Chapter 5 - Why the laptop mattered
Hannah had started doing bookkeeping for Forge Forward part-time.
Initially volunteer.
Then paid consultant.
She noticed inconsistencies.
Nothing dramatic.
Attendance totals higher than head count.
Transportation reimbursements that seemed repetitive.
Grant reports claiming classes on days the gym had been closed for tournaments.
She asked Dustin.
He said:
“Coach handles that.”
She asked Brent Hollis.
Brent said:
“Grant accounting is messy.”
True sometimes.
Then Hannah found names.
Veterans supposedly attending three sessions a week.
One lived in Arizona.
Another had moved to Tennessee.
A third had stopped participating eight months earlier.
Yet the program continued billing grant-funded services around their attendance.
Hannah started copying records because she feared someone would delete them.
Her personal laptop contained:
Spreadsheets.
Invoices.
Attendance exports.
Emails.
Scanned waivers.
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She kept it in Dustin’s locked equipment cabinet because she thought her apartment was less secure.
That assumption aged badly.
