Numbers Never Lie (Crimson Romance) (5 page)

“So, you’re kind of a cowboy type then?” she stated coyly. Her slight hand reached for a chip, dunked it in salsa, then raised the chip to her lips.

“No, definitely not. More of a ‘Southwestern geek,’ if there is such a thing. I haven’t worn a pair of cowboy boots in five or six years. Not since I left my horse on the ranch in Oklahoma.” He grinned, teasing her a little. In truth, he hated wearing boots. It was too hot most of the time for that. He’d only put them on if the work required it.

She laughed. “But you
do
own a horse, right?” She gave him a smartass sarcastic smile as their food arrived.

“Well, my family has a whole slew of them, actually.”

“Strange.”

“Why?”

“You live in the city. You work in information technology. You don’t seem that … ”

“Country?”

“Well, I meant to say that type — the ranch type, but then in a way it makes sense because you seem awfully uncomfortable here.”

“Me? Uncomfortable? Nope.”

He wasn’t uncomfortable in the city but sitting here looking at her certainly proved a little intimidating. She was gorgeous. He’d dated a lot of girls over the years, even lived with one for a while, but he didn’t remember one that made him unable to think straight. Not even Linda, the biggest mistake of his life. They ate silently for a while. The pair that came in earlier caught her attention but didn’t speak. They just waved and smiled. Sophie did the same back.

“Friends of yours?” Trevor inquired as he looked over at them.

“No. Our bosses. The main ones.”

“And you know them?”

“Not really. I’ve been in meetings where I’ve made presentations to them. Other than that, I couldn’t tell you much about them.”

“So, you’ve drilled me with questions and know my story. Are you ready to tell me why I’m here?” He took a bite of his enchilada.

She pointed at the food on his plate or actually at the almost empty plate. “You really like that, don’t you?”

He’d practically inhaled the whole plate of food and she’d only picked at hers.

“Yeah, of course!” He flashed her another smile, wondering if she was stalling. “These are the best enchiladas I’ve ever tasted. They’re awesome. Here, you want to try some?” He pushed his plate toward her.

She looked at the remaining enchilada hesitantly. He waved his fork to encourage her. “Go ahead. You’re gonna like it.” The hesitation was short. Her hand moved toward his plate.

“Okay, I’ll try it, but only because you’re practically forcing me.” Her fork sliced into the end of the enchilada. She brought it to her lips, grinning at him. As she chewed, she nodded and wagged her fork. “Yep, yep. That’s good. Really good.”

“Told you.”

“Yes, so … ” She swallowed. “ You kind of owe me for saving you from near death the other night, right?”

“Not really. I don’t think I was ever in any
real
danger.”

“You’re still saying that?” She looked up at him with a questioning look that he knew she intended as more challenging than anything else.

“I’m sitting here all in one piece, aren’t I?” His gray eyes glinted at her. He was getting cocky.

“Well, you owe me whether you want to admit it or not. So, I want to ask you a favor in return.” She hesitated. “I found something last week that I don’t understand. I hoped you were a database person and could explain it, but actually your type of experience may be just as good or better. I’m not sure.” Okay, at this point he knew the meeting was about business. He looked around the room to take note of changes and shrugged off a twinge of disappointment.

“Don’t make it sound like I’m your fallback plan, now.”

“No, that’s not what I meant, but there’re really only two explanations for what I found. Either the data’s purposely wrong or someone entered it wrong accidentally.”

“I’m afraid you lost me, Ms. Henderson.”

“Sophie, please.”

“Maybe I should call you Henry, you know, short for Henderson?” He watched in amusement as she reached over with her fork and took another bite of his enchilada. She ignored him poking fun at her name. For some reason, giving her a unique nickname personalized their meeting. Guys did that. Nicknamed their friends, their dogs, their cars, their …

“I can’t really explain it. I have to show you. Let’s just say that some of the finance staff are ‘less than capable’ in certain situations and if it’s an explainable mistake then I need to know that and get it corrected. If it’s more than that — well, that’s something I don’t really know how to deal with yet.”

