Accountant Reports.
I opened Accountant Reports and found a PDF labeled Forensic Review—the month and year Harlan was charged with fraud.
To my surprise, it opened immediately. No password needed.
A title page filled the screen, all clean fonts and professional logos.
Prepared by: Victoria Ames, CPA, CFE,
Mid-South Advisory Partners, PLLC.
Date: Five years ago.
I skimmed until I hit a section where she outlined ways Kincaid could “clean up” his books, from reclassifying expenses to backdated invoices. Basically, how to cook the numbers until the charges went away.
If Victoria Ames was handing low-hanging fruit like Harlan a road map to make fraud disappear, was she doing the same for the likes of Knox?
Maybe. Maybe not. But she’d just moved to the top of my list.
When the financial file finished transferring, I clicked Clients & Investors, then copied and pasted it into the external drive. The progress bar estimated three minutes.
While it copied, I opened the folder and did a quick search for Knox. I wasn’t surprised when nothing came up, so I tried something else—searching for the address of the house.
A folder popped up.
The folder’s name was the address, and when I clicked on it, a neat stack of subfolders filled the screen:
Lease – Harlan Properties, LLC to Blackstone Capital, LLC
Addendum – Renewal / Occupancy
Rent Ledger – 12 months
Utilities – Setup Confirmations
Maintenance – Work Orders
Vendor Invoices – Locks / Blinds / HVAC
Inspection Photos – Exterior / Interior
Emails – Tenant Communication PDF
Was Blackstone Capital, LLC one of Knox’s corporations … or had he used a go-between?
The folder finished copying, and I grabbed the two other folders I cared about. Both transferred in under five minutes.
While the files transferred, I checked on James and Harlan multiple times. Harlan was happily showing off features under the hood like he was unveiling a masterpiece. James played along, pretending to be impressed.
They were still occupied, so as the last folder finished transferring, I stared at the desktop and asked myself what else I could grab.
I hadn’t found any password-protected files, but I could still grab his emails.
He used Outlook, so I tried to copy the mailbox over to the drive, but the progress bar estimated it would take thirty-two minutes.
That was way too long, so I stopped the transfer, then searched for Knox in the emails. A handful popped up, so I selected them and copied them to the external drive.
Then I searched for the house address in his inbox. Multiple emails showed up, so I repeated the process.
