Chapter 6 - The Audit No One Wanted
By the third day, Carter Global had hired two forensic accounting firms, one cybersecurity company, an outside governance adviser, and enough lawyers to populate a small city.
Nobody trusted anyone.
That included me.
Especially me.
The audit team occupied the executive conference floor, where every glass wall had been covered with temporary privacy film. Employees passed through badge checks to reach offices they had used for years. Outside, television crews lined the sidewalk. Inside, people lowered their voices whenever Daniel or I entered a room.
Fear moved faster than email.
I hated it.
"If everyone thinks they're under suspicion, we'll destroy the company before we find the people who actually did anything," I told Miriam.
She sat across from me in Daniel's office, reading a list of vendor entities connected to former Carter executives.
"Then say that to them."
"To eighty-three thousand employees?"
"Start with eight hundred senior managers. Work down."
Daniel entered carrying three coffees and a stack of folders.
"I knew ownership came with glamour," I said.
"Wait until regulatory testimony."
He placed a cup in front of me.
It contained exactly one packet of sugar and too much cream.
I stared at it.
"How do you know how I drink coffee?"
"You made three cups in the archive."
"You were watching me?"
"You were the only person in the room making coffee."
Miriam did not look up. "If this becomes flirting, I am billing both of you separately."
Daniel sat down.
"Good morning to you too."
The first major audit finding arrived at 9:12.
Carter Global had paid ninety-four million dollars over four years to consulting vendors that shared addresses, legal agents, or banking intermediaries with companies tied to Nolan Pierce.
Some payments were legitimate.
Too many were not.
One vendor billed twelve million dollars for "market integration support" on a division that never entered the market listed in the contract.
Another received six million to evaluate properties already purchased.
A third existed only on paper.
The name on its incorporation documents made Daniel go still.
Langley Strategy Partners.
Vanessa's brother, Christopher, had signed the original filing.
"She said her family had no operating relationship with us beyond the proposed transaction," I said.
Daniel's face hardened. "She lied."
"Or she will say she didn't know."
"She knows everything her brother does when it benefits her."
It was the first personal thing he had said about Vanessa.
I noticed.
Miriam did too.
"How long have you two worked together?" I asked.
"Nine years."
"Were you involved?"
Daniel's eyes sharpened. "In what?"
"You know what I mean."
He leaned back.
"We dated for six months five years ago. It ended badly and professionally enough that the board decided pretending it never happened was best for everyone."
"That sounds healthy."
"It was not."
Miriam finally looked up. "Anything she could characterize as a conflict?"
"No financial entanglement. No undisclosed ownership. No promises."
"Good."
I should not have cared.
Annoyingly, I did.
At eleven, Vanessa arrived with counsel.
She requested a formal interview rather than a suspension meeting. Daniel allowed it.
She entered wearing white, which felt less like fashion than strategy.
Her attorney began by objecting to the scope of the audit.
Vanessa cut him off.
"I want to answer."
She looked directly at me.
"Christopher's firm performed legitimate work."
"Then invoices and deliverables will prove it," I said.
"They will."
"Why wasn't the family connection disclosed?"
"Because I didn't select the vendor. Nolan did."
Daniel folded his hands. "Did you know?"
Vanessa hesitated.
Too long.
"Eventually."
"When?"
"Last year."
"And you didn't disclose it."
"I told Nolan to correct the file."
"Did he?"
"Apparently not."
Daniel's disappointment seemed to bother her more than my questions.
"You know what this company means to me," she said.
"That's not an answer."
Her jaw tightened.
I understood then why they had once worked as a couple.
They were similar in the worst way for intimacy: both interpreted control as competence.
The interview continued for nearly two hours.
By the end, Vanessa admitted knowing about two related-party vendors and denied knowledge of the rest. She also denied any connection to the attempted archive entry or the message sent to my phone.
Then my security adviser, Marcus Vale, entered the room without knocking.
Marcus had spent fourteen years in federal financial-crimes investigations before deciding private security involved fewer congressional hearings.
He placed a tablet in front of me.
"We traced the anonymous image."
Vanessa looked toward the screen.
The message had been routed through three virtual networks, but the original device identifier matched a tablet registered to Carter Global executive communications.
Assigned user: Vanessa Langley.
Nobody spoke.
Vanessa stared at it.
Then she laughed.
It was a short, stunned sound.
"That's impossible."
Her attorney stood. "This interview is over."
Vanessa ignored him.
"My tablet was stolen two weeks ago."
Daniel's voice turned cold. "You never reported it."
"Because it was returned the same day. I thought I left it in a car."
Marcus asked, "Who returned it?"
Her face changed.
"Nolan."
The room shifted again.
"He said one of the drivers found it."
Marcus looked at me.
"Then Pierce may have cloned the credential."
Vanessa stood.
"You think Nolan sent that threat using my device to implicate me?"
"I think we don't know enough yet," I said.
She looked at me with something new in her expression.
Not contempt.
Fear.
"You don't understand him," she said.
"Then help us."
Her attorney said her name sharply.
Vanessa sat back down.
For the first time since the gala, she looked less like an enemy than a woman calculating how much danger she was already in.
"Nolan kept a separate approval system," she said quietly. "Not in our financial platform. He called it the mirror ledger."
Daniel leaned forward.
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Who had access?"
"Arthur. Nolan. Sometimes my father."
My stomach tightened.
"And you?"
"Once."
"Why?"
Vanessa looked at Daniel.
Then at me.
"Because three years ago I found a payment from the Carter Foundation to a company that did not exist. Nolan told me it was a donor privacy vehicle."
Miriam's pen stopped.
"How much?"
"Twenty-eight million."
The charity gala suddenly felt very far away.
I thought of the room laughing at my dress while congratulating itself for generosity.
"Where did the money go?" I asked.
May you like
Vanessa whispered the answer.
"I never found out."
