Chương 4
“It had a cartoon accountant on it. This is an improvement.”
Allison gave him a look that almost became laughter.
Then the moment passed.
She filled a paper coffee cup from the small water cooler by the door.
At 2:27, Luca found a second important detail.
The authentication key assigned to Allison had been reported lost six months earlier.
“You filed this report?” he asked.
Allison leaned over.
Her eyes narrowed.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“February.”
“Why?”
“I left my key ring at a restaurant.”
“What happened?”
“I called IT before I left the parking lot. They disabled the key.”
“You’re sure?”
“I sat in my car eating cold fries for forty minutes because I didn’t want to drive home until they confirmed it.”
“Did you recover the keys?”
“Restaurant manager found them the next morning.”
“Then what?”
“IT told me to keep the replacement. I gave the old hardware key to finance.”
“To whom?”
Allison’s answer took too long.
Luca turned toward her.
“To whom?”
“Marcus.”
“He worked in finance?”
“No.”
“Then why did you give it to him?”
She swallowed.
“He was standing with Denise from finance. We were late for a committee meeting. He said he’d take it upstairs.”
Luca stared at her.
“You handed a financial authentication device to a board member.”
“Disabled authentication device.”
“You assumed.”
“I had confirmation.”
“From?”
“IT.”
“In writing?”
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
She flinched again.
“Fine. Yes. I was careless.”
Luca searched the help-desk archive.
The key had indeed been marked disabled.
But eleven days later, an administrator had restored its authorization.
The change ticket had no explanatory note.
“Who had permission to reactivate it?” Allison asked.
“Four people.”
“Names.”
“Not yet.”
“Luca.”
“Not yet.”
He was already exporting the administrator logs.
A sound came from the hallway.
Both of them froze.
Not footsteps.
The quiet electronic chirp of the building access panel.
Someone had entered the restricted staff corridor.
Allison looked at the clock.
2:41 a.m.
“Marcus?”
“Could be security.”
“Security doesn’t come back here unless someone calls.”
Luca saved his work.
A shadow moved beneath the door.
Then a knock.
Not Marcus’s knock.
Three measured taps.
“Mr. Mercer?”
Gallery security.
Luca recognized Hector Peña’s voice.
He did not open the door.
“Yes.”
“Mr. Vance says you need to leave the building.”
“Mr. Vance does not supervise the audit.”
“He says there’s been an access breach.”
“There has.”
Allison looked at Luca sharply.
Hector hesitated outside.
“He says Ms. Romero accessed confidential board records.”
Allison whispered, “He’s setting the story.”
Luca lifted one finger.
“Is Mr. Vance with you, Hector?”
“No, sir.”
“Where is he?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Who instructed you to remove me?”
“Mr. Vance.”
“In writing?”
Another silence.
“No.”
“Then call the chief forensic auditor whose number is on the access notice beside my door.”
“I already called her.”
That surprised Luca.
“What did she say?”
“She told me not to touch the door.”
Luca almost smiled.
“All right.”
“She also told me to stand here until she calls back.”
“Then we have something in common.”
Hector sighed.
“Mr. Mercer, I’m having a terrible night.”
“I believe you.”
“I was supposed to leave at eleven.”
“Sorry.”
“My daughter has a math test tomorrow.”
Allison closed her eyes.
Luca said, “Call her. Tell her you’re working.”
“She knows. She thinks I’m a spy now.”
“Don’t correct her.”
Hector laughed once.
The pressure in the room changed without disappearing.
Ten minutes later, the chief forensic auditor called Luca directly.
Her name was Evelyn Shaw, and she had spent nineteen years in forensic accounting without developing any visible affection for accountants.
“Tell me why I’m awake,” she said.
Luca did.
Not the dramatic version.
He gave her times, access points, what Allison said she had done, what the ledger appeared to contain, what he had documented, and what Marcus had said outside the door.
Evelyn interrupted twice.
Once to ask whether Luca had touched the original ledger before bagging it.
Once to ask whether Allison had been alone in records storage.
“No known witness,” Luca said.
“So provenance is weak.”
“Yes.”
“Digital correlations?”
“Promising.”
“That means nothing.”
“Yes.”
“Good. You’re still sane.”
Allison mouthed, Is she always like this?
Luca nodded.
Evelyn continued.
“Do not let Romero leave with anything. Do not let security enter. Do not confront Vance. I’m contacting counsel and our cyber team.”
“Marcus may try to alter systems.”
“He may already have.”
“The server image from yesterday is intact.”
“I know.”
“I also want network controller logs preserved before retention rolls.”
“Already requested.”
“When?”
“Thirty seconds ago.”
A pause.
“That’s why I keep you.”
She hung up.
Allison stared at him.
“You two are horrifying.”
“She likes me.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
“That’s what liking looks like.”
At 3:06 a.m., the network logs arrived from an external security provider. The gallery outsourced firewall monitoring after a ransomware scare the previous year, which meant certain records Marcus could potentially influence inside the building had been duplicated off-site.
Luca did not treat that as salvation.
He treated it as one more independent source.
The logs showed Marcus’s assigned terminal communicating with the payment system at the same time as the forty-five-thousand-dollar transfer.
No remote desktop connection.
No external VPN.
No indication that someone had accessed the terminal from outside.
Someone had physically used that workstation or had arranged a more sophisticated intrusion that left no obvious trace.
Luca next opened keycard records.
Allison stood so still he could hear her breathing.
At 2:07 a.m. on the date of the transaction, Marcus’s board credential had opened the executive corridor.
At 2:53, it had opened the parking garage door.
No other credential entered the executive corridor during that period.
Allison put one hand over her mouth.
Luca kept scrolling.
“Say it,” she said.
“Marcus’s credential was in the area.”
“You enjoy torturing people.”
“No.”
“You’re good at it.”
He turned.
“Your credential was also in the building.”
Her hand dropped.
“What?”
“Two seventeen.”
May you like
“That’s impossible.”
“Your executive keycard accessed the staff elevator at two seventeen.”
