Numbers Never Lie (Crimson Romance) (19 page)

So he told his wife he had to stay late to convert some data for the boss. He’d go eat something, hang around for a few hours, then go back and run the script.

He dialed the number again and waited for an answer.

“What.” Irritation spewed from the speaker of his cell.

“Talk to the auditor about testing the security of the accounting system and validating the transactions. I’m setting it up tonight so it should be ready for an audit. That will get her out of our way.”

“I thought I told you not to call me.”

Lenny ignored his outburst. This needed to get done, and the sooner the better. For all of them. “Look, you’re the only person he’ll take the order from.”

“You sure that’s going to work?”

“Yes. Once I’ve done the transaction updates. Just get the auditor checking it out asap.”

“Okay. I’ll meet with him later this week, but once he’s done it, we’ll have to fire her. She has to be gone before any more deposits are made. People are going to ask questions.”

“And you’ll do what you always do. You’ll publicize the audit results and they’ll insinuate that her management of the applications resulted in theft of company property. In this case, it’s company funds, which will be even more incriminating. Once the board hears the results, they’ll demand that she be fired but by that time it will already be done.”

“What if she fights it?”

“Why would she? It will ruin her career if it gets out that she’s been involved in something like that. It’s in her best interest to be silent.”

“She’s not the type to be silent. She’ll want an investigation.”

“Then give her one. Have the audit team check it out. You know they’ll back us up. Besides no one is going to argue with the auditor … she doesn’t stand a chance. It’s kind of a shame, really. She was just trying to do the right thing. Do her job.”

“I don’t like it, Lenny. This is getting messy. We’re done after the next round.”

“No problem.”

“I swear to God, if you call me again, I’ll come after you with a tire iron.”

“Got it.”

“I’m not kid — .”

Lenny clicked the cell closed, hanging up before the last word fell. He thought it humorous that the little weasel believed he was capable of touching him. The guy was half his size and probably couldn’t even take on Sophie in a fight. Besides, he was older than dirt and hadn’t worked out in years.

Random drops of rain hit his windshield with a loud smack as he exited the freeway and turned toward his building. The storm was coming and he was more than prepared.

Chapter Eighteen

Trevor stood watching Nate interrogate Sophie through the glass. He was exhausted from a long sleepless night. He’d feigned a request to investigate something on another job in order to avoid Sophie. When she’d fallen asleep in the chair across from his desk, he had gone to bed, only to have her creep in later and wrap around him. As much as he had wanted it, he hated himself for not recognizing the truth. For not keeping his head straight.

He knew she couldn’t see him but still he felt the anger in her eyes as if they were focused solely on him. It’s a sickening feeling to make love to someone, believing them to be one thing and then find out they’re something else. She had fooled him completely. He believed her. All her actions and all her words had convinced him she had nothing to do with the fraud that was occurring at Benton & Stanley. Yet, when it came right down to it, her bank statement told the truth. The numbers didn’t lie. They never did. Sometimes they could be misleading, but in the end, what’s in the data can’t be disputed. Even if someone doctored a report, it was usually easy to track it through the data and the timestamps associated with each modification. Especially in accounting systems where no entry was ever deleted, it just got archived. Changes were always new entries, not replacements. Easy to track if you knew what to look for.

He had believed every word she said and even now, he couldn’t believe he was watching them break her down. He was sick. Sick to his stomach. How could he have been so stupid? He’d never made a mistake like that before, never misread anyone this significantly. He was losing his edge, all because he let himself get sidetracked, let himself be attracted to her.

Still he watched her through the glass as Nate talked and he thought he saw innocence in her eyes. He was imagining it, he knew, but she didn’t react like he expected her to. Maybe he was just hoping for a miracle but he wanted to believe her. Probably because he’d let himself get way too involved. He let himself act toward her as if she were just someone he would have met and gotten involved with in a normal way like people do — like couples do — and not someone he was supposed to investigate. Last night, she had tried to wake him and make love. He’d kept his eyes wrenched shut and sprawled on his stomach. It had seemed like hours before she finally accepted that he wasn’t going to wake and rolled away. Still, he was seconds from turning into her when she stopped and he hated himself for his weakness. Trev turned from the glass, ran a hand through his hair and sighed. Unable to look away, he turned back.

