Chapter 6: The Third Vendor
Corporate counsel's name was Diana Reeves.
She had worked with my company for eleven years.
She did not waste time.
"The first two vendors are shell companies," she said.
"Registered in Delaware.
No physical address, no employees on record, no web presence beyond a registration page." She slid a folder across the desk.
"The third one is different."
I opened it.
"Hartwell Consulting," she said.
"Registered eighteen months ago.
One listed director."
I looked at the name on the page.
Cassandra Whitaker.
I closed the folder.
"She incorporated it six weeks before their wedding," Diana said.
"Michael began routing payments to Hartwell two months after the ceremony.
Eleven payments over fourteen months.
Total: two hundred and thirty-four thousand dollars."
The number sat in the room.
"From my company."
"From a discretionary budget line that Michael had limited signing authority over.
He stayed just under the threshold that would have triggered automatic review on each individual transaction.
But in aggregate—"
"It's well over."
"Yes."
I stood up and walked to the window.
The street below was ordinary.
People walking dogs.
A delivery truck double-parked.
"He was paying his wife," I said.
"Through a fake consulting company.
With my money."
"That's what the records show."
"For fourteen months."
"Yes."
I turned back.
"What do we call this?"
Diana looked at me steadily.
"Fraud.
Specifically, the diversion of corporate funds for personal benefit using falsified vendor relationships." She paused.
"It's a crjme, Robert.
A serious one."
I sat back down.
"What are my options?"
"You can pursue it internally — terminate him, demand repayment, close the matter.
Or you can refer it to authorities and let it go through the formal process.
Or both."
"If I refer it—"
"He faces potential criminal charges.
Cassandra as well, given her role in establishing Hartwell."
I thought about Ellen upstairs in the chair by the window.
*He's still our son.*
"What would you do?" I asked.
Diana didn't hesitate.
"I'd refer it.
Because if you don't, and it surfaces another way — through an audit, through a disgruntled employee, through anything — the question becomes why you sat on it.
That creates exposure for you."
"So I don't have a clean option."
"You have a legal one and a complicated one.
I'd take the legal one."
I picked up the folder again.
Cassandra's name on the registration document.
The date — six weeks before the wedding.
She hadn't married Michael and then found a way to take money.
She had incorporated the company first.
She had planned it before the ceremony.
"How long would she have known Michael would have access to that budget line?" I asked.
Diana was quiet for a moment.
"That's a good question.
It would require knowing your internal structure fairly well."
"Michael would have told her."
"Yes."
I set the folder down.
"Draft the referral," I said.
"And prepare the termination paperwork.
I want both ready by end of week."
"Understood." Diana gathered her papers.
Then she stopped.
"Robert.
There's one more thing."
"What?"
"The two shell companies — the other vendors.
We haven't identified who controls them yet.
It's possible they're also connected to Cassandra.
But it's also possible Michael had other arrangements we don't know about yet."
I looked at her.
"Keep pulling," I said.
She nodded and left.
I sat alone in the conference room for a few minutes.
Then I called Gerald.
"It's fraud," I said when he answered.
"Cassandra set up a shell company before the wedding.
Michael's been paying it for over a year.
Two hundred and thirty-four thousand."
Silence on the line.
"Robert."
"I know."
"Do you want me to come over?"
"No.
I need to tell Ellen first."
I ended the call and sat with the folder in front of me.
My son had not just failed to protect his mother.
He had been stealing from me — from us — for over a year, while Cassandra planned it before she even walked down the aisle.
The laugh on the phone that morning felt different now.
He hadn't laughed because he thought I'd back down.
He'd laughed because he thought there were things I didn't know yet.
May you like
He was right about that part.
He was wrong about what I'd do when I found them.
