36. Carter

“Sorry about that. Okay, walk me through what happened again.” I sit down at my computer and turn on my monitors.

“I got the customization on my tracking program done earlier than I planned, so I uploaded it yesterday instead of today. Since everyone knew it was being added, I didn’t think I needed to update everyone about it.”

Once I’m logged in, I pull up the tracking program data that William sent in an email.

“And last night, I got a notification that the code in RetLab had been updated.”

“Can I be honest and tell you I’m so tired of dealing with this stupid program?”

William snorts. “I feel ya. But here’s the tricky part. Both Paul’s and Inez’s names were marked as having made changes.”

“Wait. What? Both of them updated the program?” Scrolling through the tracking sheet, I find where Paul has made updates to the scoring criteria, and Inez has marked the previously entered data as correct.

“It seems so.”

“This doesn’t make sense, though. For starters, there’s still a block on entering data into the program. Changing the coding on the program is pointless right now. Secondly, why would Inez bring up the issues with RetLab if she’s been one of the people making the changes?”

“I think my tracking program has something to do with the updated code, despite the block. I’d imagine they knew that once the tracker was implemented, they’d never be able to get away with changing it without us finding out. As for Inez’s and Paul’s involvement… I have no explanation. But there’s no way we can sit on this. They’re deliberately changing the code to score the data inaccurately.”

“No, I agree. We have to do something, but I have a feeling that straight up confronting them is going to backfire.”

“How so? We’ve got the proof of what they did.”

“Sure, but we both know how easy it easy for someone to steal a person’s credentials. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched for them to say they were hacked or something.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“We have to make it so they incriminate themselves. Here’s what I’m thinking.” I lay out my plan to William, hoping he thinks it will work. We need to get to the bottom of whatever is going on here, and I can’t do it on my own.

William is receptive to my idea, and we work together to put everything into motion. Inez has already scheduled a meeting with Tom for tomorrow to talk about Retlab, so I invite Paul to join the meeting, as well. In the description, I tell him that we want his opinion on the issues we’ve been having with the program. I’m sure it will seem odd, but I doubt he’ll question it.

If I could get away with inviting William to attend, as well, I’d do it. Having an additional person who knows what’s going on would help ease my nerves, but he only had a peripheral role in the issues with RetLab. His being at the meeting would be odd.

I’ll have to join via video conference. It’s not ideal, but going all the way into Greensboro while I’m still healing isn’t a good idea.

“Okay, you have everything you need?” William asks.

“I think so. Thanks for your work on this, Will. It’s appreciated.”

“I hate that it’s come down to this. I hope we get the answers we need to end this for good.”

We hang up the phone, and I make my way back to the living room, where Sam is sitting on the couch. He’s got another book in his hands, and I haven’t caught the name of this one. He reads them incredibly fast.

He glances up, catching me staring at him. “Hey, everything okay?”

“Not really. William’s tracking program caught two members of my team making changes to the scoring program we’ve been having so many issues with.” I flop down on the couch to lay my head in his lap. It’s become one of my favorite spots to be in.

“Uh-oh. That’s not good. What’s going to happen?”

“We plan to confront them at a meeting with my boss tomorrow.”

“Does your boss know?”

“Not yet. I’m going to meet with him early to explain before the meeting.”

Sam pauses as if he’s not sure he wants to ask. “You don’t have to go to the office, right?”

“Oh.” That wasn’t what I was expecting him to say. “No, I’m going to be on a video call.”

“Okay, good. I was worried I’d have to put my foot down or something.”

I grin. “Put your foot down, eh? How would you do that?”

Sam narrows his eyes at me. “I’d think of something.”

There’s no holding back my laugh after that. Even in the moments when I’m stressed and overwhelmed, he knows exactly what to say to make things better.

“Hey, Carter—Jesus. You look rough. Are you sure okay?” Tom’s eyes bug out of his head when he sees me on camera. He’s sitting at the head of one of our conference tables. Inez booked the room to make it easier to meet, since I couldn’t be there in person.

I chuckle. It’s becoming amusing to watch the shock cross people’s faces when they see my bruises. They’d get even more of a fright if they saw my stitches. I’m glad to have these few extra minutes to talk with Tom before Inez and Paul arrive. It’ll help us move past all the small talk faster.

“Yeah, I’m on the mend. Not quite 100 percent yet, but getting there.”

“It’s one thing to read an email about needing time off after the attack. It’s something else to see it in real time.”

“It’s gnarly, I’ll give you that. Look… I need your help during this meeting.” I go into what William found. It doesn’t take long for Tom to get appropriately angry.

“What were they thinking? Why would they do that?”

“I don’t know, but that’s why I want to tread lightly. I don’t want them to clam up and never find out the true reason behind the changes.”

Tom nods. “Agreed. I’ll follow your lead here, since you know them best.”

“Thanks, Tom.”

We chat about Tom’s kids and their multiple activities until Inez and Paul walk into the office. I say my hellos to my team. They both check on how I’ve been healing, asking if I’ll be back to work full time next week.

