Deadly Pursuit - Chapter 15
Tyre didn’t relax until Serena walked back into the conference room.
“So, Tansy and I think we have the bulk of the program figured out,” Serena said once everyone had something to eat.
“Serena was a huge help there. This girl is a genius,” Tansy gushed. “When this whole thing is over, you have to walk me through the structure of the program.”
“I don’t know about genius. I didn’t pick up on how Charley had manipulated the program.”
“Manipulated?” Tyre said. “How?”
“He inserted a back door that allowed him to sneak into the system and place a virus that siphoned off fractions of a cent from a variety of the bank’s accounts.”
Tyre frowned. “Wouldn’t someone at the bank notice that?”
“Not necessarily,” Serena answered. “These were small amounts, less than a cent, spread over multiple accounts and masked by genuine withdrawals. Imagine someone takes one third of a cent from your account every time you make a withdrawal or use your debit card. Every third transaction you’d lose a penny, but most people won’t notice.”
“Now imagine that times several hundred thousand accounts,” Ryan said, wiping his mouth. “I found the same thing in the financials your friend left. He kept good records for a criminal.”
“So why would Charley leave this stuff for you, Serena?” Tansy asked. “I mean, you seem pretty sure he’s responsible for the back door in the system.”
Serena nodded. “It had to be him. I have the code I worked on and it doesn’t include the back door.”
“No one here would ever believe you’d steal,” Tyre spoke up.
Serena’s shoulders dropped, and he realized that she’d been afraid that her friends and colleagues might think exactly that. A quick glance around the table at the heads nodding in affirmation of his statement told him that he was right.
“I don’t know, but I’d like to think that he had a change of heart. Maybe he wanted to go to the authorities and the guys who tried to grab me needed to stop him.”
“If your theory is right,” Tansy said, “it means your friend wasn’t working alone.”
“I’d say that’s a given.” Ryan jumped back into the conversation. “I’ve compared the records you found in the safe-deposit box with the financial records West was able to dig up on your friend. There’s money in his bank accounts that can’t be accounted for but not nearly the amount that has been stolen from the bank.”
Serena shook her head.
“So Charley has partners.” Tyre folded his hand behind his head as he thought out loud. “That’s probably who he’s running from and who is after you. Somehow, they figured out Charley sent you the evidence that would prove their crimes.”
“How would they have known that, though?” Serena asked.
Tansy and Tyre shared a look.
Serena looked between the two of them. “What? What am I missing?”