Trev raised his eyebrows a little but said nothing. He watched her face as she became noticeably more uncomfortable.

“I brought the information home the other night. I ran some reports for a migration and everything was, well … off. And not just a little. I couldn’t figure it out. I need someone better than me to look at it.”

“Why don’t you just ask someone at work?” It seemed the common sense thing to do but to be honest, he was pretty sure he knew what she referred to. She wasn’t the first person to see it. The other person had reported it and started the ball rolling on this assignment for him.

“I thought about that but then I thought maybe I should just keep it to myself for a little bit. If I bring it to anyone’s attention and it’s just a mistake, they’ll think me a suspicious flake. If it’s not a mistake, then more investigation needs to be done and the less that it becomes common knowledge the better.”

“So, you’re trying to hide it? Whatever it is.”

“No! That’s not what I meant.” She shook her head in exasperation. “You just need to see it.”

“At your apartment?” He rubbed his chin, or at least the hair on his chin, and showed that wicked glint again.

“No!” Her voice got a little higher pitched. “God, no.” She let out a nervous giggle. “This is starting to sound like some sort of crazy pickup line, isn’t it?” She looked out the window and smoothed her hair back from her forehead.

He watched, unsmiling, eyebrows pitched. If he didn’t already suspect what might be in those reports, yes, he’d think she was hitting on him. There was little he could say so he thought it best to just leave it alone.

She started again. “I can bring them to you somewhere this weekend, or next week if you want.”

He kept the brows arched and kicked his head back a little.

“It’s not like that! Really!” Her voice raised a couple notches.

He looked at the door, then answered. “It’ll have to be this weekend. I’m traveling Monday through Thursday of next week.” He wanted to see what she had. “I’ll warn you though, just looking at some reports won’t tell me very much without the data behind them.”

“Well, let’s start with the reports. If you think it’s needed, I can probably get the data.”

“Sounds good. Are you finished with my enchilada? I think you missed a bite.” He taunted her as he surveyed the cleaned plate. She’d eaten the rest, even what was left of the beans. Oddly, her plate remained barely touched. It should have bothered him that she’d helped herself to his food, but it didn’t.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” She held the fork to her lips and licked the remaining sauce.

“Let’s get back then, or you’re going to be late.” He reluctantly waved for the ticket and they left. For a brief moment, the thought of getting her to take a long lunch or afternoon off entered his mind. Then reality hit and he admitted she’d never go for it. Her mind was already back at work.

• • •

Sophie walked behind him to the door and for the first time, noticed how extremely tall Trevor was. Even in heels, she didn’t tower over him. That was new for Sophie. She stood 5’10" and with heels could easily go over the 6’ mark. As a teen, she hated being so tall and never wore heels. Now, she didn’t care. In fact, sometimes it worked to her advantage. Trevor must have been at least 6’5" or maybe more. He held his shoulders very square at all times. It made him look even taller — ex-military perhaps? He moved smoothly and easily.

He stopped at the door and waited for some others to go through. He held it for them with one hand up high, then looked at her and smiled as she walked through. His hair was kind of a chestnut brown color cut very short all around. It would look a little too severe without the facial hair, but the beard and mustache softened the look significantly and made him appear friendly. They were trimmed excessively short and lined the jaw, showing the angular line of his face. Interestingly enough, he groomed it to perfection. Not a hair out of place anywhere. She wondered if he was one of those neat freak guys that couldn’t stand to have his house messy and sent his jeans to the dry cleaners to get that perfect line starched in them. The only people she’d ever met that perfect looking were either suffering from extreme psychiatric issues, or military.

“Trevor, have you ever served in the military?” she asked as she passed under his arm into the brisk air. He looked perplexed.

“Why do you ask that? Is that a job qualification check?”

“No, but you carry yourself like someone that has. Kind of stiff.”

