Page 47 of Mister Artist

“Yeah, I am.” I set the manila folder in front of him. There were twelve pieces of paper inside. I’d highlighted what I needed to him to see—the account numbers the money had been taken from.

“What am I looking at?” he asked, shuffling the papers.

“The highlighted numbers at the bottom. Those are your accounts, Trent.”

After going through all the papers, Trent sat back in his seat. He rolled his tongue across his cheek before chuckling and shaking his head.

“You can’t possibly thinkIstole that money.”

“I did… at first. But it kept bothering me that you could be that damn stupid.” Rounding his desk, I hovered over him and pulled my phone from my slacks. I opened my photo album and showed him the pictures I’d taken. “On these statements, you’llsee that I was able to trace the accounts this money was sent to. Basically, the person took the money from twelve of your accounts and deposited them into two of their accounts.”

“Shit. Were you able to figure out who the accounts belonged to?”

“No, and that’s why I need your help. You know the accountants log in information, so you can look up this number and it will show who made the deposits.”

“I could kiss you. You’re a genius.”

“Thank you, but I don’t advise that. Neko already doesn’t like you. He’d probably kill you if you did that.”

Trent laughed as he typed on his computer, but I was serious. I watched as he accessed the log in information from his leadership portal.

“Hmm… that’s odd.” He turned his screen more in my direction for me to see. “You’re right. Only one person made the deposits from my account. They were definitely trying to set me up, but I don’t think they took into consideration their log in information could be tracked regardless of what computer they used.”

“Yeah. Elias told me only heads of departments knew they could see what everyone did after they logged in.”

Trent looked up at me with a softness in his eyes that wasn’t there before. “Even knowing that, you still gave me the benefit of the doubt?”

“Yes, now I need you to show me who actually did this, so I won’t look dumb for trusting you.”

He chuckled and nodded. “Aight. So, you see how the log in numbers are in red?” I nodded. “Each department is assigned a different color. Our color is yellow. The administrative department is in red. I don’t have the credentials to look into their members and log in information but that’s where you’ll find the person responsible.”

“Okay. I want a name before I go to Neko. Do you think Parker can look this up for us?”

“For sure. If not her, Kyle.”

“Perfect.” I was surprised when he decided to come with me. We made our way down to my floor, and Parker smiled at the sight of us.

“Hey, Park. I need a quick favor.”

“Sure. What do you need?”

“Can you log into your portal and look up a log in number for me?”

“Sure, what’s going on?” she asked, reaching for the piece of paper that had the number on it.

“Long story short, someone’s been stealing, and that number is going to help us find out who,” Trent said.

The next sequence of events happened in a blur. One minute, Parker was accepting the paper. The next, she was throwing her coffee in Trent’s face and running toward the elevator. I had to tackle her ass to keep her from getting away. Between Trent’s yelling and her grunts, everyone on our floor came to see what was going on, including Neko.

Adrenaline surged through me causing me to shake as I held her. It wasn’t long before two associates came and picked her up, holding her down in her chair while I explained everything to Neko. It hadn’t crossed my mind not once that she was the one stealing but her attempt to get away proved it. For good measure, Neko searched the log in number, and sure enough, her name and picture came up.

I was so disappointed in Parker I didn’t know what to do. It felt like we were building a genuine bond and I had no idea she was capable of something so cynical. While we waited for the police to arrive, she came clean. Apparently, when everyone else left for the day, she took that time to funnel money into her personal accounts. She used Trent’s accounts because sheknew no one would go behind him since he was the head of the accounting department. Neko asked her why she stole from them, and she had no reason beyond the fact that she knew she could get away with it.

By the time the police came and arrested her, I was exhausted. Neko and Elias wanted to take me out to thank me for my findings, but I couldn’t even. I just wanted to go home and process everything that had happened.

34

Neko

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