Chapter 2 - THE DEBT THAT WASN'T A DEBT
The terrace overlooked the city, its streets shining beneath a recent rain.
Delia stepped outside and immediately regretted leaving her coat upstairs.
Casimir noticed.
He removed his jacket.
She shook her head.
“I'm fine.”
“You're shivering.”
“It's February.”
“That's generally when people appreciate jackets.”
He held it out.
After a moment, she accepted.
The fabric was warm.
Expensive.
And smelled faintly of cedar.
Casimir remained a respectful distance away.
“Your father owes my organization eight hundred twenty thousand dollars,” he said.
Delia stared at him.
“So I've been told.”
“Do you know why?”
“A freight advance.”
“That's what he called it?”
“Yes.”
Casimir looked toward the harbor.
“Interesting.”
Delia frowned.
“Why?”
“Because I never lent him that money.”
The words struck harder than the cold.
“What?”
“My company advanced Beckett Freight two hundred thousand dollars against a shipping contract. The remaining amount appeared afterward.”
Delia's mind immediately began sorting figures.
“Six hundred twenty thousand.”
Casimir nodded.
“Exactly.”
She remembered the reconciliation.
The unusual adjustments.
The duplicated shipment codes.
The invoices carrying approval signatures that looked slightly wrong.
“I thought the additional amount was accumulated interest.”
“On a two-hundred-thousand-dollar advance?”
“That's what Father said.”
“Did you believe him?”
“No.”
Casimir studied her.
“Why didn't you challenge it?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“He told me to stop embarrassing myself.”
Casimir's jaw tightened.
Delia looked away.
“I suppose you think I'm foolish.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“I think someone has been using your intelligence while making sure you don't realize its value.”
She stared at him.
Nobody had ever described her work that way.
Casimir continued.
“I came tonight because someone has been moving money through freight companies using contracts bearing my signature.”
“Your real signature?”
“That's what I intend to discover.”
Delia felt her stomach tighten.
“Are you saying my father forged documents?”
“I'm saying the documents deserve examination.”
She pulled his jacket closer.
“And you think I can help.”
“You found the discrepancy six months ago.”
“How do you know that?”
Casimir took a folded paper from his pocket.
It was a copy of an internal accounting note.
Her note.
Dated six months earlier.
She recognized her own handwriting in the margin.
Amount does not reconcile. Request source documentation.
Delia went cold.
“Where did you get that?”
“Someone sent it to my office.”
“Who?”
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
She shook her head.
“I never sent that outside the company.”
“Then someone inside Beckett Freight wanted me to see it.”
Delia stared through the glass doors.
Her father was laughing with Vivian.
May you like
The same father who had told her she understood nothing.
Suddenly, she wasn't sure how much he understood himself.
