Chapter 11 - The Letter From Accounting
The city auditor's office called Tessa two days after the fire inspection. They had opened a review of Eastbank's grant spending and wanted the documents I'd found. Tessa arranged to deliver copies so no one could accuse us of altering them.
I was boarding up a client's broken storefront window when a woman in a yellow raincoat stopped beside my truck.
"You're Lena Whitcomb?"
I moved my hand away from the tool bag. "Who's asking?"
"Rose Delgado. I used to keep the books for your husband's company."
She looked exhausted. Her umbrella was broken, and rain had soaked one shoulder of her coat.
"I told them about Eastbank," she said. "They fired me the next morning."
I called Tessa on speaker before agreeing to talk. Rose said Northlight Safety Solutions had billed Eastbank for alarms, stair rails, and emergency lighting that never arrived. When she asked for delivery receipts, Diane told her the money had been reassigned temporarily.
"That's not how grants work," Rose said. "There are reporting rules. People actually live in that building."
"Why are you telling me now?"
"Because they're setting you up to take the fall."
She opened her phone and showed us an accounting report she'd printed before being dismissed. It listed payments from Northlight to a vendor called Morales Restoration Services.
My business was Morales Restoration. I had never used the word Services. Yet beside that company's name was my business tax number.
"Eighty-seven thousand dollars," Rose said. "They made it look like it went to you."
I gripped the edge of my truck so I wouldn't fall.
May you like
Rose scrolled to the final transaction. In the notes field, someone had typed four words.
Charge to Lena personally.
