Stephanie arrived at E. E. Martin thirty minutes before her orientation. She met Sheryl at the doors to get inside. Sheryl took Stephanie to the IT department to get her keycard to access the building and silence the alarm. "Where is everyone?" Stephanie asked, wondering why she was the only person to arrive for the orientation.
"Six women already had their orientation, and I have three after you," Sheryl explained. "I'm going through the list alphabetically."
Stephanie nodded, pretending to understand the logic. It made sense once Stephanie witnessed the process of programming the keycards and creating the identification badges. "Each keycard is specific to the employee," the IT specialist, Brian Gunner, explained, passing Stephanie the items. "You can only access the floors as your job title indicates."
"Thank you," Stephanie said, slipping the lanyard over her neck to let it hang between her breasts. Brian watched the card as it settled on Stephanie's chest.
"No dating coworkers," Sheryl snapped, reminding Brian for the seventh time. Sheryl waited until they entered the elevator before explaining the issues about Brian. "His family is close to the Martins. Elmer knows Brian doesn't work well with others. He gets too aggressive. Brian isn't the smartest man, but he maintains our computers. Anything beyond his expertise gets handled by an external IT solutions company."
"What happens if Brian harasses me?" Stephanie wondered.
"Tell me, but I doubt that would happen after my warning," Sheryl said.
Stephanie tucked the information about Brian away. She would get Carlos to research Brian Gunner and find the skeletons he shoved into his closet. Stephanie suspected that Brian Gunner wasn't as dumb as he pretended. She mentally noted to keep an eye on him.
The first day of Stephanie's workday meant completing various forms for the Human Resources department. After she took the paperwork to the HR manager, Stephanie was introduced to Elmer and Evan Martin. She was surprised when Evan requested Stephanie as his assistant—the woman who previously held the position transferred to the returns department. Stephanie wondered what the woman did to deserve the punishment. Sheryl said working in the returns department was the company's way of putting the employee on probation.
Stephanie never wanted to work there. She imagined opening shipping boxes filled with soiled panties. The mental image of opening a box with dirty underwear contained in plastic made her gag. It reminded Stephanie of the disgusting scent that filtered from the men's locker room in high school. She popped a mint into her mouth to cut the mental image and the stench from her nose.
The end of the day could not have arrived sooner. Elmer Martin was a stickler for routines. Learning his schedule and maintaining his travel and appointments was akin to chasing after a baby who just learned how to crawl. Absolute chaos.
When Stephanie drove home, she was toiling how to uncover evidence on Elmer's computer. Elmer's computer had a removable drive. Stephanie never realized such a device existed. Nothing was saved to the computer's built-in drive besides the operating system. Finding anything on the computer after he went home wasn't possible.
"Rough day, Babe?" Carlos asked.
"Is boring rough?" Stephanie asked. She waited for Carlos to nod. "Then yes, my day was rough. I'm trying to figure out how to search Elmer's computer. He has a backup drive where he stores everything. His root directory only contains the operating system. Elmer told me to purchase one of those drives you plug into the USB port to bring reports home. I won't have enough time in the office to do my job. They won't pay me extra to work in the evenings."
Hector passed Stephanie a thumb drive. She looked at it and raised her brows. Speaking in Spanish, Hector said, "Use this. It has a program to track the employees' computer usage."
"Oh. How am I supposed to sneak the program past the IT department? Brian needs to approve the thumb drive," Stephanie replied, attempting to return it. She didn't want to get caught on her second day.
"Take it to the IT department to scan," Lester suggested. Hector grinned and nodded.
Carlos laughed when Hector excitedly indicated how the malware would work. The program would download and run once plugged into the computer. When the thumb drive got scanned, it would remove everything on the device and show as empty.
"Wouldn't there be a log of when the program got downloaded?" Stephanie asked.
"No," Hector replied, still speaking Spanish. "It attaches to multiple execution files without changing the modified date stamp."
"How do you know it's working?" Stephanie wondered.
Hector used Stephanie's laptop to display his program. He would have to reload the thumb drive, but he thought Stephanie needed to see how the malware worked. A program window opened on Hector's laptop a few seconds after he plugged the device into Stephanie's computer. He shut her laptop off, then rebooted. The window on Hector's computer remained open. It showed Stephanie's device logged off and displayed her credentials once she logged on. Hector went through every program to show Stephanie where it was saved.
"Virtually undetected," Lester said, amazed by Hector's genius.
"You'll have a lot to filter through," Stephanie said. Hector shrugged. He could filter the feedback to display Elmer and Evan's computers. "Thanks, Hector. Are we allowed to use this hack?"
"Agent Matt Meyers approved the program. Hector designed it to spread throughout the network and only display whatever the user accesses on the devices. He can't plant fake evidence, and it can't get traced back to you," Carlos replied. Stephanie sighed in relief after Carlos explained the program when detected, would show someone downloaded it days before she started working at E. E. Martin.
Hector removed the program from Stephanie's laptop. He reprogrammed the thumb drive and gave it to Stephanie. She tucked it into her purse. Hector assured Stephanie that E. E. Martin received enough emails daily to make it impossible to track where the malware originated.
Tank passed Stephanie a white letter-sized envelope with the Rutgers University logo. Stephanie smiled at her friend and opened the letter. Inside was a paper copy of her transcript and the diploma indicating she received her degree in Business Administration from Rutgers University at Douglass campus.
Stephanie returned to work the following morning. She took the thumb drive to Brian in the IT department. He plugged it into the computer and ran a virus check on it. Stephanie suppressed a smile as Brian followed the steps Hector anticipated.
