Chapter 6
Monday morning rolled around and I couldn't help but feel apprehensive on what today would bring. Dressed in black slacks, I paired it with a light rose blouse and a black sweater. Stepping out of the elevator I was greeted by Karry who was sitting up at the secretarial desk.
"Good Morning Ms. Edwards."
"Hello Kerry, please just call me Eva." I remark coming to stop in front of her desk.
"Of course. I'll notify Mr. Malfoy that you are here. If you would follow me."
Once we stepped up to his office she knocked and motioned me to wait as she stepped inside. Glancing about I noticed how quiet it seemed on the higher floor than the one below. A moment later Kerry opened the door and ushered me to follow. Glancing over I found Draco signing papers, dressed in a black muggle paint suit.
"Morning." I remark taking a seat in a chair, waiting for him to finish up with his own work.
"Morning. Give me a moment to finish this and I'll be free."
Draco remarks glancing up at me for a moment before concentrating on the parchment in front of him. Leaning over his parchment allowed parts of his hair to cover his face, loose that you could easily run your hands through. Glancing about his office I couldn't help but wonder how life had brought the two of us together again. He was my first love and our relationship embodied everything you'd think of that comes with teenage love. Drama, fighting, and love.
"Sorry. If I didn't finish it now Kerry would be harassing me until I did."
Draco explains bringing my focus back to him and away from my thoughts. Pushing the loose hair way from his face, he stretches and I couldn't help but fidget as his eyes wandered over me before snapping back up to make eye contact with a grin on his face. Not in the least ashamed that he had made it so obvious; totally professional, right?
"Come, I'll walk you to your office. I brought anything I thought you'd find relevant to at least get you started." Draco began standing up, leading the way out the door. "Did you see the paper earlier in the week?"
I groan in frustration which only earned me chuckling. I glare at him for a moment, "I'm going to assume you're talking about Rita's article about our lunch meeting."
"What?! You didn't find it fascinating? You weren't glued to every word about our blossoming relationship?" Draco teases, quoting the words Rita used for us hugging.
"Ugh! That lady is pure evil!"
"Really? I kind of enjoyed the part where she talked about how, 'when their eyes met you could see the affection they had for each other.'" Draco exclaims is his best Rita voice; I personally felt like puking.
"You're ridiculous!" I remark smacking him on the arm, "I don't know how you find anything she writes remotely funny especially when it's about yourself."
"It's just Rita and her normal garbage. Plus you have to admit it's free publicity for the both of us and for Gringotts."
Choosing to ignore that last statement I follow him into the room and we head for the table where half of it is filled with stacks of ledgers and parchments bound together, giving my office a lingering scent of mildew and parchment. Sweet Jesus! I was really over my head.
"To begin I thought the best solution was to show you where I found the error."
"That probably is the best idea. I can trace your steps and then pull up your accounts." I remark settling in a chair next to him and throwing my bag on the floor.
Reaching for the first stack of parchment, Draco places it between us as he begins, "at the end of month I usually glance the ledgers once the department has closed the accounts and skim through to see how well the Malfoy money is invested and where our weak points are."
"If you look here." Draco states pointing at a line in the ledger I lean in:
MCH Credit…$350,000.00
MCH Credit…$100,000.00
MCH Credit…..$1.00
MCH Credit….$1.00
MCH Credit….$10,000.00
MCH Debit…..$135.67
MCH Debit…..$20.57
The ledger continued is the same format but instead of the random account of $1.00 it was slowly building to more. MCH stood for Magical Clearing House. It was coding used to reference money moving magically in a digital format. Credit means money leaving the account and a Debit was money deposited. In the investment world the Debit symbolizes money earned or interest from money earned elsewhere.
"Originally I assumed the small random withdrawals was a new investment and testing the magic of the exchange to make sure that the lines were securely linked." Draco remarked, following the pattern of thoughts coming to my mind.
"But?" I remark glancing up at him already realizing that something about these withdrawals didn't add up.
"But, when I cross referenced the testing figures to that of any new investments in the same month. There was none." Draco remarks shaking his head in annoyance.
I leaned back, allowing myself to let this new information roll around and any other possible reason for the figures; in the hopes that maybe this wasn't a case of money laundering. "Did you check to make sure this wasn't an investment from a month or two ago that someone didn't do their job and instead of informing you they just snuck the testing amount through?"
"I did and I even had Blaise look to make sure. There's nothing for those amounts in any new investment." Draco remarks locking his grey piercing eyes on me.
Pulling my eyes away from him I glance back down on the sheet. Okay. Think Eva, could this be anything else? "Okay." I mumbled to myself standing up as I paced, trying to think about what my next step would be.
"Does this binder show only one section of the company's money? Or do you have more than one account where money is deposited and withdrawn for investments?"
He paused for a moment, "I believe there is only one account. Blaise is our Chief Accountant so I can double check with him."
"Okay that would be great."
I continued to pace for a bit weighing where the best place to start would be. On one hand it makes sense to begin right where he first noticed and trace his step or on the other hand, I could start by checking each investment to check and see if I match the amounts. I tried to ignore the fact that I could feel his eyes on me as I walked about the room.
"Okay." I remark turning to look at him, "I think to begin with I'm going to briefly trace your steps on what Blaise and you have discovered. From there I may look at each investment and see if anything matches. As way to see if these figures are not a case of money laundering."
He leaned back for a moment as he pondered my suggestion, "I think that is a logical decision. Included with this stack is our investment books so you are all ready to go."
"Okay great. Now. Where can a girl go to get some coffee around here? I have a feeling I'm going to need it." I remarked with a grin.
"I'll get Kerry to get some for us."
