Basic Shadow Ch. 05

George and Dee Dee were driving up to the state capital. It was time for Dee Dee to make her presentation to the powers that be, including her findings in the case of the town, most of which the state officials were aware of, and her recommendations to prevent matters of that nature from occurring in another context. Those recommendations might come as a surprise, and there was going to be resistance to some of the findings, particularly the many in which the state was at fault.

The meetings were at the highest levels: the Secretary of State for Finance, State Treasurer (in charge of the accounting side of the Finance Department), senior director in charge of the Local Government Branch, State Auditor General and, a familiar face, director of the Local Government Branch. Then there would be most of the employees of the Local Government Branch farther back in the room, clearly in the 'be seen but not heard' role. There was a secondary meeting later in the day with the State Auditor General on a different matter.

Dee Dee may have been utterly gorgeous now that she'd found her look, and was incredibly smart, but she wasn't all that big and, even more difficult, she was young. George thought he'd better go along. Not that he'd ever thought differently, of course. He could handle intimidation if that's what was needed, but having a sympathetic witness might be as important, and he wasn't about to let her out of his sight in any event, especially not after the night they'd had. Francine Dan, pretty good looking herself, was in the back seat with Dee Dee's reports and backup materials. Dee Dee had thought having her along was really valuable training for her. Another witness, George thought.

"I don't know how receptive they'll be, George, since the expense claims scandal. That's got them all really uptight."

"They ought to listen and take steps to implement your recommendations since Cassie Matthews blew the lid off that one. They don't need another financial scandal. Bet they really hate her. Good thing you weren't involved with that one."

"Well, as to that, I am actually involved, two ways. Our second appointment is with the State Auditor General. She's looking for help in working through the expense claims and since we seem to have developed a specialty in successful forensic audits, she's looking to bring us in for the extra assistance she needs. The legislature allotted extra funds so she can hire some of the work out. We have to sort out whether we can fit it in and make sure the compensation is adequate, but assuming we can come to terms, we're going to be starting up on that shortly."

"Good business. If you've got an in with the State Auditor, they should be especially wary of you, I'd think. What was the other way?"

"I'm not sure I can count on them being smart enough to see it like that. The other way I'm involved is that I kind of pointed out a few questions when Cassie and her friend Harry Richards were on the way to do their interviews."

"Huh?"

"A while back Harry Richards, who was kind of a classmate, well, we were friends and I helped him out a little. He was a couple of years behind me. He was really into the technical side, regulations and wording, so I suggested he go to law school instead of commerce and he did and that's where he met Cassie."

"Dee Dee, how does that fit with anything?"

"Sorry. I guess I'm more nervous about this business than I thought, especially after we roasted these guys in town. Now I'm onto their home grounds and I don't have the same confidence."

"It'll come back, sweet. Francine and I will be there for you."

"I wish I had Robin. He was a monster. Oh, sorry again. Harry stopped off for a short while a little before the scandal broke. He was with Cassie Matthews and her husband Robin. Robin pretended he was just along as muscle if they needed it - Harry's not very big, though Cassie's a fair size - but Robin's plenty bright. Cassie, though, is brilliant. Anyway, they had this project for law school and Cassie decided to look into expense accounting for members of the state legislature, something like finding out whether there were any problems in the laws that were changed a few years back, the ones providing for disclosure, and she and Harry were partnered since Harry had an accounting background."

"Disclosure wasn't the scandal," Francine interjected. "We studied the disclosure issue in Audit Prep, as a case study of what could be done beforehand to make sure of your grounds and tell you where to look. Our prof even got Cassie Matthews to drop in for an hour to go over it with us. That was either the year before, or maybe the term before the expense claim stuff. That's the one that went barooom! I wish we could have had that one for a case study. Were you involved in that, Dee Dee?"

"Just a bit."

"I remember Robin," Francine added. "He's a hunk."

