Chapter 9 - The Ledger of Debits
Leo turned his head slightly, his cheek pressed against the cold aluminum of his hood, watching me pull his thick stack of credit cards and driver's license from his wallet.
"Claire, please..." he begged, tears finally spilling over his manicured cheeks. "You can't leave me out here. It’s below freezing. I don't have a coat! I’ll freeze to death!"
"Then walking will burn some calories," I quoted his own words back to him, every syllable dripping with icy irony.
I reached into my handbag, pulled out my smartphone, and unlocked the screen. The signal bar showed a full four LTE bars.
I opened my contacts, dialed a twelve-digit direct line I had memorized three years ago, and set the call to speakerphones.
The line rang twice before a deep, professional male voice answered.
"Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division. Special Agent Miller speaking."
Leo’s body went completely rigid against the hood of the car. His eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated horror.
"Hello, Agent Miller," I spoke clearly into the phone. "My name is Claire Vance. I am the wife of Leonard Vance, Senior Auditor at Vance & Associates."
"Mrs. Vance?" Agent Miller’s voice sharpened instantly. "We received your preliminary anonymous tip regarding the Vermont credit union accounts last month. Are you prepared to make a formal statement?"
"I am," I said, looking down at Leo’s trembling frame. "I am currently holding the physical ledger copies, the routing numbers for the four hundred thousand dollars in unrecorded corporate cash, and the altered vendor contracts from 2023 through 2025. I am emailing the encrypted PDF files to your secure portal right now."
"Claire, no! Don't do this!" Leo shrieked, reaching his arm back toward the phone.
I stepped back half a pace, pressing the shotgun barrel firmly against the back of his neck.
"Don't move, Leo," I whispered.
Agent Miller’s voice came back over the speaker, sharp and commanding: "Mrs. Vance, where are you located right now?"
"We are at Mile Marker 9 on County Route 9 in the Black Ridge Reserve," I replied. "There is also an armed poacher named Ray Vance currently incapacitated in an abandoned forestry shed two miles west in the woods. You’ll want state troopers to retrieve him as well."
"State police units are being dispatched to your location immediately, Mrs. Vance. Stay on the line."
I hung up the phone.
I took the key fob from the Audi’s ignition, threw his wallet onto the frozen gravel, and took three steps backward toward the driver’s side door.
"You ruined me," Leo rasped, his face pressed into the dirt on his hood, weeping openly now. "You ruined my life."
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"No, Leo," I said, stepping into the warm, heated cabin of the SUV. "You built a life out of debits and cruelty, and tonight, the ledger just got balanced."
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