He took the card and read it. “Yes, he was at my house last night.”
“Give him a call and set up a time to meet with him. Tell him what you know about Angela and the cameras. If you’ll do this for me, I’ll speak with Mr. Harrington about relocating Lisa.”
He let out a relieved breath and pocketed the business card. “I’ll be glad to. Thank you, Paige.”
Turning on my heels to go and retrieve my lunch, he stopped me. “Paige, I’m sorry about the other day. I know I came across as an arrogant prick. I haven’t been late to work since and I’ll check in if I’m out in the field.” He gave me an apologetic look. “You won’t have any more problems from me.”
Good, maybe there were two employees who didn’t want to kill me. Or had he simply conned me into getting rid of Lisa for him?
Chapter Fifty-One
Between bites of lunch at my desk, I continued reviewing Lisa’s payroll records, concentrating solely on my salary. On the 1st and 15th of each month, a paycheck was directly deposited into my bank account. Thereafter, upon the receipt of each bank statement, I had always balanced my checkbook to the penny. For the last twelve-month period, the deposits had remained static. There shouldn’t have been a single change in deductions, meaning all entries within my payroll record should have been identical entries in every column.
Except it wasn’t. Not even by a long, long, long shot.
The discrepancy was so utterly blatant, it became crystal clear why Julie had discovered the entry so quickly and assumed I was embezzling. “My God,” I muttered under my breath.
One giant entry stood out against all others, making it impossible to miss. A paycheck in the amount of one-hundred-and-seventy-five-thousand dollars had been issued to me.
Undoubtedly, Julie must have believed I went into the company’s cookie jar and helped myself to a cookie. A big giant cookie. But I knew one thing Julie did not, and something I didn’t have an opportunity to address with her. I didn’t do it.
It was irritating though for Julie to have believed I could’ve pulled something like this off. For starters, I didn’t have Lisa’s computer codes to access the payroll accounts. Secondly, a simple trace of the funds should point directly to the culprit. Guaranteed, it didn’t go into my account. And thirdly, and it was only a minute point, but I had always considered Julie as my friend, but instead of her asking for an explanation, she had jumped to conclusions, immediately thinking I was guilty.
But just as quickly, I found myself believing Lisa had committed this devious act. Other than Ethel, Lidia and Julie, Lisa was the only one who had access to this information.
The dated entry went back to the days Ethel had been in the hospital after her car accident. It seemed unlikely she crawled from her hospital bed, came to the office late at night and made herself out a check for $175K, but recording the entry under my name. Lidia had taken off a great many of those days to care for her mother. However, Lidia might have done such an unscrupulous act, anticipating the medical expenses would place a hardship on her mother.
Obviously, Julie didn’t do it because she had accused me. Unless, of course, she’d stolen the money with the intention of pointing the finger at me. I didn’t see that as likely, so this left my finger pointing at Lisa. I wanted to yank her into my office and question her about it.
With a slow count to ten and several long breaths, I curbed my desire to jump down her throat like Julie had groundlessly done with me. I only needed to trace where the money went. Plain and simple.
Printing out a copy of the payment, I carefully examined the check. Then I went into the company records to follow the electronic trail. The mainframe indicated the check cleared the company’s account two days after the check’s date. The backside of the canceled document didn’t show an endorsement, but merely the bank’s routing and patron’s account number where the check was deposited.
The first thing to do was to find out which bank had that routing number. Then, I’d be able to find the depositor. Until then, I wasn’t confronting Lisa, or Lidia, or anyone else for that matter. Who knew? Julie may have confronted someone else, and when they realized she was investigating them, they may have killed her.
All this time, I thought her murder had been about someone wanting the prestigious position as the new CFO, along with the big salary that went along with it. As it looked right now, it may have only been about the embezzlement.
Chapter Fifty-Two
The banks had already closed for the day, so I placed the check aside and began concentrating on paying the ever-growing expenses stacked on my desk and filling my inbox. Some odd minutes later, my cell phone rang, indicating a call from Detective Sutton.
“Hello, this is Paige speaking,” I answered formally.
“Ms. Davis, this is Detective Sutton,” he responded in an equally professional manner. “I was wondering if you might have time to come down to the police station. There have been several developments and I’d like to go over them with you.”
“Yes, of course. But I know how sly you detectives can be, so I’d like for Paul to accompany me.”
He chuckled. “Yes, we have all of these techniques to pry confessions out of anyone. We have the water-torture treatment set up for you if you’ll come on down.” His voice sounded playful and, for the first time, there wasn’t a hint of accusation behind his tone, or any insinuations about me hallucinating, like he seemed intent on last night. “I’ve already spoken with Paul. His trial has recessed for the day and he’s already on his way over. I’ll see you when you get here.” He gave me directions to his office and ended the call.
Upon arrival, Paul stood from one of two guest chairs and Detective Sutton rounded his L-shaped desk, both greeting me. Paul’s brown eyes looked exhausted after a long day of court procedures and what was probably a restless night on Amy’s tiny spare bed.
