by Louis Woodley
This can't possibly be right, Stacy Craft thought to herself. But she ran the calculations again, and a third time with the same results. Everything looked accurate, but something was definitely wrong with the formula. Unless anyone were to read it as closely as she was doing, they would never notice a few cents disappearing due to rounding in the transaction. It wouldn't cause concern on an individual account, but on a system-wide level it could cause quite a disparity to go unnoticed. The only question was whether it was a simple programming mistake or a deliberate syphoning of funds? And, if so, who was doing it and why? She felt an obligation to do something about it, fearing that she might be held accountable if she didn't. But if she'd known at the time how it would have impacted her life, she might have been tempted to just look the other way.
Stacy had been hired straight out of college. She'd been one of the top students in her class, driven to prove herself, in part because she was often looked down upon. She'd always looked young for her age and that hadn't helped in college. People tended to not take her seriously because she looked like she still belonged in high school.
Having a social life had been particularly challenging. It didn't help matters to hear herself referred to as 'jailbait' and getting served in a bar was a particular challenge. After being accused of a fake ID on several occasions after turning 21, she'd started carrying a copy of her birth certificate in her purse to prove she could legally imbibe.
Feeling disrespected, she channeled her efforts into demonstrating that she was better than those who looked down on her. She studied hard and that dedication had paid off at graduation. Not only did she win the highest award from the College of Business, she landed a coveted position at Investicon, a high-flying conglomerate with numerous subsidiaries.
The hours were long and the work was challenging, but she thrived at it. Luckily she didn't have a social life to begin with, because she certainly didn't have time for one now. It occurred to her that, other than a few coworkers, no one knew who and where she was. Even her parents were absentees, professors currently on sabbatical outside the country and rarely in touch at the best of times.
"I could drop off the face of the earth and no one would notice," she muttered. At the time she had no idea how prophetic that remark would turn out to be.
She had to think this through carefully. If she decided to pursue the issue, who should she report it to? Her immediate supervisor would assume that she was just seeking to make a name for herself; but if it turned out that she was right then he would no doubt claim the success for himself (to cover his butt for not catching it). No, she needed to take this higher, but to whom?
She finally decided that she would go all the way to the top and seek an audience with Wade Thompson, the president of the company. He would certainly take her seriously, because a scandal could cause serious damage to their reputation (and stock price), but only if her evidence was indisputable. Otherwise, she'd be laughed out of his office. Knowing she couldn't go in half-cocked, she spent the next several days buttressing her case. She slowly compiled evidence whenever she could; she didn't want anyone peering over her shoulder wanting to know why she was going back through old files.
But finally she had compelling evidence that, as monies were being shuffled between various accounts, a small amount of each transaction was being siphoned off to parts unknown. Each such disappearance was miniscule, but if it was happening on the corporate level it could add up to a significant unnoticed discrepancy in the books. And it had to be intentional; someone was quietly stealing.
She was finally granted a 10 minute audience with Mr. Thompson and showed up armed to the teeth with data. But the moment she mentioned the possibility of fraud, he insisted that she wait until Brian Dietz, the head of security, could join them. She showed them her documentation and estimated how much money could potentially be missing.
The men looked at each other before Mr. Dietz asked if she'd shared her concerns with anyone. She assured them that she'd just gone straight to the top. Mr. Thompson told her she'd made the right choice. Taking the evidence, he warned her to remain quiet to avoid jeopardizing the upcoming investigation. She promised her silence and thanked them for believing her.
After she left his office, Mr. Thompson had a single instruction for Mr. Dietz: "Get rid of her!"
After working late, as usual, Stacy was finally driving home. It was a relief to be believed by management. She was lost in her thoughts as she drove along a deserted stretch of highway and failed to notice the vehicle rapidly approaching from behind. Suddenly, just as she was entering a turn, her bumper was slammed, sending her into a spin. Caught by surprise, she was unable to control her car as it skidded sideways and started sliding down the embankment. She was hammered by her air bags and caught by her seat belt as she bounced down until the car ploughed to an abrupt stop against a tree.
"Ma'am, you're going to be okay. Just hang on and we'll get you out of there."
Stacy's eyes fluttered and she felt half-awake. Where was she?
"You've been in a wreck; we're cutting you out now. It's a good thing that another driver saw what happened or else you might have been down here for quite a while."
