Thursday dawned with a sense of urgency that hung over the office like a storm cloud. I arrived early, hoping the quiet would offer some clarity. I sat at my desk, staring at the stacks of paper that had become my world. Sarah had already left the Project Delta files neatly arranged for me. I dove into them, hoping to find the anomaly that would make sense of everything.
Hours passed, the office gradually filling with the hum of productivity around me. I was so engrossed that I didn’t notice when Sarah returned. “I pulled up the vendor contracts for Delta,” she said, placing another folder on my desk. “There’s something odd in the February billing.”
Her words sparked a flicker of hope. “Odd how?” I asked, flipping through the documents. “There’s a double entry for services that were never rendered,” she explained, pointing to a line item. “Look, two invoices for the same date, but different amounts.”
The discrepancy was clear, and as I examined the details, a pattern began to emerge. It was subtle, but there—a trail of duplicate entries and fabricated services, all pointing to a deliberate effort to siphon funds.
“This is it,” I murmured, more to myself than to Sarah. “This is what they’re hiding.” The realization was a mix of relief and dread. I had found the smoking gun, but it implicated far more than just a clerical error.
“What do we do now?” Sarah asked, her voice a blend of concern and curiosity. “We prepare,” I replied, my resolve hardening. “We need to document everything and present it at the meeting.”
The rest of the day was a blur of activity as we gathered evidence, cross-referencing emails and invoices, creating a comprehensive dossier of our findings. As the sun set, painting the sky in hues of orange and pink, I knew we were ready. But the true test would come tomorrow.
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