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Not hardly.The night before, Avery had done a web search for Marcus Machine Works and had substantiated the story the newspaper vendor had told. Mr. Marcus had died nearlysevenyears ago… and his sons had quickly destroyed what their father had spent a lifetime building. No one traded under that name in the province and hadn’t for years.
So where were the invoices coming from?
The bigger question: who was all that money going to?
He had to talk to someone… and itwasn’tMr. Hardwick. Vaughn Jaymes was the Chief Financial Officer, but he’d never met the man. Rohan might know how to get him a face-to-face meeting.
But what if he was wrong?
He scanned the new invoice one more time, knowing full well there was something afoot. Could he simply let it go, afraid he was wrong? He carefully folded the invoice and placed it in his pocket.
Avery checked the time. It was a bit early for lunch, but he couldn’t wait another second. “I just remembered I’m meeting my uncle for lunch today. I’ve got to get upstairs,” Avery said to Melvin.
“Oh?” Melvin looked a bit disappointed. They’d been lunch partners for weeks. “Okay… I’ll see you when you get back.”
His stomach was in knots the entire way up to Rohan’s floor.
Wilder’sfloor.
Should I go to him instead? No… I can’t chance an emotional reaction right now.
He marched to Rohan’s office, knocking on the door.
Rohan jumped from behind his desk. “Everything okay?”
“No,” Avery said, closing the door behind him. “I think I found someone who’s stealing from the company.”
Rohan froze in his tracks.“What?!”
“Can you get me a meeting with Vaughn Jaymes?”
“Before I go to that extreme, mind walking me through this? You’ve only been here a couple of weeks, Avery.”
Avery pulled the invoice from his pocket and explained the whole mess to Rohan. By the end, Rohan’s face was grim. “Let me call Wilder.”
“Wilder? Isn’t Vaughn the CFO?”
“I’ll get them both in on this,” Rohan said. “Wilder told me he’s sensed something was up with Hardwick for some time. He’ll want to hear this.”
Wilder. Shit.
11
Wilder leaned back into the small conference room’s luxe leather chair, eyeing the beta across from him. He was excited to hear that Abraham had news for them, even if it only meant that he could sit across the table from the handsome man and appreciate the scenery. Abraham was more than just good looks, of course. He soon learned that the beta had found a steady stream of potential embezzlement in less than three weeks of employ.
“And you’re sure of this?” Wilder asked, searching the invoice Abraham had brought them.
“One hundred percent, no… but there’s definitely something off here. This business no longer exists, yet we’ve been paying them for months. Years, potentially. I don’t have access to invoices past the last few months. I was told the rest are digitized… and Mr. Hardwick has the access to those. I didn’t want to ask for them… and clue him in to my concerns.”
“You figure it’s him?” Vaughn asked.
“Heisthe one who provided me with the new invoice. If anything, he’s involved somehow, I'm quite certain,” Abraham replied. “I realize I might be doing something wrong by going over his head, but I assumed you'd all want to know… so an investigation could be started. A forensic accountant might find a direct link to who this is.”
“Reece and White’s a good firm,” Vaughn murmured. “I can call them when we get out of here.”
“Bringing them in might alert some to what’s going on,” Wilder replied. “We have to put a retainer down… which would go through accounting.”
“I could pay for the retainer myself,” Wilder mentioned.
