She was gone into her thoughts.
I waited.
“Mr. Fisher has been — what’s the term the stupid computer idiot used? — well, basically he’s been cooking the books. For years. For decades!”
“Are they sure?”
“They said there is absolutely no doubt.”
“Even if that’s true, and you don’t know that yet, it has nothing to do with you. You didn’t know. You didn’t have the access or the power to do anything about it.”
“I don’t think your logic is going to save my butt.”
“How could it not?”
“Ignorance is no defense. Not in this country, anyway, and have you seen how they have been going after people? The IRS doesn’t play.”
“Ouch, no, you don’t want to mess with them.”
“It looks like tax evasion on a huge scale.”
“Maybe it is just messy bookkeeping. You pay a fine. You move on. Or maybe you don’t even have to be involved in it at all.”
“I’m in charge around here. Besides, if it turns out the company I am running is guilty of wrongdoing, you know it’s going to have ramifications in every part of my life.”
“What does that mean?”
“Jessie can’t marry me. He’s got all those stupid security clearances and stuff. They frown on him being involved with a criminal.”
“You’re not a criminal.”
“Thanks. Will you be willing to stand up in court, with your hand on a Bible, and say exactly that?”
“Yep. Loudly.”
“Great. We can do prison together. I’ll be the one giving fashion advice, and you can be the one cleaning the metal toilet in our room.”
“It’s not going to come to prison.”
“You don’t know that. I don’t even know who to call.”
“Why don’t you just take the afternoon off? Go home. Think about it. Tomorrow will be a better day, and you can think more clearly.”
“Cara, are you out of your mind? When this all blows up, and believe me, it will, I need to be able to stand up in court and say the minute I found out, I did the right thing. I just don’t know what the right thing is.”
“Have you talked to your accountant or money person or whatever?”
“How can I? If Mr. Fisher has been doing something wrong all this time, then chances are pretty damn good the money people are in on it, don’t you think?”
I don’t think Teagan meant to sound so snarky, but under the circumstances, I was just glad she hadn’t punched me or something. I could feel her frustration growing.
“Okay, here’s what we do. The only person I know who might know what to do would be Adeline or her people.”
“I can’t impose on Adeline again.”
“She loves helping people, and we aren’t asking her to do any more than just point us in the right direction.”
“That’s true.”
“Give me five minutes. If I can’t come up with anything brilliant, then we go with your plan.”
“Cara, I don’t have a plan.”
“So, I’ll be brilliant.”
It took more like forty-five minutes, and I wasn’t exactly brilliant, but I did have a meeting with a team of Adeline’s people set up, and Teagan and I were on our way to the offices we would use for this first meeting.
“So, who is on the team?”
“Your basic money people, security people, lawyer people, and people like that. When Adeline makes a call, people kind of fall all over themselves to help her.”
“This is going to cost me a fortune, isn’t it?”
“I think it is fair to assume this first meeting is a courtesy. If they can help you, they’ll come up with a plan, and they’ll put everything in writing. That’s how it has worked for everything I’ve done with Adeline. My assumption is that’s just how these people do things. Anyway, if what the computer guys told you is true, it’s worth a fortune for me not to be cleaning the metal toilet in your cell.”
“True. How did this even happen?”
“One thing at a time, Teagan. We’ll go. We’ll listen. We’ll figure it out.”
“Thanks. I almost believe you.”
“Does Jessie know what is going on?”
“Nope. I decided I would keep him out of it, at least until I really know what’s what. Plausible deniability and all that.”
“Yeah, and to think you always assumed it would be in the opposite direction. That he would have to keep things from you.”
Teagan started to crack. Just a little. If you didn’t know her well, you’d probably miss it.
“It’s gonna be okay.”
“How do you know?”
“Mom’s watching.”
“Dingleberry, don’t start.”
“I’m serious. She’s watching, and it will be okay.”
“From your lips to God’s ears.”
“Guaranteed.”
It was a very long meeting. At first, all the professional types wanted to talk to Teagan alone, but she insisted I be there.
Teagan explained she had started working for Mr. and the first Mrs. Fisher when she was a junior in high school. During the afternoon, three days a week. It counted as work experience, was close to the school campus, and the nuns knew the Fishers personally, so they approved it. Teagan started out stuffing envelopes and filing. Mrs. Fisher called her “our girl-Monday-Wednesday-Friday” and would laugh every time. Over the years, Teagan’s position was somewhat fluid. She did what needed to be done, always at the direction of Mrs. Fisher. Then when Mrs. Fisher had become ill, Teagan did what was necessary to make life easier for the two of them. She simply started doing more and more of what needed to be done. She had access to everything, or so she thought, and with very few exceptions, she ran the place.
The professionals jumped on her.