This was going to be tough, tedious work and I only hoped I would be able to spot something that would give us a clue to what has been going on and where it's going. Flipping through a few pages I skimmed through similar entries that ran through out each month. I would need a list of new investments or products that they invested in, to at least check those off the list.
"So, two coffees'." Draco states opening the door with a tray floating in front of him, "I didn't know how you take your coffee so Kerrie gave me everything."
I laugh as he lands the tray down on my desk; walking over I could see she did indeed give him everything. On the tray was a pitcher of steaming coffee, a small pitcher of creamer, a dish of sugar as well as honey.
"You weren't lying." I joked standing next to him as he handed me a cup.
"No, I was not. She seems very upset that I didn't know how you take your coffee." Draco remarks as he poured himself a cup of coffee, "So pretend you don't notice me making notes on your coffee habits."
I laughed, "I'll pretend I don't see it happening."
True to his word once he had his black coffee he leaned against the desk. His long legs stretched out in front of him, his pants restricting from the bend and giving away the toned legs underneath. Ugh! This is not professional at all! Focusing back, I poured myself some coffee and a scoop of sugar, stirring slightly as I glanced up at him.
"So, I'm thinking that the best option for me is to get a list of any new investments and a list of incoming money that comes from shares in a firm."
His grey eyes studied me for a moment before he responded, "sure. I think there should be something there."
We moved over to the table and spent the better part of the morning sifting through parchment ledgers and making a pile of stuff that wasn't relevant. After we both grabbed a second cup of coffee we dug back into the papers, sifting out anything that we knew was too new to be part of the potential problem. We worked smoothly falling into a rhythm of what our jobs were and it stayed that way until a knock interrupted us.
"Mr. Malfoy." Kerrie remarks stepping into the room before continuing, "Your lunch appointment is in 10 minutes."
"Thank you, Kerrie." Draco remarks dismissing her before glancing about, "Well, I would rather stay here and help but I completely forgot about my meeting."
"It's okay Draco, I didn't expect you to help so thanks." I reply grinning up at him.
After a lunch I headed back to my office in half hopes that Draco would be there but his door was shut and the lights off. Settling back over by the paperwork I tried to figure out where I left off. Summoning to life a dry erase board along with cork board, rolling both over by the windows; I began to organize my thoughts.
What we know: An odd withdrawal from the account holding investment money that stems back for years.
It could mean an error on an employee's part on how they set up a transaction and was too afraid to say anything.
It could also mean someone is moving money to another account?
- Is it an account owned by the Malfoy Company?
- Is this for an investment?
- Is this money laundering?
Main Question to solve: Check to see who is authorized to make transactions in the name of the Malfoy Company?
Who has access to the Gringott's account information?
I wrote all of this out on the dry erase board, rereading them before pacing a bit as I continued to let my brain continue mull over potential reasons for this and if really does have a correlation to the Malfoys demise in the ranks of Voldemort. If whatever was going on was indeed money laundering than whoever was behind this was intelligent and if it wasn't a group of people than they had to be familiar with money, investment accounts and how the process of transactions work in order to be able to continue pull money out. Not only for how long it had been going on but the ways in which they took to possibly pull money out and make it seem normal that no one should even look at it.
This was indeed a huge problem if it turned out not to be a simple mistake. I was impressed at how much Draco thought this out now that I knew the whole story. I wondered if he always intended to ask me or if he asked someone else and they either declined or it didn't lead to anything. What would have happened if he told me and I refused? So many more questions continued to haunt me and it made focusing even harder.
"So, he finally got around to asking you huh?"
Jumping slightly, I turned around to find Blaise smirking at me from the doorway; obviously pleased he could sneak up on me. He was dressed in traditional wizarding robes as he strolled into the room, glancing about the place.
"Hello Blaise." I remarked choosing to ignore his beginning statement.
"Hello Eva. I see you've made yourself comfortable."
"Hardly." I remarked, "What can I do for you?"
"Nothing really. Just came to see if it was true. That you really did agree to help Draco out with his problem." Blaise remarked settling into a chair.
Rolling my eyes, I realized that he wasn't about to leave anytime soon, so I followed him and sat in the chair across from him. "You didn't agree that he should bring someone else on?" I question trying to gauge what he meant exactly.
"Oh, quite the opposite. I tried to tell him at the beginning that we needed someone else for this. I might be head of accountants but that doesn't mean I know much about investments and how they're traditionally handled." he remarked, shaking his head at his annoyance.
"Oh."
"Draco of course thought it was too risky to bring someone else on to the case and was determined we would able to solve the problem. A year later and-" Blaise began, waving his arms about, "here we are finally adding some else to deal with this shit."
"Do you really believe that this is someone taking money?" I dig, leaning forward in anticipation that maybe Blaise would give me more insight.
He glanced at me for a moment before shrugging his shoulders, "It seems like it but to be honest I have no clue and neither does Draco. Everything points to money laundering and that could mean very serious things. Dangerous even."
I nodded thoughtfully for a moment, mulling over his words. Maybe they were right to be suspicious and I couldn't help the dread that started filling me.
"Well, if you need anything or want to ask a question you know where my office is." Blaise remarked in a bored manor as he walked to the door before pausing, "It was always you, you know."
"I'm sorry?" I exclaim not really understand what he meant by the statement, my heart skipping a beat waiting for his reply.
"He always planned that it would be you he would ask to come on to the project. No one else."
I opened my mouth to reply but just as quick Blaise turned around and headed out the door. Just as mysterious as when he showed up but leaving me with more questions than answers. Damn. Damn that man. Groaning, I hunched over the table letting my head hit the cold table. Yet again in a span of a week and a half I was still questioning my decision. Why the hell did I say yes to this?!
Of course, I knew the answer. It was those damn grey eyes that made me say yes.
