I hang up with her and hurry into the building. The first elevator is crammed full, so I wait three more minutes for an open one and then zip up to the thirty-fifth floor.
As soon as the doors open, I'm facing a rounded wooden desk with "Zhukova Incorporated" emblazoned on the side in gold letters. The woman behind the desk has sleek black hair and a long, narrow face with impossibly high cheekbones. She looks like she could have a second career in modeling.
"Appointment?" she asks in a flat voice.
"Oh, um... Yes. Well, no." I smile awkwardly. "I'm here to do the audit. My boss, Roger, was supposed to be with me, but-"
"Belle Dowan," she interrupts. "Follow me."
She stands up, her fitted pencil skirt hugging her skinny waist and closely following the swell of her hips. The woman is stupid gorgeous. I have a hard time keeping up with her as she sashays down the hallway.
Finally, she stops outside of an office door and raps her knuckles against the wood. A second later, she opens the door.
"Arnold? Belle Dowan is here to see you for the audit."
If someone told me the woman was a robot rigged with a library of pre-recorded messages, I'd believe them. She sounds lifeless.
An equally lifeless "Enter" sounds from inside the office. The woman waves me into the room and then closes the door behind me.
I have to blink against the sudden gloom. It's like stepping into a dungeon.
"Sorry," Arnold says. "I'm sensitive to light."
I hear a chair spin and then I'm blinded a second time with piercing white light as he pulls the cord for his window shades.
"You're here for the audit, then," he remarks.
It's a statement, not a question. I stumble into the room, my eyes still trying to adjust.
"Yes." I grab the back of a leather chair and maneuver around it. "I'm Belle. A colleague, Roger, was supposed to be here with me, but due to... unforeseen circumstances, I'll be handling this audit alone."
"Is everything alright?"
Considering Roger is probably sipping on cocktails beachside right now, I'd say yeah, he's fine.
"He is." I force a smile. "Thanks for your concern."
Arnold clears his throat. "You won't suffer the same unforeseen circumstances?"
"I'm sorry?"
"We expect punctuality. Dependability. Loyalty." His eyes seem to glimmer on the last quality, lingering on me for a moment before he turns his attention to a stack of papers in sudden need of straightening on his desk.
I nod. "I understand. Absolutely. I know I'm running late today, but this is not standard for me. My flight got in this morning and then I couldn't get a taxi. I'll be better the rest of the week."
I can't tell whether Arnold is convinced or not, because he refuses to look at me. He grabs the stack from his desk and swivels around to tuck it in the filing cabinet behind him.
"You've worked on the audit prior to arriving here today, correct?"
I nod and then clear my throat. "Yes. I was one of... of many who participated in the early stages of the auditing process."
This isn't entirely true. Actually, it's not even a little bit true. Roger kept all of the files in his office. He let me work on some smaller clients, but he kept Zhukova Incorporated for himself. Today will be my first time seeing any of the paperwork or numbers.
"Great." He rifles through the folders in the file cabinet, pulling some out at random. "Then I'll need the finishing touches on this nonsense completed in three days. No later."
Thankfully, he is no longer looking at me because my jaw drops. "Three days?"
"That was the previously agreed-upon arrangement."
"Yes," I admit. "I know it was. But-"
"You've had six weeks prior to this with our documents," Arnold continues. "Did you do your job or not? I was under the impression that the week spent here was just putting finishing touches on everything."
"We did our job," I rush to explain. "It's just that... the timeline was set when my colleague was going to be here with me. Now, I'm working alone."
Arnold turns around and glowers. "That does not change the parameters of the job we hired you to do. Three days. It's not a negotiation."
I feel overwhelmed tears burning the backs of my eyes, but I refuse to cry in front of this man. Not on my first day.
"Arnold-sir," I correct, "I may have misspoken slightly. My colleague handled many of the documents related to this audit. I'll need at least a day, maybe two, to review the information he has put together. To familiarize myself. Then I can begin the process."
"And the 'process' will take you...?"
"Three or four days, at least."
"I may not be some hoity-toity accountant like you," he says sarcastically, "but I am the Vice President of Financing. And I'm fairly sure that the two days of familiarizing and three days of processing... Well, that adds up to five days. Is that correct?"
I grit my teeth. "Yes, it is."
"Two days too many," he snarls. "Three is what you get. Like I said, it's not a negotiation."
If I slap this smug man in his face, I'll lose my job. Then again, maybe that isn't such a bad thing.
But as soon as the thought flits through my mind, I see Elise's face. And I take a deep breath.
"I understand you must have a schedule to keep," I tell him, "and I'm sorry if my company is playing a part in making your life more difficult. That's not our objective. But I simply can't do my job properly in three days."
Arnold leans back in his chair. The springs squeal. "Now, we reach the heart of the matter-your job. I'm sure you have your own idea of what that entails, but I think I have a solution that will see this job done in three days. Would you like to hear it?"
No. Double no. Triple no with a side of "fuck you."
But I nod. "Of course."
He smiles. "Our company does a lot of business. Money changes hands. It moves from one account to another. We gain it, we lose it. That's business."
"That's all businesses, as far as I've been able to tell."
Arnold's smile sharpens. "Yes. Well, it's understandable, then, that some of that money might... disappear."
"Disappear?"
"Disappear," he repeats. "Get lost in the shuffle of things. Do you understand?"
Holy shit. Yes, I understand. I understand perfectly.
This man is embezzling from Zhukova Incorporated.
My neck suddenly feels very hot.
Roger never trained me to handle something like this. These kinds of issues would normally be discovered while we're still working on the audit from our own offices. This isn't something that would be uncovered this late in the game.
But I haven't seen Zhukova's files yet. Roger has.
Suddenly, realization dawns. No wonder that asswipe is in Aruba.
He's a coward. He knew.
I paste on a thin smile. "Disappearances like that are the kinds of problems I'm supposed to find and account for. That's my job."
"Of course. You have your job, and I have mine. You're good at your job, I'm sure. And I'm good at mine. Would you agree?" Arnold asks.
I stiffen in the chair. The light from the windows seems like a spotlight now. Maybe that's why Arnold keeps his blinds pulled-so he can do his dirty deeds in the dark.
"That's what I'm going to find out during this audit," I say.
He laughs humorlessly. "Well, there's really no need for it. I'll tell you what I've told every auditor we've ever had: I'm a professional. Nothing happens in this company's accounts that I don't know about. So if you find unaccounted surpluses or losses, you can assume I already know. There's no reason to report any of it. Business can sometimes be messy, as I'm sure you know."
He gave this same speech to Roger? To Georgia?
And they agreed?
I study Arnold's face, trying to decide if this is some sort of test. He's just staring back at me, waiting.
"What you're asking me to do is illegal," I say flatly. "I'm going to do my job exactly as I've been trained. And if you've been doing yours, then there shouldn't be a problem."
He looks surprised I'm pushing back, but not rattled. I have a feeling it takes a lot to rattle a scumbag like this.
"You'll do as I say or you'll be replaced. I will send you home right now."
"You're one of our biggest clients," I blurt, even though I'm sure he already knows.
"And what do you think would happen, Miss Dowan, if you lost your company one of their biggest clients?"
I blink at him. "Are you blackmailing me?"