They got pretty aggressive, and they tried to shake her story, but Teagan was telling the absolute truth, so there was nothing to shake.
A guy in a suit that cost more than my car asked: Miss O’Flynn, if you have access to everything, how could you possibly miss years of fraudulent activity?
She answered without any animus. You don’t know what you don’t know. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher trained me themselves. I had no reason to doubt what they were telling me. I am not an accountant, nor do I have any knowledge base to pull from other than the knowledge they provided me. When I first started there, Mrs. Fisher did the books. By the time she passed, we had a third party to do all of that. I was never involved in that part of the company. No more than knowing what third party to send the information requested.
He leaned back in his chair. “That’s good. Stay with that.”
It sounded insulting when he said it. Like she’d come up with the perfect cover story.
They all went back and forth for what seemed like hours. When it was time to go, Teagan had a fist full of business cards, an appointment to see the guy in the beautiful suit the next morning, and she looked more tired than I have ever seen anyone. Ever.
“Are you okay?”
“Not really. I need to go home and tell Jessie. I need to go back to the office and figure out what to tell the staff. I need to figure out what I’m supposed to do with Mr. Fisher and Honey. Do I confront them? What if the computer guys are wrong? How could I miss something for half my damn life? I don’t know what to do.”
“You call the office and tell Lindsey that things go on as usual, and if anyone asks, the company is just suffering from transition pains because Mr. Fisher is gone. Everybody will understand switching things from him to you is going to take some doing.”
“Okay, that’s good, and it happens to be true. I can do that. Then what?”
“Then we feed you. Then you talk to Jessie. He’s really smart. His sister is a lawyer. Besides, if things aren’t going well, we’ll just have him call in some of his spy operatives to take care of everything.”
“He’s not a spy!” She must be feeling better. She rolle
d her eyes.
After Teagan called the office and gave Lindsey a viable story to tell — and I called A.J. to tell him I wasn’t sure when I’d be home since Teagan’s world had imploded — I took her to dinner. We headed for Bricking Brewster’s. I figured Teagan would take her frustration out on a steak.
She shocked the crap out of me when she took her frustration out on a couple of shots first.
“I know you know this, but this probably isn’t the best time to be drinking, Teagan. You’ve got lots of serious decisions to make.”
“Yeah, well, when they haul my ass to jail, at least I’ll be able to say I could have made better decisions if I were sober.”
“You aren’t going to jail.”
“Tell that to — who was that celebrity they threw in jail for tax evasion? Doesn’t matter. There’s been a bunch of them, and they all had people who knew what they were doing helping them, and they still ended up in jail. I got nobody who knows anything helping me. I’m screwed.”
“We don’t know that. If I’m working in a grocery store and the owner is selling bad meat, they aren’t going to hold me responsible.”
“They damn sure will if you’re the meat manager. That’s the problem, Cara. I’m in charge. It’s my problem now.”
“But you haven’t been in charge all that long, and the minute all this came to light, you took action. That has to account for something.”
“Yeah, time off for good behavior.”
While the server was bringing Teagan her drink, flirting with her to no avail, and then discussing the specials and such, I checked on Wikipedia and found something that might help.
“It says here tax evasion is ‘the purposeful illegal attempt of a taxpayer to evade payment of a tax imposed by the federal government.’ You didn’t purposefully or illegally try to evade your taxes, so I bet there is nothing they can do.”
“If you drive a car to a bank robbery and don’t even go in the bank, you’re still a bank robber.”
“Yes, but you would knowingly be driving the car. If someone jumped in your car, gave you directions, and you ended up giving them a ride to the bank, and you didn’t know they were going to rob it, that would be a whole different thing.”
“Have you always been this naïve, Cara?”
“Yeah, pretty much, but I believe in our judicial system, and I think you’re going to be okay.”
“You know, I’ve never cheated on my taxes. Not once. Not even a little bit, and here I am, I’m going to be in jail for the rest of my life because Mr. Fisher messed me up.”
Teagan’s drinks were hitting her already. It dawned on me that she probably hadn’t had anything to eat all day.
I asked the server for some bread. Teagan loves the bread here. They must make it every ten minutes, because it is always hot and fresh.
I got some food into her.
She didn’t drink anything else.
By the time I’d snatched the check and paid it, she was almost calm.
“Thanks, Cara.”
“For what?”
“For doing all this. For setting up the appointment and staying with me. I gotta just stay focused and remember the Cara Credo.”
“The Cara Credo?”
“Yep. Your whole life, you have never fought against anything. You always fight for something. That’s what I gotta do. I’m not fighting against the IRS or Mr. Fisher or whatever, I’m fighting for the success of the company and my future.”
“Wow. I’m better than I thought.”
