Milton is in the car on the back to his haven when he gets the call.

He’s just leaving a meeting downtown—a few lawyers from a San Francisco tech start up, in Sacramento for business at the state house. He’d recently been engaged to look over the budget vs. actual reports for their last fiscal year in an effort to determine why the state of California decided to discontinue a previously awarded grant. His scope of work was to determine how certain non-allowable costs could be reallocated to satisfy the state’s reviewers and auditors. He’d fulfilled that SOW.

However, he’d also identified a bigger problem. Irregularities in their draw downs of state funds. Likely theft by someone in their post-award finance shop. This had not gone over well. But Milton had no reason to lie and the lawyers eventually came around. In the end, he’d left the meeting with an extended contract to look for any other suspicious patterns. Same terms, same rate.

The call is from Walter Holmes in the City of Sacramento Budget, Policy, and Strategic Planning division. Milton hits the answer phone button on his steering wheel and Walt‘s nasally voice comes booming through the car’s speakers thanks to the blue tooth connection. Milton winces and turns the volume down.

“Milton, it's Walt.”

“Hello, Walt—nice to hear from you. How are you?”

“Not good, Milton; bad actually. I’ve got an issue over here I can’t figure out.”

“Oh, what’s that?” Milton sounds calm, but Walt’s got his attention.

“Well, we’re starting to close out FY21 and I’m having trouble tracking some capital equipment purchases. Things have been allocated in ways...” Walt lapses into a silence for a second, “Hell, I don’t know. The charges don’t make any sense. I’ve got IT telling me that it’s not a systems issue, but I can’t make heads or tails, you know?”

Milton takes a left turn, watching the road but closely attending to the call.

“That sounds awful, Walt. How can I help?”

“Well I thought I’d bring you in on this. I need a fresh set of eyes. I’ve already got approval for a consultant. I thought, since you’re out here in person...”

“Well that’s good of you, Walt. I’d be happy to assist. You know my rate. Terms stay the same, even if I’m in town. I’m off site, permanently. If you need to meet, I can’t do it during business hours. Not with my work load.”

“Of course, of course. That sounds good. I’ll get you set up in the system and you can remote in.”

“Oh, that’s great. When do you want me on—and for how long?”

“As soon as possible and for as long as it takes.”

“Very good. I’ll wait for the credentials to come through. You have my contact information. Thanks for reaching out, Walt.”

“Thanks for the help. Talk soon.”

Walt hangs up while Milton’s stopped at a red light. He takes his hands off the wheel, rubs them together, looking very satisfied. Maybe he should grab a celebratory meal.

The light turns green.

Milton's Status (City Hall) is now 2.