face Claire. At 6:03 in the morning, Claire entered her credentials.
The archive loaded.
She had expected to feel something sharp when it opened. Triumph, or fear, or the dizzy vertigo of crossing a threshold. Instead she felt the particular cold clarity of a doctor who has found the shadow exactly where she suspected it would be. The dread of being right about something you wished you were wrong about.
The first folder was an accounts payable archive. The second was a vendor reimbursement batch. The third was marked for review hold.
Mrs. Parker leaned forward slightly. “Start there.”
Claire opened the transfer ledger.
The screen filled with dates and account codes, vendor numbers and authorization initials, transaction amounts that added up to nothing suspicious unless you knew what patterns to look for. Most people saw rows of data. Claire saw movement. A false vendor reimbursement had a rhythm
