Chapter 8 - Janelle's Other Job.
Janelle was angry that her payroll concerns had been ignored, but she was angrier that she had started doubting herself.
Whitcomb had told her the discrepancies were probably software errors.
Corporate accounting had called them low priority.
For several weeks she stopped checking.
Then another unfamiliar employee name appeared.
That was when she contacted Marcus privately.
Janelle's payroll discovery had started with a complaint about overtime.
One employee was supposedly paid for hours on a night Janelle knew the person had called out sick.
When she checked another week, the same employee had been paid again.
Then she found names she did not recognize at all.
A boring scheduling dispute had opened the door to Northstar.
Nora saw the pattern again.
Big problems often entered through small inconsistencies.
Janelle Ortiz had worked at the Aurelian longer than Nora.
She knew which guests tipped badly, which executives pretended not to drink, and which managers disappeared whenever something went wrong.
She was practical, sarcastic, and almost impossible to intimidate.
Seeing her wrapped in a clinic blanket unsettled Nora.
It meant the people behind the scheme were willing to move beyond digital tricks and planted paper.
Janelle kept apologizing for running from the Ashland building.
Nora told her to stop.
Anyone who found a white maintenance jacket, an old ring, and a threatening shadow in an abandoned office was allowed to run.
Janelle managed a small smile.
Then she admitted something that mattered more.
She had spent months trying to make the payroll irregularities sound important enough for someone above Whitcomb to investigate.
Most people had called them bookkeeping noise.
Now Nora wondered how often major schemes survived simply because the first warning looked too boring.
Police found Janelle Ortiz's gray sedan twelve blocks away.
They did not find Janelle.
The driver's door was unlocked.
Her phone sat in the cup holder.
Her purse was under the passenger seat.
Ruiz immediately rejected the idea that she had simply decided to run.
"People planning to disappear usually take money and identification."
Hargrove looked down the alley.
"Unless she had another car waiting."
"Possible."
Nora stood beside the old Castellani building with a security officer assigned to keep her from wandering into another scene.
She hated how quickly being guarded was beginning to feel normal.
Ruiz returned to the records office while patrol units searched nearby streets.
The white jacket, cap, ring, and wood polish were bagged separately.
Fingerprints would take time.
DNA would take longer.
Nora wanted answers immediately.
The case refused to cooperate.
Marcus arrived at the building twenty minutes later.
He looked at the open office and went still.
"This room was sealed."
Ruiz turned.
"By who?"
"My office."
"When?"
"Six months ago."
"Why?"
"We finished digitizing the remaining records."
Nora pointed toward the disturbed dust.
"Someone didn't get the memo."
Marcus ignored the sarcasm.
He walked to the empty shelf near the back wall.
Then he stopped.
"Something's missing."
Ruiz approached.
"What?"
Marcus pointed at a clean rectangular outline in the dust.
"A document box."
"What was in it?"
Marcus's face became guarded.
"Partnership ledgers."
"Castellani and Voss?"
"Yes."
"The same records Dominic supposedly found theft in?"
"Copies of some of them."
Ruiz stared at him.
"You left evidence of an eight-figure financial crime in an abandoned building?"
"They weren't evidence when they were stored here."
"And after Dominic disappeared?"
"We believed the relevant records had been destroyed."
"Apparently not."
Nora looked at the clean space.
"Why take the box now?"
Marcus answered quietly.
"Because somebody thinks there's still something inside it worth hiding."
Ruiz's phone rang.
She listened, asked two short questions, then ended the call.
"We found Janelle."
Nora took a step forward.
"Where?"
"Urgent care clinic in Pilsen."
"Is she okay?"
"She's conscious."
Ruiz looked at Hargrove.
"She says someone forced her out of the car."
Hargrove's expression remained skeptical.
"Convenient."
"Maybe."
"Does she say who?"
"No."
At the clinic, Janelle sat on an examination bed with a blanket around her shoulders.
She had a small bruise along one cheek and looked furious rather than frightened.
The moment she saw Nora, her eyes filled.
"They think I did it."
Nora stopped near the doorway.
"Did you?"
Janelle looked hurt.
"Seriously?"
"I watched you drive away from a building full of planted evidence."
"I wasn't driving."
Ruiz raised a hand.
"Start at the beginning."