Detective Sutton looked equally tired, no doubt after I had him searching for cameras until the late hours of the night. And here I was again, taking up his late afternoon. He rubbed his palms down his wrinkled brown trousers, and smoothed out his tan-colored tie.
“Have a seat,” he offered, guiding me past a couch while he moved the two guest chairs to a small table with one chair already there.
Next to a file cabinet, we crowded around a decent-sized laptop while he pulled up a video. “First off, let me apologize for being so harsh with you last night. I appeared insensitive, even insinuating you were hallucinating. My behavior was inappropriate, and I want you to know, from here forward, I am taking you seriously. After sleeping on things, I decided we needed to work this case through again, starting with the day of the stairwell incident. I’ve asked forensics to take a second look, this time not just concentrating on people entering and exiting the stairway, but for jumps in the footage, deletions, loop-overs, things of that nature … like you previously requested of me.” He gave me a thin smile. “Additionally, I had security at your office pull some recordings, going back to Saturday which was the day you found your computer was turned on after returning from lunch.”
“It was also the day I saw a man,” I mentioned.
“Yes, it was,” he agreed with a nod of his head. “I’d like to show you a few clips. This one first.” He mashed the play button.
“That’s David,” I yipped at seeing a man come into the camera’s view of the receptionist area. This was the only camera on our floor so far as I was aware of. No one wanted one in their offices and it never seemed necessary in the breakrooms. “What on earth is he doing?” I asked when he ducked under the receptionist desk. Seconds later, Paul and I appeared in the camera’s view.
“He’s hiding,” Detective Sutton answered. “If I had to make an educated guess, I’d say he was the one on your computer, and the one you caught sight of in the hallway. As soon as Paul takes you back to your office, David uses the opportunity to get out. The hall camera catches him dashing into the stairwell, as if he didn’t want to take the time to wait
for an elevator.”
“But why was David on my computer … assuming it was him?”
“I don’t know. We’ll bring him in for questioning and see what he has to say.” He cleared his throat. “Okay, now look at this.” He advanced to the next video.
“That’s Lisa and Angela,” I identified, watching as they entered the reception area and took a few steps forward. Then Lisa made a shushing gesture.
“The timestamp on the video correlates to my meeting with you,” Detective Sutton remarked. “I believe they heard us and immediately left.”
Once the clip ended, he selected the next thumbnail and pressed an arrow button. Once again, Lisa and Angela entered the main doors of Harrington Oil & Gas. This time they walked past the camera, toward the Accounting Department. Then several minutes later, they came into view of the camera and left through the front doors.
“These two events happened during our lunch,” Paul remarked. “When we came back, some data was missing from Paige’s computer.”
“There’s one more video I have to show you,” Detective Sutton said without commenting on the previous video.
The next video was of Lisa and Angela entering Harrington Oil & Gas after I had called for the camera search of my apartment. He let the video run. When it stopped, he said, “There’s absolutely no proof of what they were doing entering your company, but my gut tells me they were removing any hidden cameras. This theory is backed up by Carter Hughes. He came by earlier and made a statement about Angela having camera feeds on her phone linking to Paul’s home and Paul’s office. He signed an affidavit to that effect. It lends credibility to your claim about cameras being hidden in your apartment.”
“Wow, so there were cameras in my house and office?” Paul asked in a surprised tone. Then he sighed. “I don’t know why it surprises me. Whenever I was anywhere, other than my home, office or the fitness center, Angela would constantly text, call and email me. I should’ve realized whenever she was quiet, it was because she was watching me.”
“It certainly looks questionable, as does whatever David Ross was up to,” Detective Sutton agreed.
“There’s something else you should know,” I brought up, telling him all about the $175K check. “On the surface, it looks like I somehow paid myself a large sum of money. While I do have access to making payments to certain vendors, I’m not in payroll and I don’t have access to those links.” I handed him a copy of the check. “Can you find out where these funds went to?”
“Yes, it’ll take a few days and it’ll most likely require a subpoena to access the bank records. But it can be done.” He paused. “We’ll bring Lisa, Angela and David in for questioning. But I’ll be honest with you, these videos only put them in the office reception area at certain odd times of the day – and while it looks strange for David to have been hiding under a desk – none of this points to any wrongdoings. And, more importantly, it doesn’t put any of them in the stairwell with you and Julie. We need something a lot more concrete before the charges can be dropped against you and any subsequent arrests can be made. In the meantime, you need to be watching your back.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
Heeding the advice of Detective Sutton’s clear warning, Paul spent another night on Amy’s small twin bed. Following a second night of sleepless rest, he escorted me to my office to make sure I arrived safely before he headed off to the courthouse.
“You be careful,” he said once I unlocked my door. “I worry about you.”
“I’ll be fine,” I promised, though I couldn’t be sure.
Our eyes lingered on each other and, once again, I felt my heart fluttering. Overpowering emotions ached for a kiss or even a hug.
“I’ll see you later,” he said, pulling against a magnetic force that had us standing close. He strode a few steps away and then turned back and waved to me. I did the same before stepping into my office.