Interrogations were not Nate’s strong suit, he usually preferred to leave that to Trev, as Trevor was normally pretty calm and unruffled no matter what happened. Nate’s temper tended to ignite quickly and, once it flared up, he became impatient with the ways suspects tried to negate or avoid their guilt.

As Trev watched through the glass, he remembered how she looked at him when they lay in his bed together. Her eyes had been electric with emotion and passion, so he thought. How could a person be like that with him and pretend the way she had? She had acted as if she knew nothing about what was going on, and he’d believed it all, yet, she was lying the entire time.

The room was like a box — almond colored walls, a door, a window that showed nothing. She obviously knew it was there for them to watch her. She had no indication he was standing on the other side.

Nate thrust his hand out to Sophie. “I’m sorry. I forgot to give you my name, ma’am. I’m Nathan Hernandez. I’m a fraud investigator for the FBI. My team is investigating a report of fraudulent activities at your office.”

Sophie watched him warily. She did not accept the hand right off and when Nate grew tired of waiting, he dropped it to his side but continued to make eye contact.

“Mr. Hernandez, why am I here?”

“As I stated, we’re investigating fraudulent activities at your place of employment and we have reason to believe you may know something about it.” Nate didn’t flinch. He rested one hip on the table. “That’s why you’re here.”

“I don’t know anything about it,” she said with a tint of challenge in her voice. She lifted her chin in defiance.

“Well,” Nate lifted up from the table and leaned against the wall behind him, putting his hands in his pockets, “actually, it has a lot to do with you. We have some questions we need to ask.”

Sophie kept her chin up and continued to glare at him. “We? Who’s ‘we’? You and the people on the other side of that window?” She motioned to the smoky glass she had been facing for what seemed like an hour.

She glared at the glass, and the anger in her eyes seemed to be hiding a hint of something else. Trev thought maybe panic. Tension showed around her eyes and it made him uncomfortable to watch — and angry, too, that she had tricked him so adeptly.

“Yes,” Nate responded, “that would be accurate. Mainly though, it’s just me right now. Agent Prater will likely join us shortly.” He moved back to the table, pulling out the chair across from her. He lowered himself into the chair and dropped the folder he’d been holding under his arm on the table between them.

“Wow.” Sophie’s macadamia nut size eyes widened as she took in the FBI logo on the folder. “This must be pretty serious if you guys are involved.”

“Yes, it is. Benton & Stanley is a contractor to the federal and state government. Therefore, fraudulent activity against their business constitutes a crime against the government. And that usually gets us involved.” Nate’s gaze remained somber to further accentuate the seriousness of the issue.

“That makes sense but I don’t see what that has to do with me, or why I was brought into this room.” Sophie eyes slanted as Nate opened the folder and pushed the bank statements, turning them so they faced her.

“Please take a look at this document, Ms. Henderson. This shows a series of automated deposits into a bank account in your name.” He paused so she could glance down the page. “Can you explain the source and reason for these deposits?” He didn’t smile, just watched and waited.

• • •

Sophie’s stomach caved in; she thought she was going to be ill.
They think I did it.
As the intensity of the situation hit her, a series of emotions flashed through her veins. Anger that they would even think this. Terror that the truth would not be easy to prove. Loneliness — she wished she had family with her. Someone on her side. “I don’t think there’s anything I should talk to you about without an attorney present. I’ve done nothing wrong but this is scaring the hell out of me.”

She bit her lip to stop the trembling. After a few minutes of silence, she continued, “Mr. Hernandez, am I a suspect in something? Do you or your agency believe I am involved in this fraudulent activity you’re talking about?”

“At this point, we’re just looking for answers, ma’am.”

