Her expression changed.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’m checking.”
“Did they not pay you?”
“I don’t know what they think they did.”
“That sounds bad.”
“It could be.”
Sophie looked toward the folder.
“Can I help?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re fifteen.”
“That has never stopped you from making me clean the garage.”
“This is different.”
She accepted that reluctantly.
After dinner, Evan spread documents across the kitchen table.
He used only information already lawfully in his possession.
His pay stubs.
Payroll notices.
Company emails sent directly to him.
The Becket records Leonard had provided.
Public filings.
Public trade articles.
Nothing taken improperly.
Nothing accessed through credentials he did not possess.
That boundary mattered to him.
At approximately eleven, he found the first serious mismatch.
Two months earlier, in October, Preston Caldwell had sent an all-company message addressing rumors about delayed raises and expense controls.
The email included one reassuring statement:
Blackidge Systems has fully funded an employee retention and year-end compensation reserve totaling $1.8 million, segregated for compensation commitments and approved retention obligations.
Evan read it again.
Fully funded.
Segregated.
Committed.
If true, December compensation had not suddenly become unfunded.
The cash had supposedly already been set aside.
So why replace cash wages with expired certificates?
He wrote the question in his notebook.
December 22.
11:07 p.m.
Where did retention reserve go?
Then another question.
How are BM19 certificates carried on books?
Evan did not know accounting well enough to answer.
So he did not guess.
He slept badly.