“The black one. From 2021.”
“Is it frozen?”
“Thirty seconds ago.”
“Good.”
Then Dad said something I didn’t understand until later.
“Because the card’s the small one, Elena. I need to see your company’s accounts tonight. Not the cards. The wires.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“I’ve got a feeling, and my feelings cost the government forty years of other people’s prison sentences, so humor me.”
I nodded.
And we drove to my office.
At 6:30 that evening, Dad sat across from me in the conference room at Rossi Design Group.
I’d asked my chief financial officer, Rebecca Morgan, to join us.
Rebecca had worked with me for seven years.
She was meticulous, experienced, and fiercely protective of the company.
When I explained Dad’s concerns, she frowned.
“Brandon never had authority to initiate company transfers.”
Dad nodded.
“That’s good.”
Then he asked:
“Did he have relationships with your vendors?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Some.”
“Did he ever recommend suppliers?”
“Occasionally.”
Dad leaned forward.
“And were those suppliers independently verified?”
Rebecca looked uncomfortable.
“We have procedures.”
“Then let’s review them.”
For the next hour, we examined payment histories.
Most transactions were ordinary.
Furniture manufacturers.
Architectural consultants.
Lighting suppliers.
Contractors.
Then Dad noticed a recurring beneficiary.
Lakefront Strategic Solutions LLC.
The payments were irregular.
Sometimes twenty thousand dollars.
Sometimes fifty thousand.
Occasionally more than eighty thousand.
Rebecca frowned.
“I don’t recognize that company.”
Neither did I.
Dad asked for the vendor file.
Rebecca opened it.
The listed service was business development consulting.
The vendor had been established five years earlier.
The first invoice had been approved during a period when we were expanding into hospitality projects.
And the person who originally recommended the vendor was Brandon Hayes.
My stomach tightened.
“How much have we paid them?”
Rebecca began adding the transfers.
The total appeared at the bottom of the spreadsheet.
$1,927,460.
Nearly two million dollars.
I stared at the screen.
“That can’t be right.”
Dad said nothing.
He simply asked Rebecca to pull the supporting contracts.
