Fox ignored him, and followed Axelle to an office that looked like it always did, with its contained chaos of corkboards, computer monitors, and spread of paperwork on the desktop. But to an office inhabited by an Eden who looked so despondent he hardly recognized her.
Her normally sleek ponytail was instead a sloppy bun, loose strands falling around a face that was pale and smudged beneath her eyes with sleepless shadows. She sat with her legs folded up in her chair, barefoot, and rather than her usual jeans and fitted shirt combo wore loose sweats and a slouchy tank top. When she glanced over her shoulder at him, he thought he caught a flash of fear in her eyes, there and gone again before she offered a tired, fleeting smile and said, “Welcome back. Have a good trip?”
He gave himself a mental shake and took one of the room’s spare chairs. “Uneventful.” Which was the best kind of trip in his line of work. He motioned to the papers spread before her, and her dueling computer monitors, both of which appeared to be open to spreadsheets. “Already digging into what I sent you?”
Axelle and Reese took the remaining chairs. Tenny leaned back against the wall, arms folded – and lowered his foot with a grumble when Fox shot him a look. He could be a little shit all he wanted, but he wasn’t going to put the dirty soles of his boots against Eden’s freshly-painted wall.
“Yeah,” Eden said, turning to her computers. “I’ve been comparing the order list with the receival receipts – they logged those at the loading dock. Digital sign-offs on delivery.” She reached to hover a finger over the screen. “There’s some pretty major discrepancies on a few line items.
“Like here: four-thousand dollars spent at a place called Simon & Son Paper Products last month. And here, the delivery receipt says that a single pallet of cocktail napkins was delivered.”
Fox popped a brow. “How much does a pallet of napkins cost?”
She snorted. “Not four-thousand dollars, that’s for sure. There’s more examples of a similar nature: orders from Light up the Night, which claims to be an electronics company, a liquor supplier called Innovate, and a frozen food delivery company called Lysin.”
“We checked, and all have functioning websites and phone numbers where you can place orders,” Axelle said.
“Which means,” Eden said, “Nine was using those line items as a way to disguise business dealings with more nefarious parties.”
“Or,” Fox said, “those companies disguise nefarious business under legitimate business.”
Eden nodded. “I already called Ratchet. He thinks he can do some digging and find out who the parent companies for all three are. If that ties back to one of the names Luis gave us, then I think it’s a safe assumption that we’re dealing with top-down corporate sponsorship of sex trafficking.”
Fox nodded, thoughts already spinning. “This is going to have to be a root and branch operation. I don’t think eliminating the powers at be at the top will solve the issue.”
“It would create a power vacuum,” Tenny chimed in, surprisingly even-toned. “One that someone else could fill. Not to mention the underthugs have grown used to this sort of life: they’ll move on and operate elsewhere, in smaller organizations that would be harder to find.”
“But easier to eliminate,” Reese offered.
Fox nodded. “True – but I don’t want to spend months or years on a wild goose chase. Better to get everything in order now and launch strategic strikes that hit the whole operation at every level.”
“Good,” Eden said. “That was my thought.”
Tenny snorted. “How very alphabet agency of us all.”
“Yes,” Fox said, lifting a finger, “but we don’t answer to a buncha bureaucratic asshats or foreign governments, so…”
Tenny tipped his head in concession, smirk tweaking his mouth.
“I’ll keep looking for more instances,” Eden said, swiveling back to the monitors. “It’s going to be a slow process, by the looks of it.”
Fox shrugged. “Did you expect it not to be?”
She didn’t respond, shoulders tense.
He frowned.
“Hey, at least the trip to ‘Bama wasn’t a total waste of time,” Axelle said.
“Hm,” Tenny murmured, noncommittal.
Hey, you got laid out of the deal, Fox thought, but kept to himself. Even if Ten was a little shit, Fox wasn’tthatterrible of a big brother.
“We won’t take up any more of your highly valuable time, then,” Fox drawled. “You two go do – whatever it is you do when you aren’t kicking bouncers in the face.”
Tenny pushed off the wall immediately, and Reese offered a small, hesitant wave before he followed him.
“Welp.” Axelle slapped her thighs and made a show of standing. “I better get going, too. I’ve got to run to the store.”
