Chapter 20 #3
She didn’t want to leave the sweet escape of his arms, but avoiding their situation wasn’t going to make it better.
She walked to the table and sat back down in her chair, uncomfortable with the sight of Virus at her work computer.
It probably violated every rule in the employee handbook, but Pannetone & Associates didn’t exist anymore, and she was way out of her depth.
If Virus accessing her computer would help figure out who had murdered her colleagues, it was the right thing to do.
“What do you need me to look at?” she asked.
Virus angled the laptop toward her as Aleksei hovered behind them.
“Is this what normally happens when you log in?” Virus asked. “This spreadsheet just automatically loaded.”
She studied the document. There were only twenty-two lines of data, but her scalp instantly began sweating.
Columns listed various Moresco projects, invoice numbers, dates, amounts, payees, and methods of payment.
She immediately recognized the elevator invoices for the Girard and Penrose projects, as well as the suspicious duplicate sprinkler and lighting invoices she and Armando had identified.
She wasn’t familiar with the project names or information for the other listed invoices, but they totaled close to fifteen million dollars and had all been paid within the past five years.
“What is this?” Aleksei asked as she scrolled.
She shook her head quickly, brushing him off, as she absorbed the data.
She clicked around, pulling up the document details.
Pannetone & Associates’ system automatically labeled documents with a number and the initials of the document creator.
Each had a section for notes, which they often used to list information a team member didn’t want to include in the body of the document, but that would be helpful if another person needed to work on the file.
The notes section read: “If anything happens to me, get this laptop to my grandfather.”
The document author's initials were DMB.
Dante Moresco Bianchi.
An image of Dante sitting on the couch in Armando’s office, working away at his computer, flashed through her mind. He’d told them he hadn’t found any other anomalies.
“He must have lied.”
“Who?” Aleksei and Virus asked in unison.
She ignored them and clicked on the yellow file folder icon at the bottom of her screen, pulling up the local drive.
She found a folder labeled Moresco and opened it.
There were hundreds of nested folders with project names.
Her heart stuttered. She scratched around the edges of her wig with her left hand while her right hand clicked on folders and documents.
Every document she clicked on grayed out immediately after she opened it, and a password box popped up.
She couldn’t see any specific data, but based on the file organization and names, she was fairly certain what was on the laptop.
“I think this computer has every file, document, and invoice for every Moresco project. If I’m right, there are years of data here.
I think the initial spreadsheet that popped up is a list of the fraudulent invoices Dante was able to identify before I left for vacation.
Unfortunately, that seems to be the only document I can access. All the others require a password.”
“So, all these files aren’t normally on your computer?” Aleksei asked.
She shook her head, her mind still reeling over the cache of information on the laptop.
“Pannetone treated the Moresco files like Fort Knox. I had very limited access, but this isn’t my normal laptop.
It’s a loaner. Dante said he needed to update my computer and gave me this one to use while I was away.
I don’t normally bring a computer on vacation, but he pressed it on me as I was leaving.
” She lifted her head. “It’s almost like he knew something bad might happen to the server and wanted a backup.
Do you think he suspected Armando was involved? ”
“Since Dante is part of the Moresco family, maybe he was the one who planted the bomb. Maybe the Morescos were done with Pannetone & Associates, and this was their way of severing all evidence and still retaining the business records they needed. We won’t know until we have more info,” Aleksei said.
“What I can tell you is, the FBI would have a field day with those files. The Morescos are involved in just about every illegal activity you could think of. Gambling, extortion, drugs, prostitution, money laundering. You name it, they do it. Set the geek squad on that laptop, let them follow the money, and they could probably find enough dirt to put Salvatore Moresco away for the rest of his life.”
Her stomach felt like she’d just ridden a roller coaster with too many loops. There was no way Dante had hurt innocent people. “Do you think Sal’s behind it all? Do you think he could have done this?”
Virus made a sound of disgust. “If the Morescos would kill a cop, they certainly wouldn’t hesitate to take out a bunch of accountants. Let’s just hope they don’t find you here. You survived. You have what they need. They’re going to be coming for you.”