CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
KAI
The money had never left Vaughn Recovery’s system the way everybody assumed.
Kai had been awake since four, sitting in the dark end of his office with only the desk lamp on, when Malik came in carrying a laptop and the look of somebody who had finally found the loose thread.
“You need to see this.”
Kai straightened.
Dez was asleep on the conference-room couch with one shoe off. Rome had not been called in yet.
“Show me.”
Malik opened the accounting mirror server.
The Morrison settlement had been entered as cash because the client insisted on paying a portion that way. Eighty-seven thousand dollars went into the office safe Thursday afternoon, verified by two people, sealed into the gray lockbox, and logged for Monday deposit.
That part they knew.
What they had not known was that at 9:08 Thursday night, six minutes before Dre walked into the admin hall, an internal accounting entry created a temporary escrow transfer for the same amount.
Not a bank transfer.
A system movement.
The software told the company the cash had been reclassified from “deposit pending” to “escrow hold.”
“Who did it?”
“Manager override.”
Kai’s stomach hardened.
“Same blank user?”
“At first. I recovered the audit shadow.”
Malik zoomed in.
The override credential belonged to one of the office managers, Serena Ward.
Kai knew Serena was not their person before he asked why.
She had been at her sister’s wedding rehearsal in Atlanta Thursday night. Photos all over social media. Airline ticket. Hotel. Family. Easy to verify.
“Credential theft,” Kai said.
“Looks like it. But that’s not the good part.”
Malik pulled up the escrow history.
The eighty-seven was moved again at 11:47 p.m.
Then again Friday morning.
Then removed from the ledger entirely through a manual reconciliation.
“Removed by who?”
“Supervisor override.”
“Name.”
Malik hesitated.
“Rome Bell.”
Kai sat back.
No drama came with it.
No movie moment.
Just a name on a screen.
“Could his login have been stolen too?”
“Yes.”
“Was it?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Then don’t say his name outside this office.”
Malik nodded.
Kai called Dez.
Dez woke on the second ring from twenty feet away and answered before realizing where he was.
“Yeah?”
Kai looked through the glass conference wall.
“Come here.”
Dez sat up, saw his face, and was in the office thirty seconds later.
Malik repeated it.
Dez listened without interrupting.
“Where the actual cash?” he asked.
“That’s still the question,” Malik said. “But the system was manipulated to create confusion about when it should physically be there. Whoever did this understood the accounting process, camera windows, safe procedures, and the old dispatch system.”
Dez looked at Kai.
“Inside.”
“Yeah.”
“Rome?”
“Maybe.”
Dez rubbed both hands over his face.
“You gonna bring him in?”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because if somebody stole his credentials, confronting him tells the actual person exactly what we have. If he did it, same problem.”
Dez nodded.
“What about Serena?”
“Quiet verification. No accusation.”
“I got it.”
Kai’s phone buzzed.
Nola.
She had sent a photo.
Mani asleep on Nola’s couch under a blanket, mouth slightly open, one hand still curled around her phone.
Caption:
SHE FINALLY KNOCKED OUT. DON’T CALL LOUD.
Kai smiled before he could stop himself.
Then another message came.
ANYTHING ON DRE?
Kai looked at the accounting screen.
YES. CALL YOU IN TEN.
He did not text details.
Nola deserved the information from his mouth.
That thought made Curtis’s secret sit heavier in his chest.
Sunday had passed.
Curtis had not called.
Kai had called him once.
No answer.
He had driven by Denise and Curtis’s place Sunday night on the way back from a lead. Both cars were there. Lights on. No sign anything had blown up.
So Curtis had not told her.
Kai had given him time.
Now he was running out of reasons not to tell Nola.
“You somewhere else?” Dez asked.
Kai looked up.
“No.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Handle Serena.”
Dez watched him for a second, then nodded and left.
Kai called Nola.
She answered quietly.
“Hey.”
He explained the ledger manipulation.
Nola did not interrupt until he said Rome’s credential.
“His again?”
“Yeah.”
“And you still don’t know if it’s him.”
“Correct.”
“I’m learning.”
“Good.”
“Don’t sound proud.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were a little.”
He smiled.
“How’s Mani?”
“Bad. Terrence called six times. She blocked him, unblocked him, read one text, cried, then blocked him again.”
“She leaving him?”
“I don’t know. She doesn’t know.”
“Dez asked about her.”
Nola went quiet.
“What he ask?”
“If she was okay.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah.”
“Good.”
“Why good?”
“Because she is not ready for somebody circling because her relationship cracked.”
“Dez ain’t like that.”
“I know that.”
Kai leaned back.
