"No." Mrs. Bensen shut the door behind Jim who did not speak, his faces set in hard lines. Laci hadn't had time to go running to him yet. Christine's throat all but closed as her boss sat without greeting her. The scent of the cigars he favored filled the small space and made her breathing even more difficult.
Christine hurried behind her desk, shifted a few stacks, and laughed. It sounded strained even to her ears. "Please excuse the mess, I've been away the last two weeks, a dream vacation to Australia, so dreamy I almost called in sick today even though I'm running behind since things have sort of backed up."
"Ms. Howell, we need to ask a series of questions regarding recent purchasing orders and invoices." Mrs. Bensen interrupted as she pulled a sheaf of papers from her brief case. She gave Christine the first set. "Is this your signature?"
Glancing through the forms, Christine saw they were pineapple order invoices from a few weeks ago. "Yes, it appears to be."
"Appears?"
"I usually don't sign at the top, as this one is. I always sign near the bottom." Christine pointed to demonstrate what she meant. "But it does appear to be my signature so I must have been in a hurry."
"To leave on your dream trip, no doubt." Mrs. Bensen handed her another stack. "And these? Did you get in a hurry and sign these in a haphazard manner?"
Damn, she'd dug the hole deeper. Lovely. Christine studied the next pile, more order invoices for pineapples from Hawaii, from Charlie. His signature appeared at the bottom as usual. She always signed right over his name, so he'd joked several times she 'liked to be on top'. But these, like the previous pile, contained her signature in the upper corner of the page. She wouldn't have made such a mistake all these times. "I didn't mean to imply I rushed through, Jim, just I was in a hurry."
"You'll address Mrs. Bensen only, Ms. Howell."
Oh my God. I'm in deep trouble and I have no idea why. Christine shifted to focus on the other woman. Mrs. Benson cleared her throat. "Is this your authorization and signature on both stacks of invoices?"
"Except for my signature being in the wrong place, they all appear to be signed by me. As I said, I always sign at the bottom, right above the shipper. In those cases, Mr. Jergens'. So the ones where I signed at the bottom are mine. I mean, I definitely authorized those. But where my name is at the top, I don't recall signing there, because I never do. I might have been in a hurry once, but not all the time on all the forms."
"Pay particular attention to the numbers, for the total payment made and the routing accounts."
For a minute Christine missed it. The orders were duplicated, yet the routing numbers and total to be paid were different. The corporation paid both the higher amount and the correct lower one.
Charlie would have caught the mistake when the payments posted; he'd have called her right away. Oh crap. Charlie didn't catch it because he hadn't seen the duplicates, the wrong ones. Christine's mouth went dry. If the incorrect payments had been made into the Hawaii office account, Charlie would have immediately called her to get it straight. He always checked the invoices and payments, called her with any questions, even the smallest ones. But if the extra payments didn't go through Hawaii, where did they go? Routing numbers, Mrs. Bensen said. Christine compared both stacks and found the routing numbers different so the second payments had transferred to another account. No wonder Charlie hadn't caught it; the payments had never come to him. Her heart all but stopped. A whole lot of corporate money had gone into a false account. Mrs. Bensen and Jim thought Christine used her orders with Charlie to steal corporation funds. Oh my holy God.
"Can you explain the discrepancies?" Mrs. Bensen leaned forward, her expression direct and filled with challenge.
Christine shook her head. "No, I can't. How many of these are duplicated and transferred somewhere besides Hawaii?"
"We've analyzed the Hawaii accounts and the ones from this office. When totaled, the obviously faked invoices have a sum of over nine hundred thousand dollars."
Christine inhaled and felt the blood drain from her face. Dear lord. And they thought she stole it because her signature appeared on the faked invoices? Calm, be calm, stay focused, oh God. "I'm not certain what is going on, but I'll do my best to help you get to the bottom of it. Please let me assure you, I'm not responsible for these errors, and I have no idea where the missing money is."
"Only you and Mr. Jergens handled these transactions. You have indicated it is indeed your signature on both stacks of invoices." Mrs. Bensen held her hand up. "Are you implying he is at fault?"
"No!" Christine cried so loud Mrs. Bensen and Jim both gaped at her. She cleared her throat and said close to her normal tone. "Mr. Jergens is the most dedicated employee this corporation has. He would never be involved in something like this. There's no way he's at fault."
Mrs. Bensen lifted both hands now. "Then you're solely at fault?"