by Nella Tyler
Whatever the case was, I suspected there was something strange going on with Tara, and by extension, something strange going on with the tax evasion charges so I wanted—no, needed—to do some digging if for no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity.
Caleb was smart though, that was the biggest thing in my mind that I couldn’t get past. How could someone as smart as him slip up in such a dangerous way? He went to Harvard for God’s sake. He had built his company from the ground up. That’s something a stupid or naïve person could never do.
But I also knew that he was too fucking trusting with his staff. I understood him wanting to take somewhat of a backseat in the everyday functions of the company. After all, he had devoted so much of his time and energy over the years and he deserved a break. Still, he trusted his staff entirely too much. It’s understandable that he’d trust an entire accounting team to make sure nothing is out of place with his taxes, but if I were him, I would have at least watched over them.
But most of all, I knew that he wasn’t an idiot. I knew, that no matter how much of a gambling man he was, he wouldn’t risk what was happening intentionally. He was smart enough to understand the consequences of tax evasion, and with as much money as he had, it simply didn’t make sense for him to purposefully throw himself into the crosshairs of the IRS. He wouldn’t have paid a dime less than what the accounting department—especially Fred and Tara—told him too.
So, what the hell was going on?
# # #
I was digging through some files, and not like how they used to do it back in the day. Instead of going through crumpled receipts, I was clicking on my laptop as I dug deeper and deeper. I couldn’t imagine the way it used to be, back before computers changed the entire world. Without computers, I wouldn’t of have the job I loved so much since M&D was an enterprise built upon technology. Without computers, I could have only imagined what an accountants job was like.
Computers simplified everything on one hand, and complicated things on the other. At work and school, the simplification came from being able to research and work far more efficiently. But technology also seemed to take a wrecking ball to real life interpersonal relationships. Social media was a time bomb, but that was neither here or there.
I leaned in closer to my computer, straining my eyes after hours of digging through old receipts and documents. On the receipts end, I didn’t exactly find anything that stuck out, but that was to be expected. It wasn’t until I started sorting through old contracts that my interest became piqued. There were thousands of contracts, so I couldn’t be expected to remember each and every one of them. After all, I was just one worker in a sea of employees. But there were a few contracts that were worth millions that I had never seen before. I figured I would have at least heard about these contracts because of the high dollar amounts attached to them.
I worked frequently with accounts receivables, so I was hard-pressed to believe I wouldn’t at least have passing knowledge of them. So, I decided to research further. I copied the corresponding account numbers and logged into the system to check them out.
Something strange happened. I was locked out of the system and could not access the archived contracts. I thought that maybe because of the ongoing investigation access was restricted to only those in upper management, but if that wasn’t the case, then something fishy was definitely going on and I intended to figure it out.
# # #
I tapped Ina on the shoulder, hoping to be discreet about what was to happen next. However, Ina was never the kind of girl to be discreet with anything, and you would have thought that a serial killer had just snuck up on her by the way she reacted. She let out a scream as she jumped to her feet and twisted to face me, her mouth gaped open in horror.
“The hell is wrong with you?” Her voice was shaking and her chest heaving. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“I need you to come with me and try not to make a scene.”
“The hell you mean, don’t make a scene?” She pressed her palm against her chest trying to steady her breathing. “You’re the one sneaking up on me like you’re Michael Myers or something. Damn, girl.”
“Seriously,” I scolded her and gestured behind us with a nod. “Wait a few minutes and then come meet me in the bathroom.”
“The bathroom?” She arched one brow curiously. “What is this about?”
“Just do as I say,” I commanded before turning to flee.
I rushed to the bathroom, making sure nobody saw me as I entered. I was beyond paranoid that anyone would catch onto me, but that might have also been my hormones affecting the way my brain was functioning. I kneeled and scanned the line of stalls, looking for any signs that I wasn’t alone, but felt comfortable enough that I was alone.
I waited impatiently beside the sinks for Ina to show up, and after a good five minutes, I started to suspect that I was going to have to forcibly drag her ass into the bathroom. Just when I was about to go grab her, she strutted into the bathroom with an annoyed expression on her face.
“I really don’t think this is my place,” she said with a serious expression. “I really think this whole time of the month situation is something your own mother should have talked to you about…”
“Shut up, Ina,” I said, but couldn’t help but chuckle. “This is about Caleb and the IRS.”
She groaned and threw her head back. “What the hell about it?”
“Could you at least try to pretend you have any interest in talking to me about this?”
“To be honest,” she crossed her arms over each other, “I really don’t have any interest at all. Do you know why? Because talking about this has consumed our lives for the past three weeks. Do you know how much actual work I’ve been able to get done since this all began?” She paused, as if she were waiting for me to lob an answer at her. Realizing that I wasn’t going to take part in her pity party, she continued on. “Zero. Zilch. None.”
“I’m just as stressed out as you are.” I pinched the space between my eyes. “Since I’m wasting your valuable time, I’m just going to jump straight to the point.”