"Well, he's hard to forget, that's true enough. Anyway, Harry and Cassie stopped off on their way up to the state capital to say hello and get my take on a few things they'd turned up from what was publicly available and maybe have me suggest a few questions they could ask. I vetted what they had done and pointed out a few more problems that they could follow up. One of those turned out to be criminal. Turns out they'd hit a real problem. I suggested ways to investigate and they used them. Cassie had an in with the paper because she'd blown something at home, and that's why the whole thing has gone blooey. So far I haven't been associated with what they did, but they did blow the roof off that particular cesspit."

"Dear heavens."

"They got 'A's, George, so it was worth the doing."

"Did we get paid?"

"No, and don't give me a hard time. Harry has always been a good friend, and you don't charge friends for third party games like that one was. I'm glad they could put my little bit to good use. Besides, indirectly we may get a big contract out of the State Auditor."

"Serendipity?"

"Perhaps. More like cast your bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days."

"I always like Ecclesiastes. Horribly vague at times, like all good wisdom literature, but at other times direct and to the point. All is vanity, sayeth the Preacher."

"I'm not prepared to agree that all of this is vanity, or nonsense. I had a job to do. I did it. People are going to be upset. I don't look forward to making them upset, that's all."

"That's your job, Shadow. One you do incredibly well. Be proud of it."

"I can try."

"You have to be proud, Ms. Foster," Francine put in. "We're all behind you and terribly proud of you."

"Behind me, sure," Dee Dee added with a laugh. "Well, I certainly couldn't have done it without all of you. Okay, I can be proud for you. We'll take on the bureaucrats. We are going to rock you."

"That's the spirit."

The car quieted for a while as George concentrated on his driving. They were into the outskirts of the capital now and traffic was picking up.

"Where to first, Shadow," George asked.

"The Local Government Branch. We have to deliver the report. There are two versions, one with the documentation and one that simply refers to it. We're in plenty of time. This afternoon is when we have the appointment with the State Auditor. She'll be at the meeting this morning, so I doubt we'll be late for our meeting with her."

When George arrived at the right office building, he had some difficulty finding a place to park. Looked like there was going to be a big turnout. After a couple of tries he gave up and asked the doorman. Dee Dee giggled. George didn't often ask for directions.

"Not much room here or on the street, sir," he was told. "Unless you're Ms Foster's party. That one over there is reserved for you if you are."

"That's us," George confirmed.

"Then I'll just get the pylon out of the way and you can go in. First floor, second door on the left."

"Thanks."

Dee Dee started out, towing a case on wheels piled high with copies of the report. Francine followed, equally burdened. George took the last bundle, the ones with original signatures.

The meeting room was very large. George doubted it had been full for many moons, but today it was jammed. As projected, the senior officials were gathered at a table in the front, immediately below a small podium from which Dee Dee could deliver her presentation. She wasn't using visuals today. Frankly, she hadn't been able to think of any that didn't involve copious quantities of spilled blood. Ah, the untold delights of an accountant's life.

Introductions were made at the front table. George and Francine were referred to chairs just off to the side. Everyone settled in.

"My report," Dee Dee began stiffly, "arises out of the near bankruptcy of a small town in this state. It is a problem that didn't have to happen, shouldn't have happened." Her voice strengthened. "There are many causes of the problems, problems that look like they might be going to be resolved, but some at least originated here in the state capital. I was asked to look at those and recommend cures for them. Hence this report.

"There is no pretty way to put it. There was stupidity, arrogance and incompetence. There are bad policies, useless policies, and just plain stupid policies. They all contributed to making the mess. My purpose here this morning is to advise you of my findings in general. I just did. Then I'm going to tell you how I think you can fix them. The good news, of which there is very little this morning, is that I think that they can all be fixed, and that, when they are, the state can play a useful role in local government. If they aren't fixed, you're just a particularly weighty millstone."

"How would you know, baby?" came a sneer from the back. George thought it might be Hennessey. He was about to retort, out of turn as he might be, something to the effect of "Because she's competent and you're not" when the secretary turned to the senior director of the Local Government Branch and told him quite loudly,

"Harry, you get your dog to stop yapping before I kick his sorry ass out into the park."

