“I didn’t know.”
“Do you know now?”
“No.”
Liam frowned.
“Maya, six months is a long time for an audit.”
“Not with thirty-eight related entities and years of archived transactions.”
Ruiz’s pen stopped again.
“Thirty-eight?”
“Some are legitimate project companies. Apex creates separate entities for certain developments.”
“And some aren’t legitimate?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
Ruiz noticed.
A brief glimmer of understanding crossed her face.
“You’re a forensic accountant,” she said.
“Was.”
“You don’t stop knowing how to do it.”
“No.”
“Did you find something?”
I looked at Liam.
Then at Priya.
Then back at the detective.
“I found a pattern I couldn’t explain.”
“What kind of pattern?”
“Small payments. Different vendors. Different departments. Different authorizing managers.”
“To Northline?”
“Northline was one. There were eleven others.”
Ruiz waited.
“Each vendor received payments below internal review thresholds,” I said. “Not enough to trigger enhanced approvals. Individually, they looked ordinary. Together, over four years, they totaled just over three million dollars.”
