By Friday evening, Arthur’s study desk was covered in printed financial balance sheets, tax schedules, and public filings regarding Vanguard Assets. He spent hours highlighting specific strings of numbers, tracing cash flows through a complex web of corporate accounts with total ease.
To any casual observer, it would look like an old man staring blankly at random corporate tables, completely out of his depth. But Arthur was looking for a very specific pattern—a signature style of deception that matched the psychology of a woman who cheated a grocery register. He knew that a person who plays dirty in small ways almost always plays dirty in big ways.
He understood that Victoria Kline was under immense pressure to close a massive, multi-million-dollar acquisition of a regional shipping company to secure her CFO promotion. As Arthur cross-referenced the shipping company’s public portfolios, he found the exact crack he was looking for. He quietly compiled the data into a clean, simple folder.