Thanks to Nat, Prettyflour, & Kitty for prereading.
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Chapter 51
I spent the rest of the weekend wondering how long I'd have to be patient for. Edward spent most of Sunday with his head buried in his laptop, refusing to let me see what he was planning.
On Monday morning there was a note on my desk telling me to pack a bag and bring it to work on Friday morning. Edward was taking me away for the weekend but insisted on keeping the destination a secret. When I'd asked him what type of clothes I'd need, his response had been.
"No clothes required, Swan. Not for the weekend I have planned."
Friday couldn't come quick enough, yet each hour seemed to pass by slower and slower. Desperately trying to occupy myself with work, I buried my head in the job Jacob had asked me to. It had been slow progress so far—Jacob hadn't been lying when he'd said he'd noticed some discrepancies.
On their own, they seemed insignificant, but total them together and the amount was fast becoming staggering. I'd made a spreadsheet to log every single transaction on. I had a column for everything; date, amount forecasted, actual cost, department, company used, and even method of payment.
I'd spent hours staring at the spreadsheet trying to make sense of it, but the lines were now starting to blur into each other. I'd almost called Jacob and told him it looked like a catalogue of errors which simply added up to a large amount of money...but something just didn't sit right with me.
The difference between the amount forecasted and the amount paid was marginal; never once exceeding eight percent, but it was still eight percent unaccounted for. I couldn't tie it down to one department, let alone one person, and it was frustrating the hell out of me.
It simply couldn't be genuine mistakes, there were far too many to justify that conclusion. Around fifty invoices a month were over the prediction, averaging $28 each time. That had been the case for almost eighteen months now, and I still had another five months to check. If I'd made the correct calculations—and I had—then Artera and Black were down almost $25,000.
Yet, as large a figure as that was, it wasn't large enough to support a collective conspiracy. If just one person from each department was involved it made the entire scam pointless. The money wasn't enough to share...but neither could I figure what who it could be.
"Shit," I hissed and slammed my hands down on the desk. "It doesn't make sense."
"Everything okay?" Edward stepped out of his office and I sighed.
"I hate it when I can't figure something out," I grumbled as he sat on the edge of my desk. "You have an appointment with Mrs. Stanley now, right? Do you want her file?"
He grimace. "Unfortunately yes. I needed someone to come with me, and Mr. Yorkie didn't see any reason for you to come along, so I'm taking young Seth. I have to hide behind someone."
I laughed and retrieved the file for him. "Here, it's all up to date."
"Thanks. Oh, here, before I forget." He handed me a crumpled up piece of paper. "It's the receipt for payment from Rawco Materials. Dunno why they mailed it to me...do you want it, or is it that chick from accounting who...Bella?"
I was staring at him, an idea forming in my head. "You're a genius," I whispered and jumped up to kiss him.
"That goes without saying," he said, but then asked, "Care to tell me why?"
"It's for this side-job Jacob has given me," I told him.
"Are you going to start talking about numbers and shit now?" he asked. "'Cos if you are, then I'm outta here."
I narrowed my eyes at him, and he laughed. "Hey."
"Sorry, love, but I don't do numbers and figures—they're your baby. I do angles and materials, remember? We're a perfect match. If ever we decide to design our own house, I can build and you can budget." He checked Mr. Yorkie wasn't looking and then gave me a kiss. "I better get going."
"I'll see you later?" I checked and he nodded.
"Of course..." he paused and said, "Unless Mrs. Stanley tries something again, then I might just hit her on the head with a shovel and bury her in the foundations. If that happens I'll flee to Canada to escape the authorities."
I laughed and he winked. "Edward?"
"Yes, Swan?" he said, stopping by the elevators.
"If you flee to Canada, come and get me first?"
"Always, Swan."
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