Eventually everyone arrived at work, except for Lisa and David, both having been called in by Detective Sutton so he could question them. I wondered if either one would show up for work. While I curiously waited, I began auditing Penny’s business records. Just because I had found the $175K, didn’t mean there weren’t other fraudulent withdrawals from the company. With dedication, I made it my goal to audit everyone, and hopefully I’d get to the bottom of the embezzlement.
Penny dealt in royalty and bonus payouts to mineral owners. While I was busy calculating ownership dividend checks, Lisa stormed through my door, knocking it against the glass panel. She rocketed across the room, her long black hair flailing along with her, and then she plopped heavily down in a guest chair. With a reddened face, she pinned me with the iciest glare possible.
Unwilling to yield to her cruel perusal, I glared back at her, keeping my posture straight. “Problem?” I simply asked, almost goading her. From the common room, I noticed Carter spinning in his chair to catch the action.
“How dare you!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “I can’t believe you’d stoop so low as to accuse me of taking money from this company. You have this all wrong. I didn’t have anything to do with missing money. Until that detective brought it up, I didn’t even know about it.”
“I haven’t accused you of taking any money. The money will speak for itself,” I responded in a calm voice. “The police are tracing the deposit. If you didn’t have anything to do with it, then you have nothing to worry about. But if you did, then you will be fired.”
“Fired!” she screeched. “I’d better not be fired for something I didn’t do.”
“Even if you didn’t take the money, sneaking into my office and deleting those files is cause enough to terminate your employment.”
She snapped her mouth shut for a moment, then lies began spewing out. “No, it wasn’t me. I never had keys to your apartment or this office.” She bobbed her head around the room, then focused back on me. “You don’t have a single shred of evidence to prove I was in here, or your apartment. Besides, what could I possibly gain from entering either place?”
“Oh, I think we both know you were looking for any ammunition you could find to hurt me, or to displace me from this position.” I wanted to mention Carter knew Angela had placed cameras in Paul’s office and his condo, but I didn’t want to tip her off in case Detective Sutton hadn’t revealed that information.
“If anyone did such an underhanded thing, it was Angela. She wants Paul back. It’s possible she might have done something like that. But it wasn’t me, I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Lisa, you can spout all you want, but I know what I heard. You’re not fooling me.”
I paused and looked at Carter’s pleading face through the glass divider. He wanted me to transfer Lisa, but frankly, I wanted to keep an eye on her until I knew where those funds went. I turned my gaze back to Lisa. “Until we know more about the funds, move your things down to my old station.”
“Why? I want to stay next to Carter.”
“Either move to my empty desk, or I’ll speak with Mr. Harrington about transferring you to another division. It’s your choice. What do you want to do, Lisa?”
For a moment, I thought her head might explode. “Fine, I’ll move my things. But Carter is going to hate this. He likes us being next to each other.”
“Start moving,” I barked, letting her know our meeting was over.
Slamming the door on her way out, she stomped to her desk and began relocating her work materials and shifting her personal items.
Two seconds later, Carter stuck his head in my office.
Lisa shouted from the other room, glaring at me through the glass panes. “See, I told you Carter wouldn’t want me moved.”
“Come in,” I invited Carter.
Gently closing the door behind him, he crossed the room and slumped into the same chair Lisa had just occupied. “Why aren’t you moving her to a different division?” he asked, peering back at Lisa’s go-get-Paige expression on her face.
�
��There are other things going on within the company. Until I have those answers, I need to keep her within my sights. Depending on the results, she’ll either be transferred or terminated. You’ll have to sweat it out in the meantime.”
For a moment he frowned, his gaze landing on Lisa’s angry features, then his expression changed to hopefulness. “You mean she might get fired? Gosh, that would be even better than her being transferred.” He turned his face away from the glass to hide an upbeat smile. “How soon will you know?”
“It’s hard to speculate, but I’m guessing it’ll only be a matter of days.”
He sighed deeply, his whole chest flexing. “Okay, I suppose I can tolerate her for a few more days. Thank you so much.”
For the remainder of the day, Lisa’s harsh glares repeatedly made their way to me. It was a challenge to concentrate on auditing the business records with her continuous hate-filled eyes lasering down on me. But even more disconcerting was David’s absence. He hadn’t returned to the office after his statement to the police, and he hadn’t called in.
Pulling his phone number from the company’s database, I gave him a call. When it went straight to voice mail, I left a message, asking why he hadn’t checked in. Since it was close to closing time, I entered his information into my contacts. When I did so, his number coincided with a call I had previously received. In all the years we had worked together, I couldn’t remember David ever calling me, and this one had been only a few days ago. Thinking back, I remembered receiving a call from someone who didn’t say anything and after a couple of hellos, I disconnected the line. I wondered why he had called.
Chapter Fifty-Four
David Ross
David’s heart thundered in his chest as he entered the police precinct. After referring to the directions he’d made on a pad of paper, he made his way to Detective Sutton’s office. As he turned down the last hallway, he encountered Lisa coming out.
A Deadly Promotion Page 21