Page 20 of Ironwood Ranch Cowboys

“These consulting charges,” she says, tone even, controlled. “They repeat and Sherry didn’t know who they were from.”

“Jake Dorsey deals with that,” I shoot back. “He’s the op manager.”

She cocks her head to one side. “And you don’t know anything about it?”

I don’t answer immediately.

Not because I don’t have one, but because the question itself is… imprecise, and I don’t respond to imprecision without correcting it first.

“I know everything that passes through my system,” I say, evenly. “That doesn’t mean I personally approve every operational expense.”

Her eyes don’t leave my face.

She’s not intimidated.

Also noted.

“But you didn’t flag these,” she says, tapping the page once. “Which means either they’re normal or they’re designed to look normal.”

I adjust my watch, the motion measured. “You’ve been here less than a week.”

“And I already think it looks… off. But if it makes sense to you, then…”

“Walk me through your conclusion,” I interject.

Her thumb taps once against the camera again before she looks back down at the page.

“They’re irregular in spacing but consistent in behavior,” she says. “Amounts fall within a range that doesn’t trigger alerts. Timing aligns with high-volume periods, which increases noise in the system. They don’t stand out unless you’re specifically looking for repetition across context, not just entries.” She slides another sheet forward. “I cross-referenced them against shipment logs and payroll spikes. They cluster.”

I follow the data without needing to read every number. She’s not guessing, she’s mapping. “And the vendor?”

“Exists,” she says again, but this time there’s more weight behind it. “Bare minimum documentation. Enough to pass a surface check. Not enough to explain the frequency of use.”

I pick up the paper, scanning it myself, because I don’t trust conclusions I haven’t verified personally.

The structure’s sound.

Annoyingly so.

“And you came to this in…” I glance at the timestamp on her notes. “Three days.”

She shrugs. “Four, if you count the first day I spent figuring out how your system works.”

“And?” I press. “How do you find the system?”

“It’s good,” she says simply. “Very good. Clean, layered, efficient. You built it to scale.” She pauses for the briefest of moments. “But it’s also predictable in the way all structured systems are predictable. So it can be exploited.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “You’re assuming intent.”

“I’m identifying pattern,” she corrects. “Intent comes later.”

That’s… exactly how I would phrase it.

I set the paper down carefully, aligning it with the edge of the desk.

“You don’t act on pattern without verification,” I say.

“I didn’t,” she replies. “I brought it to you.”