“That’s the plan. I’ll need to stay home for the next few weeks, but I’ve been cleared to resume daily activities.” Before we get too far off track, I switch to the reason we’re here. “If everyone’s ready, let’s get started.”

Inez pulls out her tablet while Paul sets a legal pad on the table. Tom leans back in his chair, an obvious sign I’m leading the meeting.

“I wanted to start by sharing the good news about our tracking program. Tom, I told you a little about what William’s been working on, but our team took it a step further to test out how it works. Inez and Paul did some test runs on how it tracks changes, and I think it’s perfect.”

“That’s great?—”

Inez interrupts Tom. “What are you talking about, Carter? I thought we were going to test it out together? When William didn’t tell us it was live, I figured he ran into some issues.”

Inez’s face shows genuine confusion. It throws me off the track I was heading down. Is this a tactic to throw suspicion off her? Except, if that was the case, why would she ask a clarifying question? I look over at Paul to gauge his reaction, only to find him as white as a ghost.

I wish I was there in person. Being on a screen makes this a whole lot harder. Before I can respond, Inez turns to Paul. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”

“Um…” He swallows hard. “N–no. I don’t know any more than you do.”

“And yet, we know that’s not entirely true,” I say. With my plan out the window, I figure throwing out what we’ve found is the only way to move forward. “William got the tracking program uploaded a day early and noticed two different people making changes. Now, if you weren’t testing out William’s program, what were you doing?”

“If one of those people was me, that’s not possible,” Inez says. I look at her in question. “I left early on Tuesday. My sister’s kid got sick at school, and she needed me to pick them up. I’d planned to make up the hours after I got home that evening. I even sent you an email when I was able to get back online.”

I’ve always held the policy that if my team needs to take a couple of hours off for an appointment or whatever, they could make up the hours at a later time. Then they’re not forced to use their PTO for a small amount of time. Seeing as how I haven’t been able to catch up on my emails very fast, I’m inclined to believe her. I still search through them to see if she’s telling the truth. It doesn’t take long to find it. Which only leaves Paul to give an explanation. “Paul, do you have anything you want to add?”

Paul drops his head into his hands, his fingers running through his hair. “I didn’t have a choice.” His whispered words are barely understandable.

“Walk us through it. We can only help you if you’re honest,” Tom says.

His shoulders slump in obvious defeat. “I didn’t know it would go this far.” He runs his fingers through his hair once more before sitting up to face Tom. “About seven months ago, Dr. Hutton approached me with an offer. As cliché as it sounds, I quite literally couldn’t refuse it.

“My mom’s dementia had started to progress more rapidly than we were prepared to handle. We had to get her into the only facility that had space, and it was so expensive. I was running out of money fast, and Dr. Hutton offered me twenty thousand dollars to find a way to change the RetLab scoring program. If I’d turned him down, I would’ve been homeless in a matter of weeks.”

“Oh, Paul.” Inez places her hand on his shoulder.

“I thought that would be it. No one else was using the program, and if Hutton was willing to screw up his study, who was I to say anything about it?”

Tom and I sigh at the same time. That’s not really how things work, but Paul’s desperation wouldn’t have led to logical thinking.

“Then we started building the database, and things went sideways so fast. Dr. Hutton kept pressuring me to ensure RetLab stayed the way it was. I tried to say no, that my part in this was finished and I wouldn’t help anymore. He blackmailed me with the proof of my involvement, so I had to change the program in the database. And then…” Paul’s gaze flicks over to me and then back to the table. “Carter started digging into the errors.”

To my utter shock, Paul starts to sob. Inez and Tom straighten in their chairs.

“Paul, we’ll figure something out. It’s going to be okay,” Inez says. She places her hand on his shoulder to get him to calm down. We all feel sorry for Paul, but I’m not sure there’s much we can do to help him. He’s in this entirely too deep to escape some form of consequences.

“I didn’t know,” Paul cries. “Nobody was supposed to get hurt.”

The blood drains from my face. “What are you saying, Paul?”

He turns to look at me. “I’m so sorry, Carter. I didn’t know. I swear, I didn’t.”

“You’re going to need to give me more than that.”

“Dr. Hutton sent guys to your house to scare you off. But he got your address from… from me. He told me they were just going to give you a message to back off. I never would’ve done it if I knew they were going to hurt you!” He dissolves into more tears, and my stomach cramps.

I want to rage at him. How stupid could you be? After everything Hutton has done, Paul truly believed he wouldn’t do anything bad to me? I swipe my palms down my face to gather my composure. When I look back at the screen, Inez and Tom are staring in shock.

I have no words to say right now. There’s nothing more to be done. Paul has confessed to what he’s done. It’s time to bring in the authorities.

“Tom, we need to take this to the VP and contact the police.”

“I know. I’ll call him.”

I nod. I’m all out of words at this point. There’s not much to say anyway. The next steps need to be handled by people with higher pay grades than mine.

The ripple effect of Dr. Hutton’s shady practices will impact our company for years to come.

And I have to decide if I’m going to ride it out or go somewhere else.