“You know him now?”
“Enough.”
“Interesting.”
“Don’t use your mother’s word at me.”
He laughed.
Then Nola got quiet.
“Kai.”
“Yeah.”
“Tell me something.”
There was enough change in her tone to put him on alert.
“What?”
“Do you think Dre knew somebody inside your company was stealing?”
“Maybe after the box disappeared. Before? I don’t know.”
“I’m scared he got into more than he’s admitting.”
“That’s possible.”
She sighed.
“I keep wanting you to tell me no.”
“I know.”
“And you won’t.”
“No.”
“That’s irritating.”
“You tell me that every day.”
“Because you earn it.”
Kai smiled.
Then he heard movement in the background.
Mani’s voice, rough with sleep: “Is that him?”
Nola covered the phone badly.
“Mind your business.”
“Tell Mr. Weight Limit I said good morning.”
Kai closed his eyes.
Nola started laughing.
“She heard Vanessa say it. It’s over for you.”
“This shit not funny.”
“It’s extremely funny.”
“Tell Mani Dez said good morning.”
Nola stopped laughing.
“Not today.”
“You started.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“Because it is.”
Kai heard Mani in the background. “What he say?”
Nola said, “Nothing.”
Kai laughed.
For a few seconds, with Nola laughing and Mani complaining behind her, his office did not feel like a place where eighty-seven thousand dollars had disappeared and a man he’d trusted for eleven years might have been involved.
Then the door opened.
Rome walked in without knocking.
“We need to talk.”
Kai’s smile disappeared.
“I’ll call you back,” he told Nola.
She caught the change immediately.
“What happened?”
“Nothing yet. I’ll call you.”
He ended the call.
Rome shut the door.
“Why Dez asking Serena for her Atlanta itinerary?”
Kai stared at him.
There were only a few ways Rome could know that this quickly.
None were good.
“Who told you?”
Rome’s expression shifted.
“Serena called me.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s scared she getting blamed.”
Reasonable.
Maybe.
Kai folded his hands on the desk.
“Why would she call you?”
“Because I’m her supervisor.”
“No. Denise Harper is her supervisor. You’re field.”
Rome’s mouth tightened.
A tiny mistake.
Not enough.
Kai kept his face blank.
“Sit down.”
Rome didn’t.
“Kai, I’m tired of this sneaky shit. If you think I took your money, say it.”
“I think somebody used your initials. I think somebody used manager credentials. I think somebody disabled my camera. I think somebody knows the old system. And I think you been too interested in getting Dre charged before we know where the money went.”
Rome stared.
“That’s what you think of me after eleven years?”
“That’s what the last eleven days gave me to question.”
Rome’s face hardened.
“You really getting soft over this woman.”
Kai was on his feet before he decided to stand.
Rome noticed.
“See?”
“Don’t bring Nola into business you can’t explain.”
“She’s already in it. You got security on her, she sleeping at your house, sitting in meetings like she work here.”
“She is Dre’s family and somebody threatened her.”
“And you’re fucking her.”
Kai’s voice dropped.
“Watch your mouth.”
Rome laughed without humor. “That’s my point. Old Kai would’ve put that kid in front of police the first night and moved on. Now you running some investigation because his sister got a pretty face and a big ass.”
Kai moved around the desk.
He stopped three feet away.
“Old Kai made plenty of expensive mistakes because he moved before he had information. If that’s the version you miss, you can go work for somebody else.”
Rome’s expression changed.
Not fear.
Hurt.
That made Kai pause.
Rome had been there before Vaughn Recovery had enough trucks to fill one row.
He had worked weekends without asking, loaned Kai five thousand dollars during the second year when two engines died the same week, sat with Vanessa during surgery when Kai was stuck in court over a wrongful repo complaint.
People were not only one thing.
That was what made betrayal expensive.
“I’m not stealing from you,” Rome said.
Kai believed he believed what he was saying.
That was not the same as believing him.
“Then help me prove it.”
Rome’s eyes held his.
“How?”
“Give Malik your devices. Personal phone, work phone, laptop. Voluntary. He clones them and gives them back.”
Rome laughed once.
“You serious?”
“Very.”
“You doing Dez too?”
“Did mine at five this morning. Dez is next.”
Rome stared.
Kai waited.
Finally Rome pulled his work phone from his pocket and put it on the desk.
Then his personal phone.
“Laptop in my office.”
“Thank you.”
Rome looked at him like the words offended him.
“Don’t thank me. Just find your shit.”
He left.
Kai sat back down.
The phones remained on the desk between him and the door.
He wanted them to clear Rome.
That surprised him.
He did not know what it meant yet.