"It's safe for you to use. Do you have other USB drives for me to check?" Brian asked.
"No. Thank you for checking this for me. Mr. Martin said I can take the reports home to work on, but I'm not allowed to email them home," Stephanie replied.
"You'll need to bring the drive to me every morning to scan it," Brian reminded Stephanie.
"I will. Thank you," Stephanie replied. She left Brian's office and used her keycard to access the floor with Elmer's office. "Good morning," Stephanie greeted her coworkers. The women scowled and none of them responded to her greeting.
While working on the travel expense spreadsheet, Stephanie noticed inconsistent flight prices and airlines. Certain combinations and transfers didn't align with Elmer's schedule. She mentally noted the discrepancies to research when she got home. After completing the expenditure worksheet, Stephanie sent it to the accounting department to expense the flights to the company. It wasn't her job to question Elmer's expense receipts.
The accounting department manager, Lily Dursley, loved how Stephanie categorized the expenses, making her job more manageable. Lily asked Evan Martin to have Stephanie manage his expenditures, too.
After a few weeks, Stephanie discovered Evan Martin had paid the mob to keep his and Elmer's secrets. The amount was listed under "business lunch" on the expenditures sheet. Stephanie shook her head and entered the outrageous amount as "product purchase" instead. She emailed Evan, asking to speak privately about the expenses.
Evan called Stephanie to his office a few hours later. Stephanie indicated how she recorded the payment and asked if there was a better way to record it for the accountant. Stephanie knew Evan rarely took clients for lunch. "Perhaps we can split the monthly payment into daily business lunches or product disposal?" Stephanie asked.
Smiling at the suggestions, Evan decided, "Product disposal. How would that work?"
Stephanie knew it could potentially come back to bite her in the ass if the IRS did an audit of E. E. Martin's accounts. "How does E. E. Martin handle the soiled returns?" Stephanie asked.
"They get tossed with the trash," Evan replied.
Lowering her voice, Stephanie said, "Mr. Gianni has an incinerator at the meat packaging plant. Perhaps you can say the returned products are getting destroyed with the spoiled meat."
Evan laughed and called Mr. Gianni. They arranged to have a business lunch to discuss the change in payment category. "Thank you for your help, Miss. Plum. You have been invaluable to E. E. Martin."
All the evidence of the illegal activities of Evan Martin was located in the database. It didn't take long for Stephanie to find the paper trail. She helped Evan cover his tracks, but knew she gave the FBI vital information to investigate the case.
Hector observed everything Stephanie accessed. She only scratched the surface of the fraudulent activities. The FBI forensic IT team combed through the intel collected by Hector. They had to find the smoking gun. Paying the mob for protection or laundering money was the least of the crimes committed by the Martin brothers.
It took a few more months for Stephanie to find the evidence against Elmer Martin she needed to crack open the human trafficking ring. He travelled to Turkey to procure fabrics for lingerie production. It would have passed anybody's attention except for Stephanie. E. E. Martin never manufactured lingerie. They have purchasing departments. The women are responsible for contacting manufacturers to supply the warehouse and the local shops like Walmart, Target and Macy's.
Elmer travelled to the Middle East, Cuba, China, Philippines, and Mexico under the guise of purchasing fabric. Stephanie thought the ruse was perfect for hiding his activities. She passed the trip itinerary to Agent Meyers, who appreciated the intel. Unfortunately, the men deployed to those countries never caught Elmer Martin transporting women or children.
After Elmer returned from Mexico, Stephanie asked, "How was the trip?"
"Hot and humid," Elmer complained.
"Did you have any luck finding fabrics?" Stephanie asked. Elmer suddenly became suspicious of Stephanie. She never asked about his travels.
"Not this time," he replied, observing Stephanie's reaction.
"Oh. I'm sorry, Mr. Martin. Maybe you'll have better luck next time."
Elmer returned to his office. He filed the paperwork with Human Resources to transfer Stephanie to the purchasing department. She was the perfect employee. He couldn't afford Stephanie to tip off the authorities about his trips accidentally.
Stephanie arrived at work the following morning. Sheryl met her at the desk outside Elmer's office. "Hi, Sheryl. Is something wrong?" Stephanie asked.
"Mr. Martin transferred you to the purchasing department. We must visit Brian to have your access changed," Sheryl replied. Stephanie wasn't interested in the purchasing department. Though, it could have been worse. She could be working in the returns department.
After the first few hours of training, Stephanie was given a list of merchandisers to call for cotton panties even her Grandma Edna wouldn't wear. The underwear was similar to the ones Stephanie wore during her periods. Stephanie called the first company to order the underwear. She had the acceptable per-piece range on the spreadsheet on her screen. Stephanie entered various quantities to see which would be a reasonable offer. It took nearly an hour, but she managed to get the underwear for the lowest acceptable cost.
The woman on the other end thought Stephanie's logic about women having to replace those cotton underwear frequently because of staining was sound. They should produce underwear to withstand menstruation and not get discoloured from blood. Stephanie sealed the deal when she suggested the company create leak-free panties. Then, they could sell them at the highest acceptable fee in the range, and many women would be willing to pay for those and replace them after a sufficient number of times they got worn.
Stephanie entered the details into the computer with the purchase invoice number she received in an email at a few minutes to two. The program directed her to another area where she could see the manufacturing companies' locations. She nearly squealed in delight when the one she called was in Indonesia.
The rest of the pieces fell into place. Those odd flights finally made sense. Stephanie couldn't wait to get home to tell the others.