Chapter Seventeen
A few days later, she sat puzzling over the copies of the books that Aaron had given her. He was right. Something was definitely out of whack with them and in a major way. Thomas was nearby, working on putting up a desk in her new offices, while she sat at the one he had already finished, looking over the numbers in front of her.
“Look at this,” she told him.
“You’re the accountant,” he replied. “What am I looking at here?”
“Gaps in payment. Someone has been cooking the books for years,” she told him.
“How so?” he asked her.
“They have been very careful, but the problem with trying to fake a set of books is that you are bound to make mistakes. In their case, their mistake is thinking no one would review their numbers.”
“What do you mean?”
“The entries are legitimate, but the addition is off. They have been adding a few pounds here and several pence there, increasing the debits and reducing the credits in ways that simply make it look like an adding mistake, but it’s very deliberate.”
“How do you know?”
“Because only someone who is completely inept would make this many mistakes in their accounting. This is deliberate.”
“And what do they accomplish by doing that?”
“There are two brothers doing the accounting. One is the accountant, and one is the banker. They operate as a check and balance. Whatever one brother shows on the books, the other should show in cash, receipts, and holdings. There are zero mistakes in the non-cash items, but the cash entries are full of them.”
“So, they subtract more for payouts than they should and add in more for debts than they should. In the end, what is showing on the books is less than what is actually in the vault?”
“Precisely. In simplest terms, if they drop a one from their addition in the right place, they turn the 30 euro in the bank into 20 euro and pocket the difference. Over a period of time that can add up to some serious side cash for two people who have been completely entrusted with the care of all the village’s money.”
“Wow. The McCallum brothers have been doing the books since well before even Aaron’s predecessor, Aiden, took over as clan leader. They must be minted by now.”
“How could Aaron have even let them stay in place after he removed Aiden from power?” Kara asked.
“They were like everyone else. He gave them a chance to step down if they weren’t willing to support the new leadership. They expressed that they were completely on board with him, and he never gave it a second thought, I guess, at least not until he realized something was not quite right. I wonder what tipped him off.”
“I don’t know, but I can certainly understand why they feigned support. I’d have to look at all the books, but I can guarantee that they’ve stolen millions of dollars over the years based on the totals I’m seeing in just this sampling.”
“I wonder what they do with it. They seem to live quite modestly. You’d never know they were embezzling so much.”
“No clue, but look close enough, and it will turn up. People hide it in gambling habits, safe deposit boxes, et cetera. They hoard what they can’t dispose of without notice.”
“Aaron is not going to be happy about this.”
“I’d say not,” she replied.
“Okay. I want you to go home and stay there. Lock yourself in.”
“What? That’s being overly dramatic, don’t you think?”
“No, not at all. Aaron has a bit of temper when it comes to people taking advantage of his good nature and doing harm to this village. He watched Aiden do it for too long to put up with it under his leadership. The moment I tell him this, he will confront them, and there is a chance they will come after the person who revealed them.”
“It’s not like he will tell them who he had review the books, I’m sure.”
“Who else would it be? Other than them, you are the only accountant in the village. They will make assumptions that, since I am on the Dragon Council, you did the review, and they will be right,” Thomas pointed out.
“It still seems a bit overly dramatic,” she replied.
“It isn’t. Go,” he told her.
“Fine. Just be careful. I’ll be at home, when you get them sorted out,” she said, still unconcerned about what she perceived as two old men who would be no match for Thomas and Aaron if they got out of hand. Even if they did figure out that she was the secondary accountant that revealed their crime, they stood little chance of reaching her before the Dragon Guard took them down.
As it turned out, she was wrong. The moment they were called to their chambers, they made a beeline for her instead. It was just as Thomas had predicted that they instinctively knew it was her that revealed them, but even he hadn’t expected them to not even come to defend themselves and go directly for her.
As he and Aaron waited in chambers, along with a half dozen members of the Dragon Guard, the two brothers made their way to the Higgins household, landing heavily on the ground just outside the kitchen window of Thomas and Kara’s home. She looked up at the sound, puzzled by it, but assuming it was just one of the neighbors who had gone out for a late-night flight. After a moment of not hearing any further movement, she returned to preparing the casserole she had started making for when Thomas returned home.
“Crap!” she exclaimed as she sloshed the mixture onto her clothes while putting it into the oven.
She finished setting it inside before making her way to the bedroom to change out of her clothes. Slipping off her button down, she pulled a clean t-shirt over her head and started back to the kitchen with the other shirt, intent upon letting it soak to prevent a stain. Instead, she was startled by a loud crash at the front door. It took a moment to sink in that someone was kicking at it violently. She dropped the shirt and ran back into the bedroom without thinking and immediately regretted it, but before she could get back out and make it to the back door, she heard the front door crash in. She was trapped, unable to shift into dragon form in the tiny confines of the bedroom.