I was in charge of sorting the printouts of Julia’s spreadsheets while Kate and Cami crawled around on my living room floor putting the copies of invoices and cryptic emails into separate piles.
Of course, being a CPA, I couldn’t resist a little sarcasm. I jabbed my index finger at the pile of spreadsheets. “Her bookkeeping might be crappy, but look at all those zeros. Some cover up. We’ve stumbled onto something really big here.”
“Score one for our team.” Cami held up an email. “These aren’t that easy. They were using some kind of code, I think. Some of these messages could mean lots of different things and—”
Kate broke in. “—and at least from what we’ve seen so far, it looks like we’re on the right track. It’s definitely going to run into millions. Let’s do a little brainstorming, okay?”
I threw my hands in the air. “Hold off and just keep sorting. Then we’ll brainstorm.”
We kept at it nonstop until we finally finished.
Kate stretched, stood up, then plopped onto one of the sofas. She groaned, “Man, I’m not as flexible as I used to be. Bending over this stuff is back-breaking. Wonder what I’ll be like in 20 years.”
“Well, if you took yoga like I do…” Cami demonstrated a very uncomfortable looking pose.
“Forget that. Too much work. Time to make some sense of all this.” She picked up the pile of invoices and put them on my cocktail table.
I eased my aching body onto the easy chair and put my feet on the ottoman. Cami plunked down on the sofa across from Kate, stuffed a pillow under her head and stretched like a cat. “Hmmm. Even with all the yoga I do, I’m a little stiff, too.”
Kate didn’t waste time complaining. “Okay, as I see it, quite a few of the orders were from those three guys at the party, you know, the contracting officers from the supply depots.”
I snickered. “Yeah, the ones out in the back talking sports with Matt.”
“But that wasn’t all of it by any means. I counted orders from ten different places where the manufacturing was subcontracted to Alaric instead of being manufactured at Paradise. Some were one-time shots, some were multiple. And, there were never two pass-throughs close together. Even though there were more in the fourth quarter, they were fairly spread out.”
I thought about that while pacing the way I do when I’m speculating. “Hmmm. All of the ones I looked at seemed to range between a quarter and a half a million dollars. Pretty hefty orders for something tagged “rush” that will most likely wind up sitting in a warehouse for God knows how long—”
“—and how about all of the ones placed before CRS was launched? Back when Julia and Matt were still in D.C.?”
“Maybe that’s why Bruce moved the marketing division to Seattle. He probably figured it made sense to get his slick operation out from under possible scrutiny in D.C. and locate it near Paradise. That way Julia and Matt can continue to pull it off and no one will be the wiser.”
Cami chuckled. “No one but us, that is. When I signed on to sell furniture to the government I never suspected I’d become an undercover sleuth. It’s a little scary, isn’t it? I mean, this isn’t TV, you know. It’s us unmasking some pretty high level thieves. What if they become dangerous? She gave a little shudder. “Kimberly, why don’t you grab that whole pile of orders placed with Alaric? Let’s see what they really add up to.”
I hauled myself out of the easy chair and picked up the papers she pointed to. “Okay, you’re right. We definitely need to do that. I’ll sort them by date, too.”
With the Alaric orders clutched in my hand and my mind reeling like wheels on a slot machine, I sprinted up the stairs. I’m really fast using the touch system to enter figures on a calculator. I didn’t want to take the time to set up a spread sheet and enter each of the orders. This was beginning to look like a massive fraud, and a quick, old-fashioned tabulation would show how extensive it really was.
After punching the figures into my desk calculator, I hit the total button and let out a low whistle before I tore off the tape. There had been close to 100 orders that went to Alaric during a little more than three years, and it added up to almost $38,000,000!
I ran it again to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake. Although the total amount was large, the individual orders wouldn’t cause radar blips in FACR’s figures, nor would the yearly totals. After all, it averaged a little more than $12,000,000 a year. FACR’s volume was close to 80 times that. A few orders might appear suspect but would never raise a red flag. I had to admire what those three had apparently cooked up.
The question remained—what was in it for them? What was their relationship to Alaric Fabricators? How much did Alaric get, and what was left over for Julia, Matt and Bruce? Obviously it had to be enough to take the risk.
I charged down the stairs, whooping like I was cheering for a winning football team as the clock ran out. “We are hot! Almost $38,000,000! I don’t know how much of that went into the pockets of those three scumbags, but at least we know how Julia bought that palace of hers.”
Kate said in a very level voice, “And we’re the ones who will make sure they pay! Does anyone have a clue where we should begin?”