Chapter 10 - The Account in Her NameNia did not sleep after seeing the statement.
By morning she had memorized the last four digits.
Tasha called the bank whose logo appeared at the top.
The representative would not discuss the account without authentication.
Good.
That meant they could not simply uncover everything through a phone call.
Nia contacted Adrian.
He arrived shortly after noon.
He was tall, forty, professionally dressed, and visibly uncomfortable walking into the apartment.
Marcus was already there.
The two men recognized each other immediately.
“You,” Marcus said.
Adrian nodded.
“Coffee-shop parking lot.”
“Silver sedan.”
“That’s mine.”
Tasha looked between them.
“Can we survive the testosterone and discuss financial fraud?”
Adrian set his laptop down.
Marcus almost smiled.
Almost.
Nia handed Adrian the statement.
He studied it.
“This is a real bank format.”
“Can somebody open an account using my name?” Nia asked.
“With stolen identity information, yes. Whether that happened here requires records.”
Marcus pointed to the transfers.
“They came from company accounts.”
“Were they authorized?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Adrian opened his files.
“I pulled ACH data from the statements Nia saved. The transfers to account 7714 originated as payroll adjustments.”
Nia frowned.
“Payroll?”
“Yes.”
“Under whose employee ID?”
Adrian hesitated.
“Hers.”
Marcus looked at Nia.
She stared back.
He immediately looked away.
The reflex mattered.
He had doubted for half a second.
Nia saw it.
He knew she saw it.
“Say it,” she said.
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“I’m not accusing you.”
“You thought it.”
“I’m trying not to jump.”
“Then ask.”
He looked directly at her.
“Did you receive any money from the company outside your normal salary?”
“No.”
“Did you authorize payroll adjustments?”
“No.”
“Did you open account 7714?”
“No.”
Marcus nodded.
“Okay.”
Adrian watched them carefully.
“That is actually useful.”
Tasha raised an eyebrow.
“Marriage crisis as audit technique?”
“Direct questions.”
Adrian turned the laptop around.
“Someone entered manual payroll adjustments under Nia’s employee profile, then redirected them to a different bank account.”
“Who had permission?” Nia asked.
Adrian looked at Marcus.
“Based on the software roles you sent me, Denise.”
The room went silent.
Marcus sat down.
“So she stole money and made it look like Nia took some.”
“Possibly.”
Adrian remained measured.
“Don’t outrun the evidence.”
Tasha nodded approvingly.
Marcus noticed.
“Everybody’s learning lessons at my expense.”
Nia’s expression softened for a moment.
Then she remembered why they were there.
Adrian continued.
“There’s another problem.”
He opened a spreadsheet.
“D&W wasn’t the only unusual vendor.”
Three names appeared.
D&W Property Services.
Harbor Claims Consulting.
Northpoint Equipment Leasing.
Nia frowned.
“I recognize Northpoint.”
“You should. Walker Restoration pays them monthly for equipment leases.”
Marcus leaned closer.
“We lease two industrial dehumidifier packages through them.”
Adrian nodded.
“According to the invoices.”
“What does that mean?”
“I checked the serial numbers against insurance schedules.”
Marcus’s face changed.
“No.”
“What?” Nia asked.
Marcus stood.
“We own those machines.”
Adrian turned the screen.
“Walker Restoration appears to have paid lease fees on equipment it already owned.”
“For how long?”
“Thirty-one months.”
“How much?”
“Approximately ninety-three thousand dollars.”
Marcus stared.
Tasha whistled softly.
Nia looked at Adrian.
“Who owns Northpoint?”
“A Delaware LLC. Ownership isn’t visible in simple public records.”
Marcus paced.
“So now we’re over two hundred fifty thousand.”
“Potentially.”
“Potentially?”
Adrian remained calm.
“We need bank records, contracts, and source documents before calling anything theft.”
Marcus stopped.
“My father’s old notes mentioned unauthorized charges years ago.”
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
“You have those?”
Marcus handed him copies.
Adrian read Leonard’s warning.
“Denise cannot have sole financial control again.”
He looked up.
“This changes the pattern.”
Nia folded her arms.
“How?”
“It shows internal-control concerns predate your involvement.”
Marcus looked at her.
In other words, Denise could not credibly claim Nia invented the problem.
Adrian closed the folder.
“Your company attorney should consider sending preservation notices immediately. Nobody deletes emails, accounting files, texts, or banking records.”
Marcus nodded.
“I’ll call.”
“Also revoke administrative access carefully. Preserve first, restrict second.”
Marcus wrote everything down.
Nia watched him.
This was the Marcus she had wanted months ago.
Not automatically believing her.
Not automatically believing Denise.
Following evidence.
It made her sadder than anger had.
Adrian packed his computer.
Before leaving, he looked at Nia.
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“The account in your name.”
Nia waited.
“The mailing address isn’t yours.”
“Whose?”
Adrian slid over a printout.
Marcus leaned in.
The address belonged to a private mailbox location twelve minutes from Walker Restoration.
“But that doesn’t tell us who opened it,” Tasha said.
“No.”
Adrian tapped a second page.
“The recovery phone number does.”
Nia’s pulse accelerated.
“What number?”
Only the final four digits were visible.
Marcus recognized them first.
He sat down hard.
“No.”
Nia looked at him.
“Whose?”
Marcus’s voice was barely audible.
“Mom’s old cell.”
Tasha frowned.
“Old?”
“She stopped using it last year.”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
“The number is active.”
Marcus went still.
Adrian continued.
“And according to the carrier lookup I ran, it was reactivated eight months ago.”
Nia thought about the anonymous screenshots.
The unknown number.
The messages Denise claimed to have received.
Marcus whispered, “Can we see the whole number?”
Adrian turned the screen.
Marcus stared.
It was the same number that had anonymously sent Denise the cropped screenshots.
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The anonymous warning source had never existed.
Denise had sent the evidence to herself.
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