He picked up the water glass, took a quick sip, and set it back down on a stack of client invoices. “I will call the branch in the morning and get the paperwork, Emma. It is probably just a clerical error on their end.”
“The bank doesn’t make five thousand dollar clerical errors without an authorization signature,” I said.
“They do if the accounts are linked under the Mercer master portfolio,” he said, his voice sharpening slightly. “It is all part of the same estate structure, Emma. You are looking at it like a standard retail account.”
I looked at the transaction history again, noting that the funds had been moved via an online wire transfer, not an automated debit.
“The transaction timestamp says it was initiated at two in the afternoon,” I said. “Who was at the computer then?”
“I was in meetings all afternoon,” Daniel said, his voice rising in that defensive, rapid cadence. “I told you, it must be an automated process.”
I let the matter rest for the moment, but the discrepancy stayed in the corner of my mind like a stray thread.