“About damn time,” she said with a wide smile. “Seriously, you have a few short minutes because I’m ass-deep in paperwork and Freddie Fred has advised me that I will not be leaving work until said stack of papers is filed.”
“Okay,” I began, “I was doing some digging, going through old receipts and I found nothing that could help Caleb, but also nothing that was incriminating.”
“Girl, they are receipts. What were you expecting to find? An October surprise?”
“I don’t know what I was expecting. It’s just that something seems off about this entire thing—”
“No shit,” she interrupted me with a huff. “I’m sorry, continue.”
“If you interrupt me one more time,” I scolded her with a wag of my finger, “I’m going to drag your ass into the stall and give you a swirly. When your head is underwater, try talking so much then.”
“Let’s not do that.” She laughed. “Seriously, continue, but you’re running out of time.”
“So after finding nothing with the receipts, I decided to do some digging into contracts and I found a few that raised the alarm, so to speak. I know there are bound to be contracts I’ve never heard of, especially the smaller dollar amount ones. But the weird thing is that I ran across contracts that were worth millions and I had never heard of them.”
“Is that it?” She cocked her head at me, almost as if she were aggravated. “This is a huge company. Hundreds of contracts run through this place very day. Of course you’re going to miss something, or not remember it.”
“It’s a feeling in my gut—”
“It’s a feeling in your vagina, or a feeling in your heart,” she cut me off.
“Excuse me?” I took a measured step towards her. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I think you know what it means.” She chewed into her lip and sighed. “Look, I love yo
u like a sister, but this isn’t your fight. And maybe you think there’s this conspiracy, but what if there isn’t? What if all this is is that Caleb didn’t do what he was supposed to do, and now he deserves to drop into a hole that he dug for himself.”
I shook my head defiantly and pushed my tongue against my inner cheek. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything.”
“Exactly.” She laid one comforting palm on my shoulder. “You don’t know one way or another, so just stop letting it stress you out.” She offered me a kind warm smile before pulling me into a tight hug, of which I accepted graciously. It was exactly what I needed. “Now,” she said as she pulled away from our embrace, “I’m going to get back to work and you should do the same. Or maybe call off the rest of the day and drink some wine while you try to chill.”
“Yeah…” I said softly, “that’s not going to happen.” I was referring to the wine, but I figured she thought I was speaking about actually being able to get time off during these tumultuous times.
# # #
I left my conversation with Ina with no more clarity than when it had begun. She was always my go-to when it came to brainstorming and confiding in, but with this situation, she was absolutely no help. We couldn’t have had more different views on the subject, but I chose to let it go because I didn’t want to fight with her about that or anything else. I had too must stress in my life to add fighting with my best friend into the equation.
On my way back to my desk, I took the long way around so I could circle Caleb’s office. When I passed his office, the door was open and I saw him standing in front of the window. His shoulders were well rounded and when he craned is head ever so slightly, I could spot a distinct look of sadness written all over his face.
Fuck, I thought to myself, why the fuck do I even care? He was a complete dick, to me and everyone else, but yet there was something inside me that just knew I wanted to save him.
It had to be the baby.
It just had to be.
And I wasn’t going to leave work that night until the trail ran cold.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Caleb
“Why haven’t we started this meeting yet?” Tara questioned from her office chair on one long side of a conference table. She brushed her hand through her hair and sighed with aggravation. “The meeting was supposed to start ten minutes ago.”
“It’s okay,” Fred said quietly from an adjacent chair. “There’s no need—”
Tara craned her head to him and snapped. “It’s been a long night.”
I coughed into my hand from the head of the table. “We’re waiting on Lindsay. Once she arrives, we can begin.”
“Lindsay?” Tara cocked her head to me. “Seriously, we’re waiting on someone who is just a step above an intern?”
“Do you actually know what an intern is?” I shot back with a cocky grin. “The last time I checked, a junior accountant does a lot more around here than a simple intern.”
“Whatever,” she seethed, but under her breath.
I thought briefly about scolding her for her insolence, but thought better of it. After all, her and Fred were the primary parties responsible for proving my innocence and it was best to not piss off the wrong people.
Just then, in the nick of time, Lindsay pushed her way through the conference door. She took a seat on the opposite side of the table as the other two and dropped her purse onto the table. “I’m sorry I’m late,” she said, showing a level of confidence I had almost forgotten she possessed. She quickly dug a few things out of her oversized purse, and next thing I knew, all attention was on me.
Except Tara’s attention, that was focused elsewhere. Namely, passing a death glare towards Lindsay. “Now,” she said, “can we begin?” She didn’t wait for a response before rising to her feet to address the room. “I don’t know why we couldn’t have this meeting one on one—”
“Why are you standing up?” I questioned her, and watched as she bit her tongue and sat back down in compliance. “There, that’s much better. We’re all friends here.”
Tara cleared her throat. “As I was saying, our team has went over everything. We’ve checked, double checked, and triple checked, and unfortunately, the news is not good.”
