Chapter 5 - WHY ELI WAS LOOKING AT INVOICESEli was supposed to scan old vendor paperwork.
Simple job.
Put paper through scanner.
Name files.
Upload.
Boring enough to be safe.
Then he noticed the same vendor name repeating.
BLUE RIDGE COMMERCIAL SERVICES LLC
Amounts:
$4,800.
$5,150.
$4,975.
$5,300.
Every month.
The description changed.
Equipment consulting.
Site assessment.
Vendor compliance.
Inventory optimization.
Eli googled the company.
Registered address:
Mailbox at a shipping store.
No website.
No obvious employees.
He asked me about it ten days before he crawled home.
“Dad, what does inventory optimization mean?”
“Usually someone charging you money to tell you shelves are bad.”
He laughed.
Then:
“Would a company pay five grand every month?”
“Depends.”
“For over a year?”
I looked up.
“Why?”
“Grandpa’s invoices.”
I should have listened.
Instead:
“Eli, your summer job is scanning, not auditing.”
“I’m not auditing.”
“You’re researching vendors.”
“Because it’s weird.”
“Then ask Mark.”
“I did.”
“And?”
“He told me to mind my job.”
There.
I still missed it.
I said:
“Then mind your job.”
Eli stared at me.
“You always protect Grandpa when you don’t want to deal with him.”
I became defensive.
“I do not protect him.”
May you like
“You explain him.”
That was worse because it was true.
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