Janelle took a breath.
"I got a text this morning from Marcus."
Marcus's face hardened.
"No, you didn't."
"It came from your number."
"My phone hasn't left my possession."
Ruiz held out her hand.
Janelle's phone was still in evidence at the abandoned car.
A patrol officer forwarded screenshots.
The message looked real.
COME TO ASHLAND RECORDS OFFICE.
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE PAYROLL FILES.
Janelle continued.
"I thought it was about the same thing we discussed before."
Nora looked at Marcus.
"What payroll files?"
Marcus answered.
"Janelle came to me three weeks ago because she found employee names receiving payments even though they didn't work scheduled shifts."
"Ghost employees?" Ruiz asked.
"Possibly."
"How much money?"
"Not much individually. Around four thousand dollars a month total."
Janelle shook her head.
"That's what I thought at first."
Everyone looked at her.
"What changed?" Ruiz asked.
"The bank routing numbers."
"What about them?"
"I checked the deposits against an old vendor file because one number looked familiar."
Janelle swallowed.
"They all eventually moved into accounts connected to Voss Logistics."
Hargrove's jaw tightened.
"Gabriel Voss."
"Yes."
Marcus looked at Ruiz.
"That's why I met her privately."
"Why not go straight to police?"
"Because I wanted to verify it first."
Ruiz's expression made clear what she thought of private verification.
Janelle continued.
"This morning I went to Ashland."
"What happened?"
"The front door was open."
"Did you go inside?"
"Yes."
Nora frowned.
"I saw you in the alley."
"I know."
Janelle looked down at her hands.
"I heard voices and panicked."
"Why panic if Marcus invited you?"
"Because I found the white jacket first."
Ruiz leaned closer.
"Before we arrived?"
"Yes."
"Did you touch it?"
"No."
"The ring?"
"I saw the box but didn't open it."
"Then why run?"
Janelle's voice dropped.
"Because someone was already in the building with me."
Nora's skin prickled.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"You didn't see them?"
"I saw a shadow under the hall door."
"Then?"
"My phone buzzed."
Janelle's eyes lifted to Ruiz.
"The message said RUN NOW, JANELLE."
"From Marcus?"
"Same number."
Marcus looked furious.
"Someone spoofed it."
"Apparently."
"What happened in the alley?" Ruiz asked.
"I got into my car."
Janelle touched her bruised cheek.
"A man was in the back seat."
Nora went cold.
"What did he look like?"
"I barely saw him. Dark jacket. Gloves."
"Voice?"
"Low. American. Maybe Midwest."
"What did he say?"
Janelle looked at Nora.
"He said, 'Drive until I tell you to stop.'"
"And you did?"
"Yes."
"Then he made me pull into an alley."
Her fingers tightened around the blanket.
"He took my keys, shoved me out, and drove away."
Ruiz looked at the clinic report.
"How did you get here?"
"A delivery driver found me."
"Did the man say anything else?"
Janelle hesitated.
"One thing."
"What?"
"He said Nora was supposed to notice the straw."
Nora stared at her.
"What?"
"That's exactly what he said."
"Why would I be supposed to notice it?"
Janelle shook her head.
"I don't know."
Nora felt the entire case shift again.
She had believed her attention to detail accidentally disrupted the plan.
What if it had been part of the plan?
Whitcomb was told to blame her.
A wrapper was left where she could see it.
Threatening messages pushed her toward certain suspects.
Photographs were delivered directly to her safe apartment.
Someone did not want Nora silent.
Someone wanted her looking.
Ruiz seemed to reach the same conclusion.
"Nora isn't only a scapegoat," she said.
Marcus looked toward her.
"She's a courier."
Nora frowned.
"A courier for what?"
"Information."
Marcus's face turned grim.
"Whoever is doing this knows Enzo doesn't trust police, and police don't trust Enzo."
He pointed toward Nora.
"But everyone listens when she notices something because she has no obvious reason to lie."
Nora hated the logic because it made sense.
"So they're using me to steer all of you."
Ruiz nodded slowly.
"Maybe."
Hargrove's phone buzzed.
He read the message twice.
"What now?" Nora asked.
"Forensics ran the first print from the jewelry box."
"Whose?"
May you like
Hargrove looked directly at Marcus.
"Yours."
