In retail inventory, there was a massive difference between an invoice due and a credit memo.
When an amateur clerk glanced at a vendor statement, he saw a dollar amount and immediately reached for the checkbook. An experienced shift manager looked at the polarity of the column. If the number was enclosed in parentheses or preceded by a minus sign, the vendor wasn’t demanding payment.
The vendor owed the store a refund.
Julian Vance didn’t take his eyes off the sheepskin scroll of Form CEN-96.
Through his forensic jeweler’s loupe, the single horizontal blue pen stroke protruding from beneath the red notary wax was as clear as a barcode on a cereal box.
“Dr. Corvo!” Julian called out over his shoulder.
Fifty feet back along the bridge, the attending pathologist was holding off two charging syndicate bailiffs with the whining blade of his Stryker bone-saw.
“I am slightly occupied, Julian!” Corvo shouted back, ducking beneath an iron pike head. “Unless you require a rapid amputation, deliver the punchline!”
