Chapter 4 - THE PHOTOGRAPH ON THE DESK
Nathan stared at the photograph for so long that Emily finally said his name.
He looked up.
“My father’s final public schedule shows him at a charity dinner that night.”
“Maybe this was earlier.”
“It could have been.”
“But?”
Nathan tapped the photograph.
“He wasn’t supposed to be at Halcyon at all.”
Emily looked at David’s handwriting again.
He finally listened.
“To what?”
“That’s what I intend to find out.”
Nathan called Celia Price and asked for the oldest surviving Halcyon vendor archive.
He did not ask Martin Keene.
Emily noticed that.
Apparently Nathan did too.
“You’re wondering why I’m going around my CFO.”
“Yes.”
“So am I.”
By late morning, Emily was sitting at a temporary workstation in a records room with Celia.
The old Halcyon system had been retired, but transaction exports had survived through two software migrations.
At first, there was nothing dramatic.
Invoices.
Freight charges.
Packaging suppliers.
Equipment leases.
Then Celia found the transfers.
Two hundred eighty-six thousand dollars split across seven payments.
The destination vendor was called Midlake Business Management.
Emily leaned closer.
“I’ve seen that address.”
Celia looked at her.
“Where?”
“At Calder.”
“You’re sure?”
“The Briarstone invoices used the same suite number.”
Celia searched.
The vendor names were different.
The Chicago address was not.
One answer.
Briarstone had not merely done business with two unrelated companies.
It appeared connected to the same location as the vendor David had supposedly used eight years earlier.
Nathan arrived ten minutes later.
Celia showed him.
His reaction was quiet.
That worried Emily more than anger would have.
“Who approved Midlake?” he asked.
Celia opened the authorization field.
The first transfer showed David Carter’s login.
Emily’s stomach turned.
The second showed David.
The third.
The fourth.
All David.
Then Celia scrolled farther.
Her hand stopped.
“What?”
Nathan asked.
“The last three were posted after Mr. Carter’s termination date.”
Emily stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
Celia checked again.
David’s access had supposedly been disabled July second.
Two transactions bearing his credentials were posted July fifth.
Another on July ninth.
Nathan’s expression hardened.
“So either the termination records are wrong…”
“Or somebody kept using his login,” Emily finished.
For the first time in eight years, the accusation against David had a crack in it.
Emily felt relief.
Then Celia opened the authorization layer beneath the transactions.
And relief vanished.
A senior override appeared on all seven transfers.
CHARLES ARCHER.
Nathan leaned back.
Nobody spoke.
Emily looked at him.
“Your father approved them.”
“It appears that way.”
“So David may not have stolen anything.”
Nathan’s face was unreadable.
“It may also mean my father knew exactly what was happening.”
The possibility hung between them.
Emily had spent one night hoping Charles Archer could prove David innocent.
Now he looked potentially involved.
Celia cleared her throat.
“There’s more.”
The vendor creation request had been entered by a junior finance manager.
Ross Leland.
Emily felt physically cold.
“My Ross?”
Nathan looked at the screen.
“The same Ross Leland who fired you.”
The room suddenly seemed too small.
Emily remembered Ross standing in his office at Calder.
Stop digging.
She had thought he meant the eleven invoices.
What if he had been talking about something much older?
Nathan turned toward Celia.
“Was Ross employed here?”
“At Halcyon for three years. Left after the acquisition integration.”
“And Martin?”
“CFO over the subsidiary network.”
Emily looked at Nathan.
“You have David, Ross, your father, and Martin in the same chain.”
Nathan didn’t deny it.
By afternoon, Martin knew they had pulled the files.
He appeared in Nathan’s office and closed the door behind him.
Emily was there because Nathan had asked her to review vendor descriptions.
Martin looked at her.
“This is inappropriate.”
Nathan remained seated.
“What part?”
“All of it.”
“Be specific.”
“Her.”
Emily stood.
“I can leave.”
“No,” Nathan said.
Martin’s frustration sharpened.
“You are allowing the widow of an accused employee to review records related to her husband.”
“She found the common vendor address.”
“Because she came here predisposed to see conspiracy.”
Emily’s anger flared.
“I came here hoping to make rent.”
Martin flinched.
She continued.
“I didn’t know my husband had ever been accused of anything until you told me.”
Martin rubbed a hand across his face.
For a moment he looked less like a powerful CFO and more like an exhausted man.
“You don’t understand what Halcyon was like then.”
“Then explain it.”
“We were losing money.”
Nathan narrowed his eyes.
“How much?”
Martin ignored him.
“Contracts were collapsing. Banks were nervous. Three thousand employees depended on payroll clearing every other Friday.”
Emily waited.
Martin looked directly at her.
“Your husband found things he didn’t understand.”
“He understood numbers.”
“He didn’t understand what happened when numbers became people.”
Emily’s voice dropped.
“And you did?”
“I understood that missing one payroll could close four facilities.”
Nathan stood.
“What did my father know?”
Martin’s jaw tightened.
“He knew we were in trouble.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is the answer I can give today.”
Nathan stared at him.
Martin turned and left.
At five thirty, Emily packed her folder.
Her first day had answered almost nothing.
Her husband’s credentials had been used after he left.
Nathan’s father had approved the payments.
Ross Leland connected both scandals.
And Martin was afraid of something that had happened eight years earlier.
Emily reached the elevator.
She touched her temporary badge to the reader.
Red light.
She tried again.
Red.
A security officer approached.
“Ms. Carter?”
“Yes.”
He looked uncomfortable.
“I need your badge.”
Emily tightened her grip.
“Why?”
“My system says your access has been suspended.”
Nathan appeared at the far end of the corridor.
“What happened?”
The guard glanced at his screen.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Archer.”
He turned the monitor so Nathan could see.
Emily read the words upside down.
EMPLOYMENT STATUS: SUSPENDED.
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INTERNAL DESIGNATION:
SUBJECT OF INVESTIGATION.
