by Robin Mahle
Lucas strolled in, halting in front of her desk. His stance seemed to imply he already had an idea what was about to happen and he began tracing an index finger along the rim of his coffee mug. The deep, throaty sound emanating from him continued until he was almost chuckling. “I won’t be replacing you, will I?”
The problem was, Claire almost never had lunch outside the office with Lucas unless they were running between clients and were pressed for time to grab a quick sandwich. Neither one of them particularly cared for the other, and so it was completely out of character for her to ask such a question. He’d seen right through it.
Claire stood up and moved towards the door, pulling it closed, eventually returning to her desk. “Please, Lucas, why don’t you sit down?”
A genuine tone arose from her, although Lucas didn’t appear as if he was about to sit. Instead, a visible anger was rising in him. “Lucas, they’re moving lots of people around and they aren’t hiring anyone new for my position. They’re just re-organizing the managers. They’ll be splitting the accounts, except for Sea-Tech. I’ll still be handling that one myself. Someone from the Salt Lake office is relocating and he’ll be taking over most of my other accounts.”
“Did you even try to recommend me, Claire?” Only his eyes shifted upwards, creating a menacing look from his downturned face.
“I wasn’t given the opportunity. Frank said this was the way it was going to be.”
He was silent for a moment longer, moving his head back and forth in small, but noticeable shifts. Claire began to recall all the times she’d been jealous of him for taking off on a Friday afternoon to play golf with some of the other account managers; even Frank and Charlie went along on occasion. She felt like an outsider in a good ol’ boy network. But now, she could see Lucas was blindsided by this turn of events. All his careful calculating, leading to what? Watching his senior partner get promoted while he remained a grunt? It was quite clear this was not part of his master plan.
Claire couldn’t feel bad for him, though, not really. She’d been there longer and was already senior to him. What made him think he could bypass her?
“I am sorry, Lucas.”
He finally looked up at her, square in the eyes. “Don’t be, Claire. You deserve this and I mean that. I’ll just keep plugging away and my time will come. And, don’t worry about lunch. I’ve already got plans anyway.” Lucas turned his back and walked out of her office without saying another word.
***
Payback. They blame me for the botched Sea-Tech transaction. Lucas continued towards his small, cramped cubicle where it now seemed he would be relegated for some time. It wasn’t my fault Beth caught on and sent the files to Claire. What the hell was I supposed to do? If they want me to keep putting my ass on the line, they need to show me some loyalty. Not the other way around. He yanked his chair out and dropped down hard, slamming his knees against the adjacent filing cabinet. “FUCK!”
A few heads popped up above the surrounding maze, searching for the source of the profane outburst. The glare on Lucas’ face shrank them back down into their respective holes.
***
Claire wondered if she’d just turned an already mildly adversarial relationship into something more contentious. Well, if he wanted it that way, then she could do nothing about it. Guilt aside, this was her moment; she’d earned it and wouldn’t let him to take that from her.
Charlie appeared in her doorway now. It was a wonder that anything actually got done in this office. “I hear you had to tell Lucas he was staying put.”
His words seemed to bring her back from her drifting thoughts. “I’m afraid so. He didn’t seem very pleased.”
“No, I don’t imagine he was. He’s a good kid, but he’s still got a lot to learn.” Charlie sauntered in, his oversized midsection leading the way.
He was a good boss and mentor and Claire would miss working for him. “So, what’s going on?” she asked.
Charlie groaned as he lowered himself into the chair. The metal armrests grazed his sides on the way down. “Listen, did you happen to talk to Beth this morning?”
“I saw her when I came in, but she was on her way to Accounting for their quarterly meeting. I haven’t seen her since. Why?”
“It’s just that I know you two are pretty close.”
He was hesitating now and Claire felt a pang of nerves hit her gut. “What’s going on, Charlie?”
“Seems they found some discrepancies on her reports. Big ones. Like the kind that could bring in the SEC. Discrepancies that suggest falsified accounting.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Incredulity shot from her quick and hard. “What are you saying? What kind of discrepancies?”
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) handled more than insider trading and Ponzi schemes. They enforced accounting and auditing policies and ensured the credibility of financial statements presented to possible investors. Winters Financial was a public company and had to abide by the transparency rules set by the SEC. And where the SEC was, the FBI usually followed.
“They don’t know for sure. But Liz Sherman got a call from Sea-Tech this morning. Their server was hacked into night before last and disbursements were issued to some apparently dead accounts in our system. After some research, she found that those disbursements are now missing, withdrawn from the inactive accounts in which they were posted.”
“Okay.” Claire held her hand up. “Just wait a minute.” She leaned over her desk, arms folded and dropped her voice. “Do they think Beth took the money? How is that even possible?”
“It’s only just come to light in the past few hours. She’s in with Winters, Sherman, and someone else from Accounting who handles Sea-Tech’s bills. Have you noticed Beth acting unusual lately?”
