Stefania scowled, but Hailey caught a glimmer of something indecipherable in her gaze. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She stalked away without giving Hailey a chance to respond.
Hailey stared after her. What was that supposed to mean? Office gossip was one thing, but it almost sounded like Stefania knew more about Eukaria’s accounts than she should. Frank could have consulted with her, she supposed. Such collaboration wouldn’t be unheard of in this office, but in the months she’d worked with Frank, Hailey had gotten the impression that he preferred to handle his clients all by himself. He readily gave help, but he never requested it.
She turned back to her computer. She was confident funds were being diverted, but she needed to make sure she could prove it—and figure out what else was going on. Acting prematurely could cause a lot of issues and damage her credibility with Mr. Luque. Worse, it could tip off the guilty party before a proper investigation could be made. No, she needed to go back and thoroughly evaluate and document everything that looked problematic.
By the time she was ready to call it a night, it was well past closing, and she was once again alone in the office. But she was glad she’d given herself the extra time. Besides the missing funds, there were a handful of high-dollar subscriptions and frequent outlandish payments and purchases that could be legitimate butchecked all the boxes for a much bigger potential issue. Things like weekly janitorial services for buildings supposedly used only for storage. Expensive catered lunches from restaurants with no internet presence.
Her mind reeled. Had she just uncovered a money laundering operation?
22
Panic threatened to consume me.Things were spiraling out of control. Jacob was in jail, and Hailey was figuring things out.
The thought of running was tempting. I had enough money to get away—far away. I wouldn’t be living comfortably on the remainder, but I’d be living. Until he found me.
Pulling in a shaky breath, I moved to the refrigerator and pulled out a sparkling water. The click-hiss when I popped the tab was a hint of normalcy. I leaned against the counter and lifted the ice-cold beverage to my lips.
While I drank, my mind continued to swirl. Running wasn’t my only option. I could still fix this. I just had to keep my head.
I’d wanted to resolve this issue without resorting to violence. Not that I had an aversion to violence. I had served in my country’s military before coming here, and I’d learned to distance myself from the guilt of taking a life. But that didn’t change the fact that violence was messy and would call more attention to this situation than I desired.
Instead, I’d given Hailey several chances to relocate—four, if you counted siccing that hothead on her—but she hadn’t even left the county. Even the computer stunt had only slowed her down a couple of days. I’d hoped to do more damage, but thatfool security guard had the police on their way before we knocked him out. I’d barely had time to do anything before we had to flee the building.
Even so, the breach should have set her back substantially and earned her a reprimand or worse. No such luck. But at least my backdoor access to her email account hadn’t been discovered. Though she’d switched computers, I could still see her communication.
The email she’d just sent let me know my time was quickly running out. If I valued my life, I needed to act. No more warnings, no more chances.
I had to get rid of Hailey before she exposed me. I needed hergone.
Today.
23
Five minutes afterHailey texted that she was ready, Peter pulled his car as close to the lobby doors as he could and scanned the area. He’d already swung through the side parking lot to get an idea of who else might be in the building with Hailey—and to make sure no one suspicious was lurking just out of sight of the street. Nothing had set off his internal alarms, so he’d returned to the front lot to pick her up.
His heart rate slowed when Hailey came into view. She was okay. He’d told himself she was, but apparently he’d needed to see it to believe it.
He watched her stride toward him. She pulled off the professional look well. But he’d seen her in casual clothing too, and he was convinced she’d look gorgeous no matter what she wore.
She offered him a smile as she removed her suit jacket and climbed inside, but she seemed distracted. Had he misjudged the situation?
“Did something happen?” He did a quick scan of her person. Other than the lingering bruises from Monday, she appeared unharmed. She didn’t answer immediately, and his apprehension ticked upward. “Hailey?”
She turned her cloudy gaze on him, blinked, then seemed tocome to a decision. “I think I may have discovered something big,” she said slowly. She nodded toward the road. “Can we stop by my place before heading to my parents’ so I can pick something up? I’ll tell you what I can on the way. I can’t name names, but I ... need to talk to somebody.”
He complied. As they drove, she shared her suspicions about a possible money laundering scheme and embezzlement going on with one of her clients’ accounts. His gut clenched.
“How much money are you talking?”
Her head dropped against the seat back, and she covered her eyes. “All together? There’s a possibility that some of those payments are legitimate, but if I’m right about everything, I think somewhere between four and five hundred thousand dollars is being diverted annually. Possibly more.”
His jaw went slack. Had he heard her correctly? “Did you say five hundred grand?”
“Yes.” The word was more groan than enunciation.
He let her words settle, but his head was spinning. That was a lot of cash. Enough to warrant the threats she’d received or even to kill for? Probably. People had been murdered for far less. As they neared her street, he stole a glance at her before sharing what was on his mind. “Could this be what those warnings have been about? If someone knew you were on to them, that would be plenty of motive to get rid of you.”
She let her arm drop and turned her head to look at him. “I can’t say the thought hasn’t crossed my mind. It makes more sense than thinking this is some sort of late revenge for what my husband did. But I haven’t told anyone about this. Until today, I wasn’t even sure why the records weren’t lining up—I thought maybe my former coworker had been slipping. I don’t know how anyone would have discovered I had suspicions.”