Sophie watched him warily. “I’m a little surprised you don’t have the answers to the questions you’ve just asked me. You’re the FBI, right? Surely you have access to the transaction details? I mean, look. You have a copy of my bank statement. Why don’t you know the rest?” Her eyes let the anger fully show.

“According to our records, most of the deposits on that statement were made anonymously to your account via an EFT. We’ve requested a trace on the transaction numbers and bank codes. We’ll likely have the answers tomorrow, but right now, I’m asking
you
to give me a straight answer.” Nate’s voice was agitated; the impatience had begun. As Sophie gauged the level of frustration in his eyes, she wondered if this guy was one of those chair-throwing types one sees on television. Hopefully not. Still, he looked more than a little agitated with her responses. Two loud taps on the glass came from the other side of the window and interrupted her thoughts.

“Excuse me a moment, Ms. Henderson. I need to step out of the room.” He moved toward the door, speaking over his shoulder. “I’d like an answer to that question when I return.”

Sophie let her eyes move around the room, darting from the window to the door, then to the papers on the table. She worked hard to fight back any dampness in her eyes. She wouldn’t let them see weakness. She’d done nothing wrong. They could accuse all they wanted to, she wouldn’t be intimidated by it.

Where was Trevor? He knew she was trying to figure out what was going on. He knew she wasn’t involved. He’d left her in the lobby for a few minutes to go to his office. He said he’d be right back but it had taken a long time and she was almost to the point of going looking for him except she wasn’t sure where to go. He didn’t say which office, not even which floor. And then this lady and man had grabbed her and escorted her into this room.

Sophie lowered her head onto her hands and pressed her mouth against her forearm to stifle the trembling of her lower lip. This was serious, really serious.

The door opened abruptly and Agent Hernandez returned followed by, of all people, Trevor. “Ms. Hernandez, this is my partner, Trevan Prater.” Nate gestured to Trev. “I believe you know him.”

Sophie’s head shot up off the table, her eyes focusing on his. “Trevor?” Her voice pleaded for an explanation …
what’s going on?
Her eyes narrowed as she watched him squirm.

• • •

“It’s Trevan. Trevan Prater … assigned to this investigation.” He had to stick to the formalities now, stick to the job. Still, her eyes desperately pleaded him to help her and his stomach felt even sicker.

“Investigation?” she repeated. “So, you were investigating
me
all along? You’ve been lying to me this whole time?” The lip trembled again and the moisture in the back of her eyes started to spill into her lower eyelids.

“Not completely.” He wanted to tell her the parts that were true, that pretty much all of it was real, except his identity. But then, she had lied, too. So, what did it matter?

“Not completely?” Even with tears hanging in her eyes, he could see the flames of anger searing in the background. “Not completely. You pretended to be someone else, right?”

“Yes.”

“So, you’re not a security consultant, are you?”

“Not in the generic way, but I do specialize in cyber- and computer-related crime.” A single tear managed to bubble over the lower lid and roll down her cheek.
Crap, I’m screwed
. He still wanted to believe her, wanted to wipe that tear away. He clenched his jaw and looked down at his hand on the table as he stood over her. He saw his hand shake and he clenched it closed to stop the jittering.

She continued. “And this investigation is why I met you in the first place — why you talked to me, and pretended to be,” Sophie’s hand motioned from Trevan back to her, “whatever this was.”

“It’s why I kept talking to you. It’s not why I met you. You talked to me first, remember? That wasn’t supposed to happen.” He didn’t look up. He couldn’t. Her eyes bored holes into his face right now, but he couldn’t look into them. The truth was different than he admitted. It wasn’t just about the investigation — as much as he wished it were. Even now, he couldn’t believe the facts.

She stood up abruptly but Nate grabbed her shoulder and pushed her back into the chair. She glared at him. “Get your hands off of me, asshole. I don’t know what this is about but I have
nothing
to do with it.” Her eyes were slivers of wet fire as she leaned toward Trevan. “The transactions you’re so concerned about are deposits into an account set up by my father when I was a child. The payments are from a trust fund established on my behalf so he could ease his conscience for being such a lousy dad by giving me money.”