Page 16 of Indecent Demands

There had to be some way to prove that. Or to prove that it was someone else. Everyone had a fingerprint, metaphorical or otherwise.

I went back over the numbers again and the changes, trying to find something, anything that would tie this to Ariana or absolve her. I pulled up her own logged-in history with the codes to see if I could find a similarity or discrepancy in the coding style.

Ariana was a skilled coder and knew her shit around computers, I could definitely give her that. What was someone like her doing risking their career to steal like this? Even if it was to help people? Did she believe in what she was doing that strongly?

As I scrolled through her logged work, something caught my eye. Changes in the crypto system.

I pulled up the code and examined it. Her reports were that she was smoothing over issues with transactions and making the system more accessible to the clients, which were definitely things that needed adjusting, but I saw micro transactions were a part of the changes she’d made, though.

When I pulled up the accounts she’d done the micro transactions from—supposedlytesttransactions that should’ve been either in amounts too small to matter or should’ve been reversible—I saw they were the accounts of the executives in charge of the company.

I totaled up the amount that she’d taken from them in crypto and converted that into dollars. Jesus, she’d ended up swiping an additional few hundred thousand from them—taken it right out of their pockets.

This money went into the same account as the other automatic transactions, but instead of going into PayPal to be transferred to someone, the money was withdrawn from the bank as cash. Hmm. Perhaps our Robin Hood wasn’t just out for others but for herself as well?

Time to take a little trip.

I went home and dressed up in what I called my FBI suit—the plain black one with the skinny tie that looked like I’d bought it on a government salary—and grabbed my fake badge. Yes, sometimes I had to break the law a little when I didn’t want to wait around for our actual friends at the FBI to get to something and when giving someone the real explanation as myself would be too convoluted and possibly result in them turning me down. I needed answers and I needed themnow, for the sake of my client and for my own peace of mind.

I arrived at the bank just before closing and flashed my badge at the teller. “Can I speak to your manager?”

The teller’s face went pale, poor girl. The teller directed me to the manager. I discreetly flashed my badge again and introduced myself.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I’ve been looking into someone and it seems she might have used your bank to withdraw some cash from her account. I was hoping I could take a look at your security footage?”

“Of course, of course, right away.” The manager looked relieved I wasn’t after him or his employees. “Is she, uh, dangerous?”

“No, no, just your usual corporate thievery.” I waved my hand. “One of those nice and easy cases. We just need to see if there is proof of her withdrawing the funds from her account for cash. That will help us in our case immensely. Right now we can prove transactions were made, but not that she was the one who made them.”

“Ah, I see.” The manager was practically beaming now, excited that he could help catch a criminal and relieved that he wasn’t going to be in any trouble. “Right this way.”

He led me into the back room where the security guard was keeping an eye on the cameras. “Stephen? This is Agent Maxwell. He needs to look through some security footage. Could you help him out?”

I nodded respectfully. “Stephen, nice to meet you. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, I know you’ve got a lot to do.”

In the face of my surprising respect, Stephen relaxed and smiled. “Of course, sir, I’ll show you whatever you need.”

“Ah, thank you. Every security system’s a little different so if you could show me how this works…”

Flattered, Stephen was happy to pull up the footage on the days I needed and fast-forward until we got to the timestamps of the cash withdrawals from the account.

My stomach plummeted. Because there, hair hidden under a blond bob wig, was Ariana.

She’d put something in her cheeks—rolled up cotton I was guessing, like the kind a dentist used after an operation—to fill them out and change her appearance a bit, and she’d put something on her nose to change the shape. I would guess some putty that she then covered up with makeup to match her skin tone. It wasn’t a crazy change, but it was enough to shift her face shape that theoretically, nobody would recognize her real face if it was shown to the employees. It might even be enough to claim that wasn’t her if she was taken to court.

That told me Ariana had been doing this for a long time. This wasn’t her first rodeo.

“Thank you so much, Stephen. I appreciate your help.” I requested a download of the video files on the thumb drive I’d brought with me, then headed out.

It was time to look into Ariana’s other jobs prior to Smirtech.

I was just about to drive back to my apartment when I checked the time and jolted.Shit.Dinner with Ariana.

If I cancelled on her, she might get nervous and disappear. I had to act like I still didn’t suspect her. I wasn’t quite as good at deception as Bryce, but if I could pull this off, I could possibly get information out of Ariana like what the hell her motive was. Was it about helping people? Was it about helping people in order to excuse getting rich off her stolen gains?

My phone chimed with a text from her:are we still on for tonight?

I texted a response:Sure are. Are you at the office or at home? I can pick you up from either place.

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