Dead of Night by J. R. Rain & H. P. Mallory

Author:J. R. Rain & H. P. Mallory [Rain, J. R. & Mallory, H. P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rain Press
Published: 2023-04-20T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Up North

Twenty years, or thereabouts, before the events of Morley-on-Avon, Victoria Willis and Shona Clark met.

The job of junior bookkeeper was an entry-level one, but it required some degree of skill in math, an area where both (though particularly Victoria) excelled. As entry-level jobs went, it was a pretty good one and they learned a lot under the department’s venerable head, who schooled both in his own unique style of figure-keeping (‘Neat and brisk, that’s the name of the game. Keep the columns neat and brisk. Show your work or someone will question it later. Clarity, clarity, clarity.’).

The work environment was less congenial, rife with the sort of casual sexism you invariably find in male-dominated professions, and maybe that was why the two women gravitated towards each other—because there was defense in numbers.

If the floor-level workers, alongside whom both women worked, could be leery and offensive, it still paled next to the men further up in the corporation, who acted as if the eighties had never ended. Bottoms were slapped or pinched, breasts were squeezed, insinuations were made and Human Resources shrugged and said, ‘Well, if you want to keep the job…’

It soon became apparent, however, that the busy hands of the executives were to be found elsewhere.

“You see; here.” Victoria pointed to the spreadsheet. “And here. And here.”

“How do you spot this stuff?” wondered Shona, shaking her head.

Victoria shrugged. “Numbers. I just see them clearly somehow. Just seems obvious to me.”

Shona took the sheet and stared at it. Now that it had been pointed out, she could see the truth as clearly as her friend obviously had.

“They’re skimming profits.”

Victoria nodded. “Small amounts (I mean… comparatively small amounts) but regular. Add it all up and it looks like fraud on a massive scale.”

Shona couldn’t suppress the gleam in her eye. “Who do we tell?”

The idea of dropping these men in the shit was a very appealing one to both Shona and Victoria. They’d certainly earned that right after everything they’d been through.

“That’s the question,” replied Victoria, a little cagey, as if she was holding something back. “I can’t think of anyone in the corporation I’d trust with this information. Anyone who couldn’t be bought off instantly.”

“The police?”

“I wouldn’t even know how to go about reporting fraud.”

“But they’ve committed a crime!” insisted Shona, shaking her head vigorously. “There has to be someone we can report it to.”

“Yeah. I mean… yeah. There probably is,” Victoria acknowledged. “But—guys like these? What are the chances they ever see the inside of a courtroom, let alone the inside of a jail cell? They know how to work the system.”

Shona nodded. “They practically own the system.”

“Exactly. If we report them, then we’re as good as letting them get away with it. And we’ll lose our jobs in the bargain. How is that fair?”

“It’s not.” Shona looked down for a minute. She was fairly sure that she was thinking the same thing as her friend, but it was hard to be the first person to voice such thoughts out loud.

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