“No. Nothing out of the ordinary. This just isn’t possible, Charlie. Beth would never do something like that. Look, she called me on Monday night and asked me to take a look at the reports for Sea-Tech’s account, said things weren’t adding up. I actually stayed up until midnight reviewing them and I thought I found the problem. It looked the like the system was double posting the hours. In fact, I was going to mention it to you yesterday, but when I looked at the files again, they were fine. And then, I got sidetracked with the whole promotion thing.”
“You didn’t think it was strange that the reports were corrected, just like that?”
Did his tone sound just a little bit critical?
“Well, yeah, at first, I guess. But then I just thought that I was the one who made the mistake. And…”
“And then I called you into my office and talked to you.”
“Yes.” Claire shook her head. “This just isn’t right. She was the one who called me with the problem. There’s no way Beth would risk her job. She’s a single mother, for God’s sake.”
“Well, they’re putting her on unpaid administrative leave until they know more. It shouldn’t take long to follow the money trail. You really should have come to me with this on Monday, Claire. I might’ve—I don’t know.” Charlie lifted himself up. “If you want to talk with her, that’s fine, but I wouldn’t do it from here. It’s best if you keep your distance.”
What did that mean? Did they think, in small part, because of her relationship with Beth that she might have something to do with this? No, they just promoted her, but that sure sounded like a warning coming from him.
Claire watched Charlie leave her office. She was completely shocked. So much had happened these past few days, so many good things for her and her family. None of this made sense. She’d known Beth for almost as long as she’d been working for the company. Claire knew there was no way Beth was capable of stealing. Yes, she had three kids to support, her ex-husband never gave her a dime in child support, but stealing? She couldn’t believe it, wouldn’t believe it. There had to be another explanation.
***
“I’m sorry, Beth, but you understand? We need to get to the bottom of this before we can even think of br
inging you back. You’ve stated your position and we appreciate your cooperation.” Liz Sherman was the Vice President of Accounting and was sitting directly across from Beth.
Evan Winters was at the head of the large conference room table. Beth’s boss, Arnie Talbot, sat next to her and, finally, another manager who headed up the Receivables department was on the other side. Seemed she was the one who fielded the call from Sea-Tech’s people before the situation escalated. No one from Sea-Tech was at the meeting. It was deemed an “internal investigation,” for the time-being. But they wouldn’t wait forever.
Meanwhile, the firm was working hard to issue reimbursements to Sea-Tech as quickly as possible. They couldn’t risk losing such a highly valued account, nor could they risk the client taking this up with the FBI or the SEC. This was an embarrassment for the company, but if handled correctly, the relationship could be salvaged.
The reason blame was laid at Beth’s feet was that her login was used to access the inactive accounts where the money had been deposited. And of course, the reports she’d just submitted didn’t include those accounts or the money in them. They were working to find the trail from there, assuming the money had somehow been wired, possibly overseas, or into another account they’d yet to track down. Either way, it was looking extremely bad for Beth right now.
“I did not take the money. I am a loyal employee who has worked here for eight years. I’ve never been written up and I’ve always had positive reviews. You actually think I did this?” Beth tried hard to choke back the emotions that were rising in her throat. All the while, wondering what would happen if she lost her job, or worse, went to jail for embezzlement. No one had actually mentioned that word, but it was the elephant in the room.
“It doesn’t matter what we think, Beth,” Evan began. “What matters is that the evidence suggests your involvement.” She clearly wanted to interrupt, but Evan pre-empted her. “I’m not saying you did or you didn’t, but from this moment forward, your email, your login, and your company phone will no longer be accessible. I’m sure this will all be sorted within a few days. In the meantime, please just go home. We’ll be in touch.” Evan excused himself from the meeting.
Beth was soon escorted to her office to pack up her things. Word had already spread about what had happened and she could see the looks on the faces of her co-workers as she walked down the hall, holding her little box of trinkets and pictures of her kids. The social hierarchy of an office dictated the speed with which rumors ascended and it was often infinitely quicker than any high school or social media platform.
Claire’s attention was drawn to the rumblings outside her office. Beth was under escort and passed by Claire’s office on the way out of the building. She leapt up from her chair and quick-stepped to the lobby where she just caught sight of Beth.
Tears were running down her cheeks and her swollen eyes met with Claire’s for only a moment. Words need not have been exchanged. Beth knew Claire was on her side and she would do whatever it took to get her out of this jam. The elevator doors closed and Beth was gone.
***
“Damn it, I can’t cover for you on this one. I’ve put my ass on the line here, and now you’re going to have to figure a way to fix this!” Lucas paced the sidewalk as he held his cell phone to his ear. “No. We can’t use her login anymore; you’ll have to find someone else. What about a former employee? Maybe a temp?” Silence as he waited for the reply.
“Look, that’s not my problem.” He continued. “The deal was, you handle the access to the clients and I handle the posting of the funds. That’s the way he wanted it.” Again, he waited for the person on other end to reply.