“Oh, I guess it’s a habit.” She noticed his hesitation to answer. He motioned for them to walk quickly to catch the light at the corner in front of them. “Yes, I served in the army for a while. It paid for my college education.” He didn’t add anything more. Obviously, he wasn’t interested in discussing it further. He moved ahead of her, apparently determined to get across before the light changed and the cars started moving.

“Interesting.” She said it under her breath but he caught it.

“What?” He glanced back.

“Most men I’ve met that were military would never grow facial hair. While yours is trimmed to perfection,” she felt her face flush, “it doesn’t seem the standard military issue haircut.” What a stupid thing to mention, she chastised herself.

“Ah, but I’m not in the army now and haven’t been for a few years.” He reached up and rubbed the thin line of hair on his chin. “So, I guess I can admit to having a little rebellious nature to me. I grew this as soon as I was discharged and have kept it ever since. I tried it thicker but it itched too much.”

“Not all that rebellious.” She teased. “Otherwise you wouldn’t trim it so neatly.”

“Most women think I’m rebellious enough,” he stated without looking at her.

Chapter Three

In April of 2008, an anonymous tip came to the Feds. The source advised there was evidence of significant fraud going on at Benton & Stanley. In the process of reporting the fraud, the person involved stated that he was concerned for his safety and the safety of his family. At first, they thought it was a crank call, one of those conspiracy-crazy lunatics that thought big government was out to get them. The guy’s voice was breathless and stilted, and he sounded to be under the influence of something. Upon further questioning, the hotline operator was able to determine that the person did in fact work at the company and had credible information. However, during the call, the person was cut off unexpectedly and did not call back.

In May, another call came, this time from a woman. She stated that her husband had discovered some fraudulent activities going on at his office and he had become increasingly suspicious that their family was in danger. His behavior had grown erratic and he was despondent at home and afraid to go to work most days. Once again during the call, they lost connectivity, but not before she was able to give his first name, which they did a check on and were able to trace back to the IT department head. An investigator called their home and set up a time to meet with him to discuss the suspected criminal activities.

That was when Trevor and Nate started on the project. They were asked to track Mr. Bob Greenwood and see if his suspicions were, in fact, valid. On May 20, 2008 (last year) they were supposed to begin trailing Bob. They didn’t participate face to face in the interrogation with him but they listened to it and absorbed the details. Bobby had been the IT director for three years. During the second year, he recommended an upgrade or replacement to the financial system. Many of its capabilities were extremely outdated and he wanted to get them to a more secure and reliable platform. By upgrading, they’d be able to incorporate many of the latest secure online banking features as well as automated payments for the AP system and electronic funds transfers for vendors and customers. All of that would decrease their labor and supply costs significantly.

“Most companies were already this far along, taking full advantage of EFT processes,” he said during the interview. “We were still behind and it didn’t make sense at the time. If we instituted the online system, the entire process would be electronic. No more handwritten or typed purchase orders. They would be keyed and submitted to the vendor electronically, which the vendor would authenticate. No more keyed-entry of invoices. No more laborious check runs that have to be sorted and mailed.” He paused for a breath. “And most importantly, less openings for fraud. The purchase order, invoice, and payment all had to match and once the payment was approved, then the funds were transferred through a method that applies a security key to the transaction. The other side has to have a matching security key, which is randomly generated periodically to assure it’s secured. They run on a timer. Every so many minutes, a new key is generated on each side. As long as they’re compatible, the transaction can be completed, but it also requires a person on each end to enter a protected password to authorize the transmittal of funds. So, there’s no anonymity involved. Every transaction requires certain levels of access and is backed up by an approval process.” Bob stepped away from the window and narrowed his eyes as he watched the agent take notes. “It would cut the labor costs of data entry in half and increase the security tri-fold. It was a no-brainer, I thought.”

He went on to explain that he was surprised that he met with resistance initially from the executive staff and board members. They stated it was due to the initial expense involved. The auditor was asked to review the process for loopholes. Bob stated that after the auditor review and a meeting where he spelled out in detail to the board committee the savings that they could receive as a result of the change, it became easier to sell the project. Eventually, the board voted and approved the upgrade.