Two changes had been entered during hours when Sofia wasn't scheduled to work.
The system showed her employee identifier.
But the building access records and payroll schedule suggested she wasn't present.
Someone had either used her credentials or recorded activity under her account without proper authorization.
The finding didn't automatically establish who was responsible.
But it raised a new question.
Had the young receptionist been involved in the practice?
Or had someone been preparing to blame her?
Sofia learned about the discrepancy during a formal interview.
The independent reviewer was a woman named Dana Mitchell, an experienced internal investigator assigned from outside the regional operations division.
Dana began by explaining the purpose of the conversation.
She told Sofia that honesty was required, that the bank would assess evidence rather than rumors, and that retaliation for good-faith reporting was prohibited.
Sofia listened.
Then opened her notebook.
Her hands trembled.
Dana asked about Project Meridian.
The young woman took a slow breath.
She explained the morning meetings, the preferred-client instructions, and the repeated pressure to redirect customers before reviewing their account documents.
Then she described something more troubling.
Cynthia Price had sometimes asked employees to leave their workstations logged in while she completed administrative corrections.
Sofia had objected.
She'd been told that management needed to clean up abandoned applications and that the process was routine.
At first, Sofia believed her.
Then she noticed that customers who complained about being turned away were sometimes recorded as having voluntarily withdrawn their applications.
She asked Cynthia about it.
The assistant manager told her to focus on reception.
When Sofia continued asking, Keller warned that she was becoming a problem employee.
Dana listened carefully.
Then asked whether Sofia had ever shared her password.
The receptionist shook her head.
"No."
"Did you ever leave a workstation unlocked?"
Sofia looked embarrassed.
"Sometimes when Ms. Price asked me to step away. I know I shouldn't have."
Dana nodded.
The answer mattered.
A failure to lock a workstation could create a security problem even if Sofia had no intention of misrepresenting records.
The investigator didn't ignore that.
She documented it.
Then asked whether Sofia had any evidence of the instructions she'd described.
The young woman opened her notebook.
Inside were dates, meeting summaries, and several references to emails that remained on the bank's system.
She pointed toward one entry.
"Mr. Keller told us to stop recording unsuccessful walk-ins as bank declines."
Dana looked up.
"When?"
Sofia gave the date.
Then explained that the instruction came after the branch received a regional performance warning.