"Can you tell which user account uploaded them?" Nia asked.
"The system records that. We will verify it against the access logs Monday. I don't want anyone from the vendor-management group editing the records before our team captures them."
Loretta listened without interrupting. She had once spent an entire weekend searching for a missing order of cleaning supplies because an invoice described a delivery that had never arrived. The amount had been ninety-six dollars. This investigation concerned more than a million, but the underlying question was exactly the same: what had the company received for the money it had paid?
At the other end of the city, Dennis Vale sat on his back porch with a glass of water going warm beside him and his laptop balanced on his knees. His wife, Rachel, had come outside twice to ask whether something was wrong, and he had twice insisted he was only catching up on month-end reports. The unapproved Lakeside invoice appeared at the top of his workflow in a yellow banner. The message read AWAITING OWNER AUTHORIZATION, which was perfectly normal for a transaction above the threshold introduced at closing.
But Dennis had spent the previous eighteen months telling himself that the arrangements were harmless because Bradley was in charge. The more he thought about the absence of deliverables, the less he believed that excuse. He remembered submitting the first Lakeside invoice after Bradley told him the vendor was discreet and handled executive-level planning no one else needed to see. He remembered asking for a purchase order and being told that a signature from the chief operating officer was better than any purchase order.
On Sunday morning, Bradley called him before breakfast. "Why is the invoice still pending?"
"Because Harbor Gate hasn't authorized it. That's how the new system works."
"Did you mark it urgent?"
"I did."
"Then send a reminder. Patricia knows me. They'll sign it."
Dennis looked out over his backyard, where his teenage daughter was sitting on the grass teaching the family dog to fetch a tennis ball. He had always imagined that if he ever reached a moment when his career demanded dishonesty, he would recognize the boundary instantly and refuse. Instead, he had crossed it in small steps while telling himself that none of the individual steps mattered. He wanted to ask Bradley whether Lakeside had ever held a genuine meeting, but the question frightened him because he suspected the answer.
"Brad, I need something from you," Dennis said. "A name. One actual consultant who attended those Thursday sessions. Someone the auditors can interview."
"Not this again."
"I've been signing payments for eighteen months. I have a right to know what the company bought."
Bradley's voice cooled. "Your right is to do the finance job I gave you. You want to keep doing it after Monday, you stop asking questions that sound like accusations."