Several destination codes appeared.
BH-A.
BH-C.
BH-F.
And:
BH-47
“What is BH-47?”
“We found a reference.”
He clicked.
A scanned authorization form appeared.
At the bottom were two signatures.
Catherine Monroe.
Richard Whitmore.
But above them was another field.
EXECUTIVE SPONSOR: C.H.
Evelyn stared.
“Charles Hargrove?”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly isn't enough.”
“I know.”
“Any signature?”
“No.”
“Email?”
“Not yet.”
“What else?”
Caleb scrolled.
Another document appeared.
PROJECT BLUE HARBOR — SPECIAL DISCRETIONARY RESERVE
Authorized users:
C. Monroe.
R. Whitmore.
P. Mercer.
And one coded identifier.
ORION
Evelyn frowned.
“Who is Orion?”
“We don't know.”
“System account?”
“Possibly a user alias.”
“Can we trace it?”
“We're working on it.”
Evelyn looked at the timestamps.
“Who created the Blue Harbor directory?”
Caleb smiled.
“That was the first thing I checked.”
“And?”
“ORION.”
A chill moved through her.
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
“Before Catherine became EVP?”
“Six months before.”
“Before Whitmore became operations director?”
“Almost two years before.”
Evelyn looked at Caleb.
“So Blue Harbor predates both of their current positions.”
“Yes.”
“Who had authority to create a discretionary reserve at that level five years ago?”
Caleb closed the laptop slightly.
“Very few people.”
“Names.”
“Charles Hargrove.”
“Who else?”
“Former CFO Leonard Bishop.”
“Where is Bishop?”
“Retired.”
“Anyone else?”
“Board finance committee could authorize certain structures collectively.”
“Could Paul?”
“No.”
“Catherine?”
“Not at that time.”
“Richard?”
“Definitely not.”
Evelyn paced.
“So either someone with higher authority created it…”
“Or someone obtained credentials that made the system believe they had.”
Evelyn stopped.
“Like the cloned badge.”
“Exactly.”
The door opened.
Jonathan entered, still wearing yesterday's suit.
“Tell her the rest.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“What rest?”
Caleb reopened the laptop.
“We traced ORION activity.”
“To whom?”
“Not a person.”
“What?”
“The account was accessed from multiple executive terminals over five years.”
“How many?”
“Seven.”