It was hard to know who to trust.
She choked down a bowl of oatmeal topped with apples and cinnamon, standing in her kitchen and staring at her computer sitting on the dining room table. Her nemesis.
Perhaps it was time to take a step back from the screen and whip out her damn files again. Lay out the papers, read through her notes and highlights. Start fresh, line by line.
Her job was to organize and locate the errors. Fix the mistakes. Clean up the mess left behind by the former accountant. Rather than fixating on a problem that didn’t have a clear solution, she would start over. With any luck, that would give her some clarity.
The discrepancies between revenues and cash flow were subtle but evident. She needed to focus on finding where the unexplained transactions were going.
Dropping her bowl in the sink, she went to her room and pulled out the boxes of files and organized the papers, stacks of receipts, and financial statements on the table. Starting with statements from a year ago, she compared each line to the ones she had manually entered online. Things seemed stable until six months ago, then a small amount of money was transferred to Lorimer Fertilizers. This seemed consistent with what would be necessary for running a ranch, harvesting crops, farm-y type things that seemed legit. However, every one of those lines missed recording shipments, receivals.
They were paying bills to this company every month, but not getting anything for it.
No one would have known it was happening, since Agnes kept mostly to herself, did the work from her home, as had been explained to her when she was hired. Marshall had no cause to double-check anything. The only reason things had come to a point was because Agnes had left, leaving a mess of finances for Marshall’s grandfather to dump on a new hire. Colette tapped her chin as she looked over the files. Seating herself at the table, she woke up her laptop and searched for Lorimer Fertilizers through a search engine. Nothing relevant came up.
They were sending money to a ghost company that didn’t exist.
This she already knew.
So, someone must be skimming money from Rosebud Ranch.
The thought made her want to run away, just like Agnes. How could she explain to Clarence King—or Marshall—that someone they trusted was stealing from them? It made her sick, almost as though she had taken the funds herself.
Money was as good a motive for revenge as she had ever seen. Colette raked her fingers through her messy curls and leaned back in her chair. If the previous accountant was the only one to know of the skimming of funds, Colette was made even more curious to know what Marshall’s meeting with her daughter would reveal.
Was she working with someone, or taking them all for herself to pay for her retirement in the tropics? Colette shook her head.
A knock sounded at the door, and she almost jumped out of her seat, unaware of any visitors coming. She certainly hadn’t buzzed anyone up. Glancing at the time on her phone, she realized it was already evening. Somehow, she had kept her head down and worked through most of the day, stopping only for bathroom breaks and snacks. She checked for any text messages and saw that Simone had blown up her phone.
Oops.
Padding over to the door, she peeked through the ancient peephole and saw Simone, as well as a few more people.
“How did you get in here?” Colette asked as she opened the door. “I don’t know if I want to let you in here, that’s fucking shady.”
Simone pushed her way in, and Colette recognized Anika Bernard and another woman following behind. They looked as though they were coming straight from work.
“Colette, meet Daphne. I’m assuming you remember Anika, Daphne’s sister?” Simone kicked off her three-inch heels and gave a sigh of relief. “We brought takeout. I hope you’re hungry.”
Nodding, Colette looked down at her disheveled appearance, embarrassed that she hadn’t taken the time to divest herself of her pajamas at any time that day.
“I wasn’t exactly expecting a party and I kind of lost track of time,” she said. “I’m going to go get dressed.”
“Don’t you dare! We brought booze and food. I also brought another accounting whiz to look over your boring paperwork with you. Let’s get cracking. Time is of the essence.”
A renewed sense of hope filled her chest; she blinked away tears that threatened.
She would not cry in front of her friends, but damn, they were the best.
After a day of drowning in her frustration, this was the life preserver she needed.
Simone walked over to the dining room table and scanned the files, clucking her tongue. “You ladies do the finance-y stuff, Anika and I will get some glasses and plates.”
Colette gave Daphne a tour through the paperwork, desperate for a second opinion. She was good at cleaning up messes and an efficient bookkeeper. Someone like Daphne, who had revealed she specialized in audits and had expertise in the area of fraud, might have a good take for her. Or maybe explaining it to someone else would give her a new perspective.
Fresh eyes and all that.
“And please keep in mind, while you’re looking, that we are missing some crucial information on the Lorimer Fertilizers account, the only one I can’t justify. Most of the other expenses I can verify, but these transactions don’t add up. It’s money going out and nothing coming in.” Digging her teeth into her bottom lip, she watched as her new friend sat at the table.
