Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO NEVER FORGOT A NUMBER
The following morning, Delia arrived at the freight annex at six-thirty.
The warehouse smelled of diesel, wet cardboard, and coffee.
She loved that smell.
It meant people were working.
Real work.
Not the polished performances her father preferred.
Her colleague, Martin Hale, stood beside the printer.
“Morning.”
“Morning.”
He looked at her face.
“Bad gala?”
“Worse than usual.”
Martin smiled.
“That's impressive.”
Delia opened the accounting system.
She pulled the original advance agreement.
Two hundred thousand dollars.
Then the later adjustments.
Six hundred twenty thousand.
She compared transaction dates.
Approval codes.
Bank references.
Something didn't fit.
One payment had been routed through a company called Harborline Consulting.
Another through Eastbridge Logistics Advisory.
Both companies had the same mailing address.
Neither appeared to have performed any documented services.
Delia wrote down the names.
Then checked the vendor registration records available to her.
A familiar signature appeared.
Vivian Beckett.
Delia stared.
Her sister had approved one of the vendor registrations.
At eleven, Casimir called.
“Did you sleep?”
Delia frowned.
“Is that your opening question?”
“You look like someone who doesn't.”
“You can't see me.”
“I have a good imagination.”
She almost smiled.
“What do you want, Mr. Varo?”
“Have you found anything?”
Delia hesitated.
“Yes.”
He became serious.
“Tell me.”
“Two consulting companies received payments that don't match any work I can verify.”
“Names?”
She told him.
There was a long silence.
Then Casimir said:
“Don't confront your father.”
Delia stiffened.
“Why?”
“Because Harborline Consulting is already connected to another investigation.”
Her stomach tightened.
“What investigation?”
Casimir's voice lowered.
“Missing cargo. Forged contracts. And a man who disappeared last November.”
Delia gripped the phone.
“Who?”
“An auditor named Nathaniel Price.”
She stopped breathing.
Nathaniel Price.
She knew that name.
May you like
He had worked with Beckett Freight for seven years.
And three months earlier, her father had told everyone Nathaniel had resigned.
