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“There aren’t any.”
I sit up straight. “What do you mean?”
He points at one of the invoices. “This was billed to the fake company, Anton Archer Services. But there is no actual money transfer in that name.”
“Are there any for that amount? Maybe they are under some billing umbrella?” I turn the binder so I can read it.
“Sure, but those are all legitimate bills paid to our usual advertising firm, Langston & Evans. They generate our leads, place ads in industry publications, and do follow-up on cold clients. We’ve used them since we started.”
“Wait.” I pull the accounting log printouts toward me. “The billing number is only one digit off. Do you think this was a clerical error?”
“On half a million dollars’ worth of requisitions dating over a year?”
“Well, if it auto fills, it would keep auto filling. When was the first one?”
We madly flip through the binders to keep looking.
“August 7 of last year,” Rhett says.
“Are there any official billings for Langston & Evans after that?” I run my finger down the column.
“Yes. They have an active account.” Rhett stabs his finger at several entries.
“But no money went to Archer. You’re sure.”
“Someone specifically set up this fake account and changed the numbers on enough requisitions, all signed by you, to set you up.”
“So, Viola.” I sit back in my chair.
Rhett’s scowl is deep, his eyebrows drawn close together. “She was good. Some of these are backdated even though she couldn’t have been playing a long game. This sort of error would have been caught in the audit last quarter. These were recent changes.”
I flip through all the altered documents. “I don’t think Viola has the technical skill or the patience to set this up.”
“So someone helped her?”
“Who would have the ability to change all these requisitions without pinging the system with an error?”
“Accounting,” Rhett says.
I snap my fingers. “And IT.”
“So someone got bamboozled by Viola to do this?”
I shrug. “She’s got some pretty persuasive skills.” I’d seen it plenty.
Rhett closes the binders. “I’ll take Luke in IT aside tomorrow and have him conduct a discreet audit of the code.”
“Why Luke when Hammond is the head of the department?”
“Because Luke is happily married, and Hammond is single and could be swayed.”
I nod. “I see.”
He pulls me onto his lap. “So we have a plan. What was this about breaking in my office?”
I nip his ear. “But Mr. Bossman, what will everyone say?”
He lifts me onto the table and spreads my knees. “They’ll say, what a lucky man.”