“Meaning?” I sat up straight in my chair and folded my hands together. My heart began to race as I tried to decipher if the news was good or bad. Sure, she said the news is not good, but that could mean the difference between bad news like, you’re going to jail and you owe a shit ton of money in taxes.
Tara looked at Fred first and then swallowed a nervous lump in her throat. Then her eyes were back and set on me. “The news is not good because the taxes were right.” She cleared her throat once more and straightened her posture. Where she was somewhat timid before, she’d regained her confidence, and I had a gut feeling that this wasn’t a good sign. “All the numbers we gave you were right, and as it turns out, you underpaid.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Lindsay direct her gaze to me, almost like she wanted or needed to say something, but Tara wasn’t finished. Not even close. She huffed and shook her head, and I knew what was coming next was going to be an insult. When you spend enough time with people, you begin to learn what’s about to come out of their mouth before they even realize it.
“Our job in the accounting department, or more specifically, the tax department, is to prepare the taxes and give them to you. It’s your responsibility to pay the right amount, and that blame can’t fall at anyone else’s feet except yours.”
“Bull… bullshit,” I stammered. “Bull fucking shit. Are you seriously going to blame this on me?”
“It’s not about blame, Caleb. You asked us to double check everything and we did, and everything adds up. Everything except the check you wrote the IRS.”
“No,” I shook my head trying to keep the anger at bay. “That’s bullshit and we all know it. What reason would I have to do that? No, absolutely not. Whatever dollar amount you gave me, that’s exactly what I paid.”
“I wish that were true,” Tara said in a snide tone. “Unfortunately, it’s not.”
“Excuse me?” I pounded my fist against the table, stealing the attention of everyone in the room. “I don’t know if you realize who you’re talking to.”
“Caleb,” Fred said, finally speaking up. I cocked my head to him but continued to keep a watchful gaze on Tara out of the corner of my eye. “We can fix this.”
“How?” I demanded an immediate answer, an immediate fix for the problem. “How the hell do you propose we do that?”
“I’m on your side, I promise.” He gestured with his hands in an effort to calm me down. “We’re all on your side, even if it doesn’t seem like it.”
“I asked for solutions,” I scolded him and pushed myself back against my chair. “Not a fucking group hug.”
“We’re going to scrub the receipts and income statements to ensure there isn’t anything we can do to make the tax liability go down. You’re not in trouble here. I mean, you don’t have to be. Just pay what’s owed and everything will be back to normal.”
“This sounds incredibly illegal,” I pointed out. “And I’m not sure that’s a road I want to go down, especially with the two of you at the helm.”
Tara chuckled to herself and shook her head with her teeth firmly planted into the fat of her lips. She instantly straightened her attitude once I glared at her.
“May I speak?” Lindsay questioned timidly before rising to her feet. “I mean, I’m going to do it anyway, but I thought I’d be polite.”
I was taken aback by her forthright tone, but kind of got off on the new and improved Lindsay that walked into the conference room. I leaned back in my chair and gestured that the floor was hers.
“It’s just that I found these.” She grabbed a thin folder out of her purse and slid the file to me. “If you look in there, you’ll see a few income receipts.”
I flipped open the folder and glanced down at a series
of receipts. Nothing seemed particularly off about them to me, but that’s why I was paying people.
“I did some research, and upon close inspection, it’s my belief that on some level these receipts look false.”
“False?” I arched a brow at her.
“Forged.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to take this all in before shifting my attention to her two senior managers. “You two are always full of opinions, so tell me what is your opinion about this possible revelation.”
Tara glared Lindsay down, which told me all I needed to know about her position on the possibility that these were forged documents. “That’s a strong accusation.”
“It’s not an accusation,” Lindsay responded. “Not in the usual sense, anyways. I’m just saying these receipts look more than a little off.”
“Right, I forgot you have years of experience with these things.”
“You’re right.” Lindsay held her ground. “I don’t have a lot of experience and I think that’s why I’m the perfect person to assist in uncovering what’s actually going on here. I have fresh eyes and a fresh brain. My head isn’t cluttered with years of the same documents going in one eye and right out the other. After spending a decade in accounting, I can see how everything would blend together.”
Damn, I thought to myself. This girl was being vicious and I’m not even sure Fred and Tara realized just how vicious her attacks on them were, or if they even realized what she had just said was a direct insult on their ability to do their jobs.
This definitely wasn’t the same Lindsay that had been sulking around the office for the past three weeks. This definitely wasn’t the same Lindsay I was working so hard to avoid. This Lindsay that was before me was a more confident Lindsay, one who was able to go toe to toe with the likes of Fred and Tara. She was dominant and forward with the two managers who were far above her.
Fuck me if I wasn’t in love.
Well not love, love. Maybe it was lust. Whatever it was, it momentarily made me forget about all my troubles. Instead of pondering my future either broke or in an orange jump suit, I simply enjoyed the show of a junior accountant destroying the arguments of those who were supposed to be more experienced and smarter than her.
