Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 27217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 136(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 136(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
She hands me a page that looks like a bank authorization form for the church to round up to the nearest dollar when paying a particular client. However, something looks off about the page.
"Who signed this?" I ask. The signature is unfamiliar and doesn't belong to anyone on the administrative staff of the church.
"From the looks of it, Father Kosloff," she says. "But that's not the issue with that page. The issue is he signed it over a decade ago. That page in your hand has a forged date on it, and when I lined it up with the bank account in question, there's no contractor or construction company linked to it. The crazy part is the contact information for this contractor is linked back to the church."
"Slow down, baby girl. Talk me through it like you have to explain it to your classmates."
"Oh right." She chuckles. "I do have to make it make sense. They're going to love this. I found fraud."
"Easy now. You'll have to keep the church's name off your project if that's true. At least until we clear things up with the Archbishop and an independent auditor."
"Okay, that's fine. I can still do the project as directed, but this will be a bit of extra credit. So, what I found is that the amount of money this contractor billed the church increases every few months, but the items on the invoice don't make any sense. Like the charges for new pews."
"If Father Kosloff signed off on the order, then…"
Harper shakes her head and heads out of the office into the seating area. She beckons me with her index finger, and a coy smile, curling up in the corner. I follow her to the second row and the farthest end of the pew closest to the wall. She kneels and points to something. It's only when I kneel beside her that I see what it is.
"My brothers carved their initials into this pew every year when one of them turned 8, and this last set of H.H. in the heart is from when I decided to add to the family registry. There's no way there were new pews put in if my initials are still here. I did this when I was 8."
"Naughty girl."
"Don't you start." She smiles and stands up.
Harper picks up a few more pages and points to various items. "It's blatant when you look at the way you've sorted them. The fraud is easier to miss doing the bookkeeping one month at a time without comparing it to the last year. Any accountant will notice the increase in the contractor invoices, but the upped prices can be reasoned as inflation and regular maintenance around the church."
"Because it's the same contractor's account we're continuing to pay over the years, it's being billed as a routine monthly expense."
"The invoices have ridiculous improvements that can't really be proven unless you've been in this church for years and can tell the difference. But restoring the altar, recessed lighting bulb changes… Who's getting up on a ladder to check that?"
"Well, for those things in particular, especially the altar, there would be scaffolding setup for weeks behind the pulpit. No one's using a ladder to restore the 15-foot Virgin Mary sculpture."
"I don't even remember there being a time when there was scaffolding here. Granted, I'm not the most avid churchgoer, but between volunteering and the occasional Sunday mass, I'd remember if there was construction going on. My mother would know for sure."
I nod. "Okay, here's what we'll do. We're going to highlight each discrepancy and fluctuation in that contractor account. We'll put together a report for the Archbishop and take his recommendation from there. In the meantime, I'm going to stop payments on that contractor account."
It doesn't take long for me to get a hold of the bank's fraud department. I'm certain that whoever's behind this is going to make a fuss over the account being frozen. They'll either come to me to unfreeze it or they'll skip town with whatever they've taken.
Only time will tell, but for now, Harper is working on putting together a fraud report along with other aspects of her project. After the bank does everything needed to stop the money siphoning, I return to the documents to help Harper finish up.
Irene pokes her head in as I roll up my sleeves to finish sorting through the files.
"Father Hudgens, we're going to head out. Miss Haven, you should come with us and let Father close up for the night. Surely this can be locked up and continued in the morning." Irene's tone tells us both that it's more than a suggestion.
Harper glances in my direction to which I give her a slight nod, saying, "Thank you, Irene and Miss Haven. You've both been a great help to me. Let's pick this up tomorrow."