Although battered and bruised, Stacy somehow managed to escape serious injuries. She recuperated enough to describe getting hit, which matched the story of the driver who'd called 911. A vehicle had roared up behind her, driving way too fast, and had clipped her car and then sped off to avoid the consequences. The other driver had only been able to describe it as a dark vehicle, being more worried about Stacy's fate.
That was the same consensus that Deputy Josh Logan reached after taking her statement at the hospital after arranging for the removal of her vehicle. He was at the end of his shift, and her car was obviously totaled, so rather than making her take a cab or Uber, he offered to drive her home. She gratefully accepted, feeling shaken from the wreck. But she was even more grateful for his presence when she realized that lights were on in her apartment that shouldn't have been.
He tried the door and found it to be unlocked. He ordered her to stay back as he drew his weapon and entered the building. He returned a couple of minutes later, saying that it was empty but she wasn't going to like what she saw.
He was right; the place had been ransacked, with stuff scattered everywhere. At first it looked like a simple burglary, but the only thing missing was her computer. Why would someone tear through the files in her office yet pass up on taking her jewelry and other items that could easily be pawned?
"I'm starting to think that somebody has a grudge against you. Why don't you tell me why?"
She warned him that the whole thing seemed so insane to her and probably would to him as well. But earlier today she'd warned her boss that someone might be stealing from the company, and now she'd been driven off the road and been broken into. Somebody with something to hide must have overheard their conversation and was seeking revenge.
"Or else he's the one responsible and was trying to get you out of the way as a witness..."
Until then, Stacy hadn't considered the possibility that she'd screwed up and shared her information with the wrong person. She could have been killed! What if they came after her again?
Detective Logan had reached the same conclusion. "Okay, we're obviously in over our heads and you can't stay here tonight. Pack a bag of clothes and stuff for a few days."
He pulled out his phone and dialed. "Hey, Dad, sorry to bother you but something's just come up and I need your help. We need to come by so that we can explain it in person. Thanks, see you in a bit."
A half-hour later, Stacy found herself sharing the entire tale in excruciating detail with David Logan, Josh's father and a retired federal agent. He agreed with his son's suspicions; it was unlikely that a one-two punch like that would have happened to her unless one or both of the men she'd met with were involved in the scheme.
However, they couldn't rule out the possibility of others being involved. Brian could have met with the IT staff to discuss the probe and one or more of them could have realized they were about to be uncovered. Likewise, Wade could have mentioned it to other senior executives and the word made it down through the grapevine. At the moment they didn't know how far spread the conspiracy might be; there might be a single person or a dozen out to get her so she needed to be kept out of sight.
That meant not going to work, staying silent and out of view. Stacy started to say that she needed to call in sick, then kicked herself; someone wanted her dead and she was about to advertise to everyone that she'd survived. Was she crazy? But David had moved on, saying they would make arrangements to find a safe location for her, but tonight she would stay here with him for protection.
He asked if she had given them the only copy of her documentation, presuming that was the reason for the ransacking and computer theft. Yes, she'd had a copy on her now-missing computer, but she'd backed it all up into her Cloud file as well.
He insisted that she get on his computer and arrange to download a copy now before whoever had her computer figured out how to get rid of it. Stacy was exhausted by this point but did as he requested. He assumed that damage control would quickly take place by the conspirators to hide what they'd been up to, but now at least they had some evidence to take to the experts in the morning.
But for now Stacy needed to hit the sack. Josh offered to stay as well but his father said that he had the situation under control. Stacy was too tired to argue, and besides, where else could she go? She thanked Josh for his assistance and allowed his father to show her to the guest bedroom.
She lay in the strange bed, trying to figure out how her life had fallen apart so badly in such a short period of time. It was a restless night, and when she woke in the morning she was totally confused until she remembered the events of the day before.
David led her into a meeting with his old contemporaries. The roomful of agents listened to her explanation and quickly began trying to sift through her evidence. There was a quick consensus that this was a potential embezzlement case. The only question was, did the same case also involve breaking and entering and attempted murder?
That was when Mr. Logan announced that Stacy needed to go into hiding for her own protection, and because of her youthful appearance he had arranged the perfect location that no one would think to look. But as he explained, Stacy's jaw dropped.
"HIGH SCHOOL?! You want me to just waltz in the door and pretend I'm a teenager again?"
"Hear me out, Stacy. You have to admit that you look younger than you really are. Well, these guys are going to be looking all over the place for you, but they're not going to be looking for you in a boarding school. And it's 30 miles from here, so you'll be fine. You'll just need to keep your head low until we get this sorted out."
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