“Stay on the phone with me.”
“I hear someone coming.”
“Don’t talk, Jade. I don’t want him to hear you. Do you have a weapon? Press a button once for yes and twice for no.”
Jade pressed a button twice for no. Unless Whiskers counts. Hysteria threatened to bubble out of her.
A door creaked at the end of the hallway.
Her eyes widened. “I think he’s getting closer.” Jade’s voice shook so hard she wasn’t sure Neal would understand her.
“Dammit. Tell him you’re on the phone with the police and we’re a few minutes away. Say it loud, you want to scare him.”
“I—” Jade cleared her dry throat. “I have the police on the phone and they’re on their way. Take what you want and get out of here.”
Footsteps pounded down the hall and the front door opened.
Something dropped to the floor and rolled around.
Jade’s whole body jumped.
The front door closed.
She waited.
Nothing.
She listened.
Nothing.
“I think they left.” Jade breathed.
“Just stay where you are. Let the police make sure there’s no one else in there with you. I’m on my way.”
“WHERE IS SHE?” Neal asked the officer who was standing in Jade’s doorway.
“She’s in the kitchen. The scene is secure and the CSI unit is on their way.”
Neal sped past him. The blood on the floor had his heart doing double time. Then he spotted Jade sitting at the kitchen table with a cat in her lap. “Jade, are you okay? Are you bleeding?” He sat in the chair next to her, looking for injuries, checking her eyes for signs of shock.
“I’m fine. It’s Whiskers. He stepped on the broken glass, and then I think the robber stepped in the blood.”
Neal glanced at the paw Jade was holding. He scratched Whiskers between the ears and was rewarded with a purr. “Investigators are on their way. Has anything been taken?”
“I don’t know. I’ve only been in the kitchen. It looks like he went through my papers. I normally keep them in a neat stack.”
Neal noted the papers strewn across the counter. “Are you up for walking around your apartment and letting me know what doesn’t look right?”
“Yes. Let me put Whiskers in the bathroom.”
“Don’t touch anything. Just tell me where you think he’s been.”
Jade walked past the living room and dining room. “Nothing is out of place, other than the broken sliding glass door.”
Neal noted that the blood trail started near the broken glass. He followed her down the hall.
She walked into her bedroom and gasped. Her jewelry box was wide open and everything was gone. “My jewelry.” Jade reached for the box.
Neal placed a hand gently on her arm.
“My diamond earrings are gone. My mother gave them to me when I graduated high school. And the ruby necklace Gran gave me when I turned fourteen—there were little rubies shaped in the letter B for Buchanan. It’s gone.” Jade’s eyes filled with tears.
“We’ll do everything we can to find them.” He’d said the words, meaning them, but the probability of finding them was low. They’d likely be sold by tomorrow.
“Gran’s necklace!” Jade ran to the open closet before he could stop her.
“Hold on, Jade, let me help you. We don’t want to destroy evidence.”
“Sorry.” She backed away.
“Where should it be?”
“There in that box.”
Neal opened the lid of the plastic container with his pen.
“Under the scarves.” Jade peered in.
Carefully, he lifted a scarf.
Her face went sheet white. “It’s gone.”
“This isn’t an obvious place for a necklace. Who knew you had it?”
“My parents. Bryce was there when I got it, but I’ve worn it to work. Anyone could have seen it.”
“Let’s leave this alone in case there are fingerprints. Does anything else look out of place?”
Jade glanced around the room. “No.”
“Let’s check the rest of the house. Did I see an office?”
“Yes, in the second bedroom.” Jade led him out of the room.
“What is that?” Neal pointed at a shiny object and knelt to get a better look.
Jade’s eyes glazed over as if she were staring past it.
“Jade?”
Her mouth was open but she didn’t speak. Down on the floor, leaning against the baseboard, was a silver dollar.
“Jade?” He waited for her to look at him. Horror shadowed her eyes. “What is it?”
“Bryce… that silver dollar belongs to Bryce.”
“Are you sure?”
Her eyes turned glassy. “If the year is 1968 and on the back lower right there’s an area that’s tarnished, then I’m sure.”
Neal read the year and used his pen to flip the coin on its back. The coin appeared to be Radisson’s.
“Has Mr. Radisson been in your bedroom?”
Jade shook her head. “No.”
“When was the last time he was in your condo?”
Jade tried to focus. “Sunday night. We went to my parents for dinner then came back here to watch a movie.”
“You two are seeing each other then?”
“Yes.”
Interesting. “Maybe he dropped it when he was here last. Your cat might have batted it around.” He wasn’t sure why he was offering her that comfort. It wouldn’t break his heart to put Radisson away for doing this to her.
“No, he had it in his pocket during a meeting this morning, and I heard something drop to the floor when the intruder left. This must have been it.”
“There might be a reasonable explanation, but we’ll look into it.”
“There’s something else.” Jade crossed her arms and pulled them in tight. “I just got back from a trip to Johansson Tek. Before I left, their CFO gave me a report confirming someone has been stealing from my company for over five years. The embezzlement started seven months after Bryce started working for my grandmother.”
