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Across the street was a newspaper vendor. Avery crossed and waited for the proprietor to finish with a sale.
“Excuse me, but do you know if Marcus Machine Works has moved to a new location?”
“Nope. Mr. Marcus passed away about five or six years ago, and his sons ultimately closed the business not long after.”
Avery frowned. “Are you sure about that? I have an invoice here…” He assumed it was recent, but he had no idea. They couldn’t really be sitting on a six-year-old invoice, could they?
“Of course, I’m sure. Those boys ruined that poor man’s business reputation. It wascriminalwhat they did. Mr. Marcus is probablystillrolling in his grave.”
Avery didn’t know what to do next. The only thing he could do was to ask Gus Hardwick for help—and he knew exactly what would accompany that help. The following morning, he did exactly that… without disclosing his journey to find the business. Something didn’t seem quite right, and he wanted to figure it out on his own. “Mr. Hardwick?”
“What do you want?” came the gruff reply.
“I had a minor accident.” He lifted the invoice. “This slipped into the shredder. Before I could pull it out, we lost some of the line items. I attempted to call, but the number wasn’t working. I was wondering if you had another number for them so I could get a replacement invoice?”
Mr. Hardwick reached for an old business card file. “Which company?”
“Marcus Machine Works.”
Mr. Hardwick’s hand froze, and his demeanor changed. “You can give that to me. I’ll get another copy for you.”
“Wouldn’t it be prudent that we update their information in our system?”
Mr. Hardwick offered an icy smile. “I’ll be sure to do that.” He wriggled his fingers. “Just give it to me.”
Avery took a step forward and handed off the invoice, a sick feeling in his stomach.
“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Mr. Norcross.”
Avery eyed his boss, the forced sweetness of Hardwick’s tone sending shivers down his spine. “Yes, sir.”
When he returned to his desk, Melvin eyed him.
“What’s the matter?”
“You ever sense something isn’t right, but you just can’t put your finger on what it is?”
Melvin shrugged. “I suppose.”
Mr. Hardwick is up to something.“Never mind,” Avery murmured.
An hour later, Hardwick showed up at his desk, a fresh invoice from Marcus Machine Works in his hand. “Let’s get this pushed through quickly. We’ve already wasted time getting it replaced.”
“Yes, sir,” Avery replied. He scanned the invoice, knowing without a doubt that there was something wrong. “Will do.”
Mr. Hardwick eyed him a second longer before turning and walking away.
“See. That wasn’t so bad,” Melvin said. “Maybe he’s finally warming up to you… not that he’s more than lukewarm with anyone.”
“Maybe,” Avery replied, sensing it wasn’t that at all.
Avery smelled something fishy… and he wasn’t letting up. His training as auditor and forensic accountant kicked in. After entering the invoice into the system, he rose from his desk to search the files. Within the most recent invoice files, he found half a year of ones from Marcus Machine Works, all with prices from as little as a few hundred to as much as a thousand. Returning to his desk, he asked Melvin, “Do we store invoices from previous years?”
“They’re stored digitally, why?”
“Do we have access?” Avery asked.
“No. But Mr. Hardwick does. You can ask him if you need to see an old invoice.”
