Chapter 4 - THE SECURITY CONTRACT
Emily went back to the Sentinel invoices.
Now she looked harder.
The security contract had three layers.
Base patrol fee.
Camera-monitoring fee.
Supplemental “rapid response” fee.
The problem:
Willow Park had no direct rapid-response service.
Police handled emergencies.
Sentinel’s supplemental line described:
extra patrol deployment after resident complaints,
event nights,
security alerts.
Then Emily found two identical invoice numbers with different dates.
One for:
$8,600.
One for:
$8,600.
Same description.
Same labor hours.
Different months.
Tom Bennett stared.
“That could be clerical.”
“Yes.”
Then another pair.
And another.
Duplicate or near-duplicate billing totaled:
$91,300
over two years.
Not all necessarily fraudulent.
But enough.
Who approved them?
Margaret.
Her initials appeared on digital approval sheets.
Then one vendor payment memo caught Emily’s eye.
Consulting allocation:
WILSON COMMUNITY ADVISORY.
$4,500.
She froze.
Wilson.
Margaret?
May you like
Tom looked sick.
“I’ve never seen that.”