“Well, clearly it isn’t working any longer. I guess you’ll just have to figure it out!” Lucas rammed his finger on the screen of his phone, ending the call. He walked back inside the office and sat down in his cubicle. What was he supposed to do now? His instructions were to keep posting to the account and no one would notice. Well, someone did. And now that someone was gone and so were her credentials. He figured this problem was above his pay grade and he didn’t have a choice but to wait for further instructions.
CHAPTER 4
BETH AND HER three children lived in an older part of town in a modest house, painted in cheerful hues of blue and yellow. It was on Claire’s route from work and so she stopped in to try to get a handle on the still unbelievable situation.
“I swear to you, Claire, I’ve never stolen a dime from anyone, let alone the company.” Beth’s hands were trembling as she lifted the glass of wine to her lips.
“I know that. Of course I do. I just feel so awful about all of this. I wish you’d reconsider my offer.”
“Thank you, but I just can’t. We’ll be fine for a while. I’ve got some savings. They’ll figure this out and when they realize I did nothing wrong, I’m sure they’ll compensate me, unless they want to risk a lawsuit.”
“You’re damn right they will. I still can’t get my head around this.” Claire unfolded her legs, which were curled up on the couch. “You mind if I pour another glass?”
“No, please help yourself. If you don’t finish it, I probably will.” It seemed that Beth would follow through on that statement, by the way things were going, and it was doubtful that anyone could blame her.
“Where are the kids tonight?” Claire stood in the galley-style kitchen that still permeated with the minty aroma of Greek food she had brought over for dinner.
“With my mother. I asked her to pick them up from school today.”
“And what did she say about all this?”
“I haven’t told her. Honestly, after the divorce, she had a hard time coming to terms with me being a single mother. I’m afraid this might just send her over the edge with worry.” Beth inhaled a deep sigh and shook her head. Only three days ago, she was happy and gainfully employed. How quickly things could spiral out of control.
“I love your mother and I know she worries, as do I.” Claire returned to the couch. She was at a loss and couldn’t think of anything more to say. But then, she was confident it would all work out. It had to. The thought of Beth being hauled away in handcuffs in front of her children was unbearable, to say the least. She wondered, too, if the investigation would lead to her own inquiries into the matter of the inaccurate report that seemed to resolve itself magically. Claire hadn’t thought about it much since yesterday, given all that happened, but the timing of her discovery now seemed just a bit too coincidental.
“I’m sure you’d rather be celebrating your big promotion with Colin and the kids right now instead of consoling a soon-to-be convict.”
“Stop. Don’t you say things like that.”
“How am I going to get out of this, Claire? How do I prove I’m innocent?”
“With my help, that’s how. Look, when I get home, I’m going to scour my files, emails, texts; anything I can find to retrace our steps. There has to be an explanation for all of this, Beth.”
“Someone’s got my login credentials and I sure as hell didn’t give them to anyone. That means someone I work with got on my computer when I wasn’t there or figured out my password, or something like that. Who the hell would do that to me, Claire? For God’s sake, I’m just a lowly bean counter. I don’t have access to half the shit that could actually allow me to move or withdraw money. They have to know that.” Beth squeezed her eyes shut to keep the stinging tears from spilling over.
“That has to be how those reports were overwritten.” Claire looked off into the distance as she spoke, the revelation having just dawned on her.
“What’s that?” Beth set her glass on the coffee table and sat up, seemingly taking notice of the distant glimmer of hope that now flickered in Claire’s eyes.
Claire returned her glance. “Remember when I came to you and asked you to resend me the original files?”
Nodding, Beth waited patiently for some indication that the bus she’d just been thrown under might actually drive off.
&
nbsp; Claire’s shifting eyes continued to search for a reason. “You said you thought you must’ve saved over them. But you didn’t remember doing that, did you?”
“No. But hell, I’m always so damn busy at the end of the month, it’s not outside the realm of possibilities. Besides, what difference does that make if I did or didn’t?”
“If you didn’t, then whoever has your login got into the system after you emailed me the reports and made the corrections to the hours.”
“Okay, but that doesn’t explain why you don’t have those emails anymore.”
Beth was right. Someone would have had to hack into her email as well to make that happen. “What if my information was compromised too?” Claire thought she might be reaching because the pieces weren’t quite fitting together just yet.
“Maybe. But you just got a promotion and they would have known if someone had accessed your files.”
“Would they?” Claire couldn’t explain it fully. The ideas floated around in her head, fragmented. She would need some concrete evidence. “I don’t suppose you know anyone in IT, do you?”
***
The late hour and cold temperatures conspired to drive Claire’s desire for nothing more than her own bed when she’d arrived back home. She pushed the kitchen door open slowly, revealing only shadows at play on the otherwise dark walls, the lake’s rippling waters reflecting from the kitchen window. The kids were already asleep, she assumed, or at the very least, tucked up in bed. Instinct and familiarity took over as she stepped through the dark hall and continued into the family room where Colin sat watching television. The only light, a side table lamp, cast a haunting glow on his face.
The clatter of her high heels on the wood floor caught his attention. “Hey, sweetheart.” He started to push himself up.
“Don’t get up, honey.” Claire leaned over him and placed a kiss gently on his lips.