Neal placed a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t like coincidences. I think it would be best for you to stay away from Mr. Radisson until we analyze the evidence in here.”
“I haven’t returned his calls.”
“You already suspected him?”
“No. In my heart I want the answer to be no. But in my head, things don’t add up. I’m not taking any chances. Until we figure out who’s behind this, I can’t trust anyone at Synergy, including Bryce.”
“Show me the office.”
Jade walked him into the room. “He’s been in here.”
Neal knew it, even though he’d never seen her office before. Papers were scattered along the floor and desk. The lock had been jimmied by someone… desperate. His eyes hardened.
“What is it?”
“I was just noticing the lock.”
“He ruined my brand-new desk.”
Jade’s concerns were insignificant to his own. The jewelry was a cover-up. Someone was threatened by her and was either looking for something she had or making sure she didn’t have it. He suspected the perp had strong feelings for Jade. Otherwise, why leave a warning note and break into her place when she was out of town? Now that Jade had figured out someone was stealing from her company, she was in grave danger. The acts against her were escalating, and his gut told him what was coming next. The death of Arnie Thompson had to be related. What had Arnie known that had gotten him killed?
“Do you have a place to go tonight? I don’t think you should stay here.”
“I can stay with my parents.”
Neal placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll supervise you packing up a bag, and then I’m following you to your parents’ house. I’ll feel better knowing you aren’t alone.”
HER BRAIN ASSAULTED her with memories of illegal checks, broken glass, an
d a silver dollar. Jade rolled over and opened one eye as sunlight infiltrated the room to wake her. Both eyes flew open when she saw that the clock read eight-thirty a.m. For an instant, her body was ready to pop out of bed to get to work as soon as possible. Jade threw the pillow over her head, willing the day to go away, but her mind was racing.
She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. Was Bryce getting close to her so he could manipulate her? Every fiber of her being screamed no, he wouldn’t do that to her. He cared about her; she knew he did. But the silver dollar haunted her. Maybe he didn’t mean to get involved with me.
Could she forgive him if he was the one stealing from her? But whoever was doing this wasn’t just stealing from her—they’d been stealing from Gran. That’s when it had started. Bryce loved Gran, or was that a front? It couldn’t be. She’d seen such sadness in his eyes when he’d spoken of her. It wasn’t Bryce, it couldn’t be Bryce. It had to be someone else.
She couldn’t think about it anymore. She forced herself to get out of bed to take a long hot shower.
As she descended the stairs, the smell of syrup had her stomach growling. The last thing she’d eaten was lunch the day before. She’d forgotten that the airlines didn’t provide in-flight meals in economy anymore. And she’d been too freaked and too exhausted to eat anything once she made it to her parents’ place last night.
“You’re finally up.” Mom pulled down another glass for her. “Did your dad’s waffles wake you?”
“No.” Jade wandered over to the breakfast table. “The sun did.”
“Sorry. I forgot to pull the blinds last night.”
“I needed to get up anyway.” Jade sat and pulled her legs up to her chest. The wonderful aroma of Dad’s waffles brought back so many childhood memories. It was a comfort Jade cherished in her world gone haywire.
“You can have the first waffle.” Dad brought the plate to Jade. “Are you planning to head into the office today?”
Jade’s shoulders sank. “I have to. Whoever’s behind this has to think I don’t know anything until Detective Hawkins can review the evidence.”
“It’s written all over your face, dear.” Mom sat down next to her.
Dad passed her the syrup. “Just tell people you were robbed last night and your jewelry was taken. They’ll assume that’s what you’re shaken up about.”
“I really think you should stay here.” Mom placed a hand over hers.
“Jade might be putting herself in more danger if she does. I agree with the detective, Grace. She needs to reassure whoever it is that she knows nothing.” Dad turned to Jade. “If your trip to Johansson set off this robbery, you need to come up with a reason why you were there.”
“I didn’t think of that.” Jade shrugged. “One reason I went was to let the CEO know in person that we would be bidding out future orders with his competitors. We’ve had a long-term relationship. I felt I owed it to him. Of course, I didn’t know at the time the reason he was charging me an arm and a leg was because someone else was stealing from me.”
“That can be your reason then.” Dad placed a waffle on Mom’s plate. “I want you to leave early, make an excuse that you’re tired after the long night. And you’re staying here until this is resolved.”
“Okay, Dad,” Jade rested her head on his shoulder. At least there was one place in the world where she felt safe.
RUNNING INTO BRYCE RIGHT NOW wasn’t an option. It was ten-thirty a.m. by the time Jade pulled into her parking spot. She had called Roz to let her know she was going straight to IT. She was careful not to say why she was seeing Zach. She wasn’t sure she could trust Roz anymore.
“Hi, Zach.” Jade let herself in.
“Hey Jade, hold on one second. I’ve got to start this process, or I’ll be here late tonight.”
Jade waited for five minutes. The cool air and steady hum of the servers calmed her nerves.
After he finished typing, Zach turned to her. “What brings you to Antarctica?”
“I really need a new laptop set up for a financial consultant. Have the ones you ordered come in yet?”
