linked. Every one. She’s been paying herself for services that appear as if they were rendered but were more than likely not rendered at all or were rendered for significantly less money than she paid herself.”
I pause, giving them a few seconds to absorb the information, before continuing. “She did try to hide her identity, and she might have gotten away with it, but . . . she didn’t.”
“I don’t get it,” says Toni. “What do you mean by that?”
“What I mean is, she probably had help. Either she or someone she knows is a pretty sophisticated computer user, and there was some degree of legal work done too to hide the various entities and the ownership of them. The info I needed to find was not available as a matter of public record. But I found it. She just got unlucky, I guess. Most people would have missed it or wouldn’t have been able to access it.” Yes, I am a computer badass, and I’m not afraid to admit it. Frank should have never let me go.
“Did you hack into someone’s computer?” Toni asks, as if she doesn’t believe it.
“It might be better if I don’t share all the details with everyone.” I shrug. “For deniability reasons. You understand.” Not that anyone will be able to trace what I did, but still. It doesn’t hurt to keep the circle of people-in-the-know very small, and I’m pretty sure she’s not a decision maker around here.
Toni scowls, but Thibault smiles, and I take that as a good sign. Ozzie’s expression is as unreadable as ever. Dev and Lucky are nodding. May looks like she just watched her baby take her first step. I think she’s having a hard time not clapping. My chest is ready to explode, my heart is so full right now.
“How much money are we talking here?” Thibault asks.
I turn to Lucky for that. I found all the connections and did the tally, but I don’t want to step on his toes. He’s the financial guy, not me. I know how to be a team player.
“Nearly a million dollars over five years.”
Dev whistles in appreciation of the awfulness, forcing me to look up at him. We catch each other’s eyes and my face starts to burn. I have to look away. I cannot believe how silly I feel, with my stomach doing flips and my heart going nuts, just looking at him. He’s like the cuttlefish, hypnotizing me with his powers of adorableness.
Ozzie’s focus is back on me. “I know this is more of a legal question, but what do you know about prosecuting for embezzlement? Do you know if we have enough evidence here?”
Now my heart is stopping for a whole other reason. “Uhh . . . I have no idea. Sorry.” Oops. Was I supposed to research that?
Lucky picks up the conversation. “No worries. It’s not your area of expertise. This report is really nice. Very thorough. It must have taken you hours to put it together.” He pages through it for effect, holding up a screenshot for Thibault to see.
“It did, but I had a lot of coffee and the kids were asleep, so . . .” I shrug, appreciating Lucky’s efforts at making me feel better but still sad that I didn’t think to look up the legal aspects. Sure, it’s not my area of expertise, but I knew what we were doing the work for.
“I told you she’s good.” My sister is still beaming.
When Ozzie is done paging through the report, he hands it over to Thibault. Then Thibault takes his turn with it, nodding with every turn of a new page. Dev nods his head and winks at me before shifting his focus to studying Thibault’s expression.
“You’re right, Lucky. This is nice. Very nice work product. I don’t even understand most of it.”
Dev speaks, his voice making me flush all over again. “So what’s the plan? What’s our next move?” I can’t look at him, afraid everyone will see in my expression how over the moon I am.
Lucky answers. “Well, I need to sit down with Jenny and have her show me all this on the computer, and then we need to invite Mr. Jorgensen to come in and show him what we’ve found. And at that point, I assume he’ll want to get the police department involved.” Lucky looks over at me. “Are you cool with that? Do you mind sitting with the client and explaining what you found? I think