Smokescreen

Laci waves her hand, pointing to my desk phone and I hit the speaker button. “Dana?”

“What’s going on, Stella?”

“Dana listen, we have a situation.” Max takes over the conversation. “Something’s not right and a large amount of money is about to go into Stella’s account. Run a scan through every account in all businesses for amounts equaling thirty-five and fifteen thousand dollars, a day apart. Use my private code and it won’t alert anyone. While you’re at it, also pull the accounting system for JOS, I want the transaction number for the check I handed Stella.”

“Okay, done. Want to tell me what this is all about?”

“Want to tell me why you or Stella didn’t

think to let me know her check basically bounced back?”

“Max, it’s not a big deal. You had enough to worry about.” I try to soothe him even though I’m internally freaking out.

“It is a big deal. Everything with you is a big deal. There are very few coincidences in my life. And your payment stopping and me being out of the country is not a coincidence.”

“Max, the scan is through. It’s not good,” Dana says and we can hear her typing rapidly.

“How bad?”

“There are no payments with those amounts going out in the last forty-eight hours. I went through every single account in the system, including the petty cash till. Also, there’s no stop payment on the check you gave Stella. That whole account has been frozen with no history since the night you requested it.”

“What does this mean?” My voice cracks slightly.

“This means Hurst & McCoy didn’t call your office, didn’t wire you the money, and erased all evidence of your initial payment. Jake, what do you see?”

“Max, maybe we should talk privately.” Jake’s face is unusually stoic. He looks between the laptop and me.

“Don’t you dare hold back because of me.” I narrow my eyes to let him know I’m serious.

He nods and starts typing quickly. “From what I see, approximately three minutes ago the deposit for thirty-five grand went live. It’s gonna be difficult to trace. No banking or routing numbers, no transaction details. Not even a teller note that the amount was approved. There’s also a pending wire with fifteen grand in process.”

“Fuck, shit, son of a bitch! Can you stop the pending?”

“I’m trying. It might take a while because this guy is good.”

“Want to fill me in? What the hell does all this mean?” I screech.

“Bella, I need you to listen to me. Someone has hacked into your accounts and is dropping money that’s hard to trace. There’s got to be a reason. Do you have another business account, possibly hidden?”

“Yeah, it’s in Laci’s name at a different bank.”

“Good, is there a way to get some money in it to float your bills without having your name attached?”

“I can take care of that, I’m a silent partner,” Laci tells him.

“Good, do that as soon as we hang up. Landon, tell us exactly what the lady on the phone said. Word for word.”

Landon’s voice is shaky as he retells about the phone call this morning. Jake listens intently and then goes back to typing quickly.

“I’ve got all incoming and outgoing calls for Sullivan PR for the last two days. None of them are the bank. Every call this morning can be tracked except one. It was from a burner phone. ID’s completely scratched. No location at all.”

“Goddammit! I don’t like this. Stella, listen to me carefully. Call your bank and tell them you’ve been hacked and the account is compromised. Tell them you want all payments incoming and outgoing stopped. The bank is going to argue because they’re going to insist their security is state of the art. But a complaint will lock your account for at least a day, which will put the weekend on our side. Laci, call any vendors expecting checks and tell them a new payment is being cut. Make up a story about opening an account or tell them the truth about a transaction compromise. But no one in this room or on this call repeats any of this. Until we can find the trail, act normal.

“Dana, get me Grant on the phone as soon as we hang up. I want his ass to tell me what the hell is going on or he’s gone.”

“Max, he’s already gone. Edward released a companywide statement that Grant resigned this morning to spend more time with his family. According to security notes, his badge was deactivated and he was walked out thirty minutes ago. And the Accounting Manager is gone too. I think Edward actually fired them for giving you the payment for Stella’s invoices.”

The room is still and quiet, tension thick, as we wait for Max to blow up. Instead he exhales loudly and talks directly to me. “Stella, I need you to pack up your work and be prepared to be out of the office for a few days. Then get Scout, go home, and prepare a bag for both of us. Take everything you may need. You’re going to the cabin until I can get back to you and figure this out. I need you one hundred percent safe and out of reach. No one knows about the cabin, it’s not even on transaction records with the McCoy name. We hid the identity of the buyer for privacy. Jake you good?”