“Not that I know of. Let me check with Purchasing.” Zach dialed the phone and put it on speaker. “Hi Patricia. Do you know when the new laptops are due in?”
“Let me check.” They heard her typing for a moment. “Well, that’s strange. I can’t find the order in the system. I know I placed it. Let me check my email… yeah, here it is. I still have the purchase order that I sent to the vendor. I’ll call them directly and give you a status.”
“Okay, call me back ASAP. The laptops I ordered are for Jade. She’s here with me right now.”
“I’ll call you back in a few.”
Zach hung up. “Are you okay, Jade? You look pale.”
“My apartment got robbed. It was a long night.” Jade yawned.
“Holy cow. Do you need somewhere to crash? You can camp out at my place.”
“Thanks. I’m staying with my parents until the mess is cleaned up.”
“How—” Zach stopped when the phone rang. He put it on speaker again. “Patricia?”
“Hi Zachary. The vendor confirmed that they received the purchase order, but it was cancelled the next day over the phone.”
“Who cancelled it?”
“The vendor doesn’t know.”
“Uh, okay, thanks.”
“Let me know if you need anything else. Do you want me to place the order again?” Patricia asked.
Jade nodded.
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“Okay. Is that all you need?”
“That’s it for now.”
Jade waited for Zach to hang up. “How can a purchase order disappear from the system?”
“I was wondering the same thing.” Zach pulled up the backend of the database. He opened the purchase order table and did a query on the vendor. “The only record is for the five engineering computers we purchased last month. Let me look at something else.” Zach sorted by purchase order number. “Look here, it skips an order number. That tells me it was placed, but someone deleted it on the backend. The software doesn’t allow it on the frontend. Let me check the accounts payable table.”
Zach ran another query. “Yeah, see, look here. The system is completely integrated. When a purchase order is placed, it also creates a record to pay the vendor when the invoice comes in. It looks like someone cancelled the purchase order in the system, then came into the backend to delete it. They’re an amateur though. They didn’t remove all traces of the transactions. Let me check the audit trail on this transaction to see who cancelled the invoice.”
Jade tapped her foot. Whoever cancelled the purchase order had to be the culprit. It was too much of a coincidence that her laptop had been stolen and that someone inside the company had cancelled the order for another one. Someone didn’t want her to get a laptop to a consultant to analyze the financials. She already knew why.
A sudden chill brought goose bumps to her arms and legs, and it had nothing to do with the freezing temperatures here in Antarctica. Could Professor Murti’s accident be related to all of this?
Zach stopped typing and looked up at her. “Apparently, the SYSTEM account cancelled the order. That means it tracked the user who cancelled the order on the purchase order side, which the culprit removed, and then the SYSTEM account created the corresponding receiving and accounts payable transactions that the culprit didn’t remove, which show a missing purchase order associated with them. I’ll keep digging.”
“Okay, but in the meantime, who has the ability to delete a transaction on the backend?”
“That’s easy.” Zach looked at the security properties on the database and the file system. “It looks like you, me, Stan—but his account was disabled when he was fired—Donald, Bryce, and Timothy.”
“Is it normal for this many people to have administrative access to the system?”
“No, normally it’s two administrators. You know, one for backup.”
&nbs
p; “Didn’t our financial auditing firm catch this?”
“Oh yeah, it’s been a finding on their report for the last three years. Trust me, I hear the auditor complain every time she’s here.”
“Why didn’t you remove the access?”
“I did the first time, until Stan sent me an email telling me to set the privileges back the way they were. Since we’re not a publicly held company and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act doesn’t apply, I really didn’t have a valid argument other than what he already knew from the auditor.”
Jade wished Zach had brought the problem to Gran’s attention instead of stopping at Stan. Now wasn’t the time to bring that up. “Okay, so why do six people have access?”
“Stan asked me to set it up like the old system, so I did.”
“Who set it up that way on the old system?”
“I have no idea. That was before my time.”
Jade paced the room. “Keep digging, and notify me immediately if you find anything. This is just between you and me.”
Zach turned his focus away from the screen. “What about Patricia?”
“I’ll talk to Patricia and ask her not to mention this to anyone. She doesn’t need to be involved any further. No one but me, okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll let you know as soon as I find something out.”
Jade walked back to her office and was stopped by Roz. “Detective Hawkins called, and he wants you to call him back.”
“Thanks, Roz. Why does it seem so hot in here?” She fanned her face with the papers in her hand.
“They’ve got maintenance workin’ on the roof. Think something’s wrong with one of the air conditioners. Plus you just came from IT. It’s freezin’ in there.”
“The server room has its own air conditioning for this very reason. The servers would cook in this heat. I’ll be in my office.”
“You okay? You don’t look so good.”
Jade was about to say, I’m just tired from the trip. But this was an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. “I got robbed last night.”
Roz’s mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding.”
“I walked right in on it too. The burglar was still in the house when I got home, but I never saw him. I called the police, and whoever it was ran away. All of my jewelry was taken.”
Synergy: New Adult Romantic Suspense (U-District, #1) Page 24