“Always were a quick study,” Logan grinned.
Her heart swelled, and Natalie’s lips automatically started to smile. But then she remembered the company they were in, and her would-be smile vanished in an instant.
Clearing her throat, she kept her focus on the conversation at hand. “The note hinted to embezzlement. Glenn Frost or Dennis Atkinson—or both—could have wanted those tanks installed to hide laundered cash. Although, I haven’t come across anything in their recent financials to suggest a sudden shift in revenue or expenses. Not from any of their accounts.”
Red flags had been the first thing she’d checked for. A time saver when the errors—intentional or not—are obvious. But with Frost Avionics, there’d been no red flags. In fact, everything she’d come across so far had been absolutely perfect.
“When I looked at my to-do list this morning, I realized I’ll be done sooner than expected. A day, maybe two. I have a few other reports to go over and reconcile, but nothing that would be related to any of this. After that, I’ll just have to submit my final report.”
“Does anyone at the company know you’re that close to finishing up?” The question came from Donovan.
“No.” She met the man’s stone-cold gaze. “In fact, the last time I spoke to Dennis Atkinson—he’s been my main point of contact—I thought I still had another week’s worth of work left.”
“Which means as far as they know, there’s still plenty of time for you to notice something and get suspicious,” Logan pointed out.”
“Suspicious people start asking questions.” Donovan’s dropped tone sounded ominous.
“You really think it was them, don’t you?” Her heart thumped hard, her eyes in a natural slide to Logan’s. “You think it was someone at Frost Avionics.”
The man she’d fallen for gave a single, hard nod of his head, his answer clear and without hesitation. “I do.”
“But why?” That’s the part she still didn’t understand. “I mean, I get that I’m auditing these accounts. But what you guys don’t know is Glenn Frost was the one who called to request we do it now as opposed to waiting the few months they had left before it became a requirement.” She searched the group for an explanation that made sense. “Why would he do that if he was afraid of being discovered?”
Chase shrugged. “Maybe he’s not in on it. Could be his partner, or someone else.”
“It would have to be someone high on the food chain,” Lucky surmised. “Someone high enough to make a multi-million-dollar WA-800 modification happen.”
“Okay, but still. Why break into my place?” Natalie shook her head. “It’s not like I bring the boxes of files home with me.”
“You brought this home.” Logan’s gaze turned to stone as it fell on the evidence before them. “Everything needed to start an official investigation is here.”
“An investigation into what, though? We just debunked the embezzlement angle.”
“But not the trafficking.”
Logan’s comment left her blinking. Shit. She’d gotten so wrapped up in the embezzlement conversation, she’d forgotten about the other.
“Bet those new tanks would hold a whole lot of drugs,” Archer guessed.
Lucky nodded with an added, “Or guns.”
As if those weren’t bad enough, Natalie had another, even more horrific thought.
“Peter,” she whispered the man’s name more to herself than anyone else.
“Who’s Peter?”
Doing her best to ignore the sudden rush of nausea filling her gut, she answered Archer’s question for all the group to hear. “Peter Weiss was the man who handled Frost’s external audits for the past two years.” Bile burned her throat, but she swallowed it down and pushed on. “He was killed in a car wreck nearly two weeks ago.”
“How long ago did Frost ask to bump up the audit?” Lucky’s wheels were clearly spinning.
Another hard swallow was required before Natalie could reveal, “Four days after Peter died.”
“So the guy who handled the account before you dies in a car wreck days before the company’s CEO requests an external audit? That can’t be a coincidence.” Logan shared a look with the others. “I’m thinking either Frost is in on it, or he’s the one who hid that folder for you to find.”
“Or he’s just that arrogant.” Donovan shrugged on of his massive shoulders. “Kill the guy most familiar with the company’s financials, toss in someone new, maybe throw in a few interruptions or distractions for good measure, and boom. He skates by another audit and is free to continue his illegal doings.”
“Either way, we need to take this thing as deep as we can.”