Delilah’s Audit

This thread traces Delilah Sheridan’s forensic audit from a routine assignment into the investigation that exposes a larger conspiracy inside Scanguards.

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A Special Assignment

The Outside Auditor A Mandate in San Francisco Delilah Sheridan arrives from New York as an outside auditor assigned to Scanguards’ San Francisco branch. Headquarters expects her lack of prior ties to the local staff to make her investigation more reliable. Irregular Numbers Her specialty is forensic accounting. Unusual ratios between fixed assets and depreciation suggest either incompetence or fraud, and she begins reviewing records while concealing the investigative purpose from John Reardon.

The Records Delay

Missing Paperwork A Request for Originals Delilah asks John for original documents because the electronic entries do not establish who initiated and approved the questionable transactions. John claims the files are stored at Oyster Point. A Suspicious Pattern The records are unexpectedly stored despite being recent. Delilah presses for their delivery and notices that the depreciation entries appear methodical, suggesting that someone has manipulated asset values over roughly a year.

John’s Unease

A Nervous Colleague Resistance at Work John resists Delilah’s requests for supporting documents and probes her evening plans over lunch. His friendliness appears strategic: he wants to know when she will be alone. The Hidden Fraud Privately, John admits to Billy that he has falsified entries and disposed of written-down assets for personal gain. The small fraud, however, is only one part of his predicament; an unnamed blackmailer has also demanded access to company records.

The Depreciation Scheme

A Limited Embezzlement The Method Delilah explains to Amaury how John could accelerate depreciation until assets fell below a low-value disposal threshold. He could then pass them to outside buyers, return the recorded scrap value, and keep the difference. The Larger Question The method explains John’s fraud but not the attempts to frighten Delilah or the decision to kill him. Delilah and Amaury infer that John was concealing a more consequential scheme and begin examining everything he accessed.

The Access Trail

Following the Logins Expanding the Audit With access to Scanguards’ records, Delilah proposes tracing the files John accessed under his login. The inquiry moves beyond the suspected disposal fraud and exposes encrypted transactions and unauthorized activity. The Conspiracy Emerges The investigation points toward an attempt to transfer millions offshore. Thomas’s credentials have been compromised, and the accounting irregularities prove to be the foothold for a larger theft rather than the entire crime.

Monday of the audit week

Late in the first audit week

The audit week, before the theater date

After John’s death

The night after Delilah learns Samson is a vampire