Harry glared daggers down into the assembled employees and two of Hennessey's fellow workers took it upon themselves to shut him up.

Dee Dee went on for another twenty minutes laying out her recommendations, which consisted essentially of completely rebuilding the Local Government Branch and its policies. George didn't get the impression that there would be a lot of room left in the new structure for most of the people in the room. He wondered about the government's early retirement plans, then decided he didn't care. At least that wasn't one of his problems.

At the end of the presentation there were a few questions, far fewer than Dee Dee had expected, and almost no challenges. There was some sign of an interruption from what George had dubbed the Peanut Gallery, but the secretary glared and the senior director glared and the suggestion that someone was prepared to challenge the report from the floor disappeared. Under a couple of bodies, it seemed, but there might have been a chair cushion involved.

"It sounds like the right thing to do," the secretary commented. "This report makes us all look like shites, but if it's right, and I suspect it is, then we are all shites. My mother always said so, anyway. She wasn't the forgiving kind.

"Madame Auditor, I realize that you haven't had any opportunity to review this report in detail, but I would appreciate your comments, since you're here."

"I doubt that a detailed review of the report and the supporting documentation will change my views any. The author is an extremely competent professional. I am not familiar with nearly all of the conditions her recommendations are intended to resolve, but for those with which I am familiar, her recommendations appear to be completely appropriate. I would suggest that the entire report must be accepted and implemented if we are to avoid any future problems of this nature, with the accompanying expenditure of state funds that seems inevitable."

There was a lot of foot shuffling at that, but the secretary overrode it.

"That seems to me to be the proper course."

"All right," the secretary said, "the report is deadly. The amount of sheer incompetence revealed here is hard to believe unless you've worked for the state government for a while. And in spite of a few voices, there's no question but that it's correct and has been backed up. I trust Ms Foster on that. So what do we do with it?"

"As I said, I recommend that the report be accepted, adopted and implemented with all due speed. I would suggest that the report be published, as the best explanation for the many changes that will be required." That was the State Auditor, for a time a lonely voice.

She was followed by a quick flurry of voices, all directed at how the report could be hushed up and buried and life could continue as it always had. Neither the secretary nor the State Treasurer joined in that chorus.

Dukas, the man from the governor's office, cleared his throat.

"Publish it. Get it out as fast and as thoroughly as you can." The State Treasurer nodded.

"Look, you'll never bury it. Someone like that little weasel there" he nodded at Hennessey "will edit out the bits that paint him in a bad light, maybe insert a little to make him look like the hero, and wham, there it is, in a version that can probably never be corrected. We'll all look like jerks who tried to hide our shortcomings, and maybe even the weasel's heroics."

"But we'll look like idiots!" the Senior Director of the Local Government Branch objected.

"Face it," Dukas stated firmly, "you are idiots. Look, the governor got here by promising transparency. Nothing proves transparency so much as a report that suggests, no, states outright, that our positions are garbage. Nothing states so obviously that we are a government intent on reform than a promise to implement the recommendations of a completely damning report. A promise that will be kept. As a matter of fact, I propose we engage Ms Foster, today, to give us a report in six months' time on how well we are progressing towards the implementation of her report." He looked encouragingly toward Dee Dee.

"Please, not six months," Dee Dee said weakly. George chuckled. Not likely, he thought; that was her due date.

Dee Dee didn't really show, but Dukas was a more perceptive man than most, and smiled to himself.

"Eight months, Ms Foster?" he asked.

"Yes, that would be fine."

"Then I take it we are agreed?"

"Yes," the secretary pronounced over the fevered sotto voce objections of his advisers. "We are." Or at least I am, his tone of voice said, and I'm the one who counts here.

"Fine, then we'll have to run off many copies of the report - easily done, I suspect - and have a media briefing at five - no, four, to get onto tonight's talk shows, even if only as a headline. We'll need Ms Foster for the briefing. Can you be here?" Dukas planned out loud.

