General ledger treatment.
Payroll records.
Employee schedules.
Executive approvals.
Communications concerning valuation.
Preston entered Grant’s office carrying coffee.
Grant turned the monitor.
Preston read.
His face changed.
“How did they know?”
Grant stood.
“You tell me.”
“I didn’t.”
“Who did?”
“Evan.”
“You said he was unsophisticated.”
“He is a calibration technician.”
Grant pointed at the monitor.
“A calibration technician just triggered external audit procedures on the largest contract we’ve ever negotiated.”
Preston read the message again.
“We can explain it.”
“How?”
“It was temporary compensation.”
“Expired compensation.”
“The stores may still honor—”
“Stop.”
Grant walked toward the window.
The plant floor spread below.
Workers looked small through the glass.
“Fix it.”
Preston swallowed.
“How?”
“That’s your job.”
Four auditors arrived January 2nd.
They occupied the smaller executive conference room.
The initial review was supposed to last two days.
By the end of the first afternoon, the document request doubled.
The central question changed quickly.
At first:
Were employees legally paid?
Then:
How had Blackidge accounted for the certificates?
Preston provided the ledger records.
The auditors stared.
The certificate block acquired three years earlier for $88,400 had been entered into an internal promotional asset account at its full printed face value of $310,000.
That was already questionable.