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“We definitely will.”
“Alright, I love you, and I have a meeting in a few minutes.”
“Love you too.”
A few minutes later, my accountant, Freda walked into my office. I stood to greet her. Liddy had informed me that Freda had called for an appointment which was weird because we usually met once a quarter. We were not due for another meeting for several months.
“Hi, Freda. It’s good to see you.”
“You too, Averie. I have something I need to discuss with you.”
“Please have a seat.”
I pointed to one of the white chairs facing my desk. I sat in the chair next to her. She reached into her briefcase and produced several pieces of paper.
“As you know, I came to you when you were forming your business because I wanted to work with you. I value your business, and I watch it like it’s mine even though I have other associates that actually run the numbers,” Freda explained.
“Yes, I know.”
“I saw something weird with your numbers a few months ago, so I had one of my senior accountants run the numbers again. He came back and said that what I saw was incorrect and that everything was fine. Something in my spirit didn’t feel right, so I finally got around to looking at your account again. Averie, you are hemorrhaging money, and someone is covering it up to make it look like you’re not. Money is being moved from your accounts to other untraceable accounts. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before you will have to declare bankruptcy and liquidate the firm. I initially scheduled the meeting to tell you to stop your spending until I realized that you weren’t the one doing it and something was really wrong.”
I took the paper from her and examined it. She was right, my accounts should have looked a lot different.
“I don’t understand what is happening, Freda. How does someone have access to my accounts?”
“Typically, this could only happen with your accounting firm, so as of last week, I removed all the other accountant's names from your account. I’m the only one who has access to it until I can figure out what is going on. I wanted to tell you because I do not want to lose your business but I understand that you left your money in my care and this is happening.”
“Is it some type of identity theft? You know like when they get your credit card number and make fake cards to drain your account?”
“I don’t know. It’s going to take me some time to get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, if you need anything, please contact me directly. Do not go through anyone, not even my secretary. I can’t trust anyone with this,” Freda explained.
“Is my account the only account that you’ve had this problem with?”
“Yours is the first that I’ve found but I want to call in another firm to do a full audit on my books, discreetly, but I don’t know who to trust.”
“I know someone who can help you. As a matter of fact, I will call him now.”
* * *
“I happento know a brilliant forensic accountant that can assist you. I would need to see if she is available,” Countee said after hearing Freda’s story.
“I don’t understand why someone would do this. I’ve never had any problems like this before.”
“It sounds like you have someone on the inside,” Countee said.
Countee was already in the area and came by when I called him. Countee, Laila, Freda and I were in my office discussing her situation.
“I would hope that is not the case,” Freda smiled flirtatiously.
I wasn’t sure if Countee caught on, but Laila noticed and slightly rolled her eyes. It was subtle, but I saw it.
“It’s not difficult to persuade someone to do something like this. You have to know their weakness. Weaknesses are not hard to figure out,” Countee nonchalantly said while looking through the paperwork Freda gave him.
“What exactly does Chambers Security do?” Freda asked.
“We provide armed and unarmed security services and expertise to private and public clients.We also offer cybersecurity and investigative services,” Countee answered.
“So if I wanted to add security cameras to my office building, you could do that?”