"Certainly. The State Auditor and I will not be that long."

"I hope she's bringing you in on that expense scandal business. Marilyn?"

"If we can come to terms, yes, that's what we're meeting about."

"Excellent. May we announce that, too, assuming the two of you come to agreement?"

"I see no reason not to," the State Auditor replied. Dee Dee just nodded. She watched as the train started rolling. This was action she'd never expected. She fiddled a bit with her phone, sending Cassie a copy of her report with the exposure time set to 5:00 that night. She knew Cassie's program started shortly after five, and thought her friend could use a bit of preparation time.

"One thing, everyone. I'll find out if any word of this report gets out before four. I'll find out who. And that who will be a very sorry person indeed. I trust I make myself clear?"

"I suspect we all have work to do," the secretary announced, terminating the meeting.

Dee Dee, George and Francine packed up, leaving behind many copies of the report and a few copies of the fully documented reports. Marilyn Vickers, the State Auditor General, waited behind for them.

"Very well done, Ms Foster. I wish all of our work could be as thorough, well documented and incisive. You've already built up too much of a business to be tempted by a government salary, or I'd be asking you to be deputy auditor general, starting tomorrow. Let me buy you lunch. There are a few things I'd like to get out of the way before our meeting, and I want to find out how you found out some of what's in your report."

They agreed, and found somewhere suitable where they could be reasonably private while enjoying an excellent meal, greatly appreciated by the emissaries of Foster & Foster who had eaten, if at all, very early that morning.

"I understand you met one of my junior auditors, Meredith Jones, when the town's problems were first detected."

"Yes. We worked together for a week. She was very capable. I was quite impressed with her abilities, and of course she was very personable."

"Unrelated to anything else, you might consider headhunting her, say for a couple of years. I can get her a leave of absence for that long."

"I could manage that, though I'd likely regret having to let her go again. I consider my office fully staffed, but I would never turn down a resource like Meredith if she's agreeable."

"I want to make it very clear that this just happens to be a good idea all round. The business we're talking about later on today has nothing to do with it. If we can't come to an agreement, then I'd still like you to take Meredith. On the other hand, even if you decide you can't fit her in, and I can think of some reasons myself that might keep you from doing it, it will have nothing whatever to do with whether we can come to terms on the expense claim audit work."

"That's fair."

"She'd be worth her pay, certainly. It's more that I'd like to get her a little private sector experience. In time, I think, she could fill this office extremely well, and a little finish with your group would stand her, and the state, in good stead."

"Let's get our other business out of the way and I'll give it some thought."

The conversation turned to audit tricks, little things that signalled when to delve deeper, and the different signs that the state auditors used and a few different ones that Dee Dee had used. George wasn't terribly enthralled by it all, though for the other three it seemed like they could go on all day. Perhaps accountants really are a different species, he thought. At least we're mutually fertile, though. A small smile drifted over his face at the thought.

Eventually Marilyn ("Call me Marilyn" came out almost as fast as "Call me Dee Dee") put an end to lunch, though not the discussion. George volunteered to drive the four of them the short way to the State Auditor General's offices.

"Just one thing, Marilyn," Dee Dee objected as they were entering the office.

"Oh?"

"If Meredith Jones should ever show up at my office, you won't get her back for two years."

"Done."

The four of them crowded into the office and Marilyn called for her deputy to show up, too.

"I've already told you people that having this full audit of the elected members hit us when we weren't ready for it, as if we could ever be fully ready, I suppose, is causing us real problems. We need help. You're that help, if you can fit us in.

"I know the press are referring to it as an expense claims audit, but the really messy part will be auditing the broader expenses, like constituency office expense. There you have to verify the actual existence of the people on the payroll as well as what they do. One senator has his mistress on. I'm not sure what her job description is. Another has his deceased brother-in-law. I'm keeping those two - my part of the report ought to get headlines, too."