“Yes, you are. Can you drive me home? I’ll get my car tomorrow. I can’t drive after those drinks. You never know if they have really worked their way out.”
“No problem. Will Jessie be home tonight?”
“I’ll call.”
Jessie met Teagan at the door. Probably because when she called him, mostly she cried.
He invited me in.
I declined.
Suzi had cooked dinner for herself and A.J., and they had even cleaned the kitchen.
We talked a little bit over a cup of tea. I didn’t give them many details, since it wasn’t really my place to be giving Suzi information about Teagan’s company.
In bed, A.J. and I talked about it until well after midnight.
“I think she’ll be alright. The company might have some problems, but I don’t think that they can come after your sister.”
“Based on?”
“Common sense?”
“Yeah, that was my first reaction, but you don’t see a lot of common sense anymore. Or kindness.”
SIX
“GRAB YOUR SWIMSUIT and tell your hunky husband-to-be that you will be back in a few days.”
“Teagan, you really need to start at the beginning of a conversation.”
“We’re going to go have us a talk with Mr. Fisher. They’re living on a boat. I tracked them down last night. They aren’t far. We’ll drive to the dock, jump on board, and corner them. We might as well get a tan.”
“I’m confused.”
“I talked to Jessie last night. Actually, we talked all night long. He pointed out that I’ve known the Fishers since I was a kid. I owe them the courtesy of a conversation, at the very least. He talked to his sister. She agreed that I can’t get into any more trouble than I’m already in, because I’m not a part of the whole mess, and I’m certainly not going to do anything to cover it up or anything. If push comes to shove, and Mr. Fisher throws himself at my feet and says he isn’t going to do anything to fix all this, then I become a whistle-blower kind of person, and I’m a hero.”
“What happens if he throws you overboard instead?”
“That’s why you should bring your bathing suit.”
It took a little convincing. Teagan convincing me, and then me convincing A.J. It’s not that he can tell me what to do or anything, but he has his doubts about Teagan’s sanity — a completely valid point — and he claims when the two of us are together, we sometimes get ourselves into situations that I wouldn’t normally get into.
I didn’t argue the fact.
Mostly because it is a fact.
Adeline gave me the time off work. She said she and the girls have some things they are looking into, and I may have a couple of new projects when they get their duckies in a row.
I think it is so cute that she uses a lot of my phrases now.
The thought that they sound more natural coming out of the mouth of someone’s grandmother should concern me, but I’m in a great mood, so I’m not going to let that happen.
Road trip.
Yay.
Teagan picked me up a little before four.
“What’s the plan?”
“We drive to the dock and jump on the boat and corner them. I told you that.”
“That’s your plan?”
“Yep.”
“Do you even know where the dock is?”
“It’s at a private place. I fed the information into the GPS. We just follow the voice of Phelps.”
“Phelps?”
“I got an app. I love his accent.”
“You’re weird.”
“I have my moments. How long did you tell A.J. we’d be gone?”
“We aren’t going to a third world country, Teagan. I told him I’d text him and let him know how things are going.”
“I figure we’ll probably be home tomorrow. We can talk to the Fishers, then find a motel close to the dock, then drive home in the morning.”
“Good. I’ve got things to do. I’ve got a wedding to plan, you know.”
“I know, you’ve told me a dozen times.”
“Sorry for letting the best thing in my life bother you.”
“Don’t get snippy. I’m just jealous.”
“You and Jessie are engaged, remember?”
“If this all falls apart, who knows what will happen?”
“When you told Jessie about this, did he say he was on his way out the door?”
“No.”
“
Then why are you even thinking that way?”
“I screwed up. I guess I’m just expecting him to… ”
“You didn’t screw up, Mr. Fisher did. And, oh, by the way, not that a baby is ever a bad thing, but I seem to recall you overcoming a rather large challenge when you found out that Jessie had been keeping the whole Joy-Joynessa thing from you. I would think that his intentional stuff outweighs your unintentional stuff.”
“Good point.” She sat a little straighter. “Very good point. See, dingleberry, this is why I keep you around.”
We pulled into a parking area less than two hours later. The guy in the security shack was young, a surfer type, and didn’t challenge Teagan at all. He even said, “No worries. Ain’t nobody gonna eggsplode over you showin’.”
As Teagan turned off the car she gave me the strangest look. “What the heck is eggsplode? I know that’s what he said. Not explode. He said eggsplode.”
“Who knows? We’re here. Just be grateful. Let’s talk to the Fishers and get the perfectly legal and reasonable explanation we came for.”
“Don’t you mean eggsplanation?”
“Really? You must be eggstremely nervous.”
“Eggsactly.”
We wandered down to another shack and were regarded by egg-boy’s apparent grandfather. They were similar, other than generation. He took one look at Teagan and got equally eggcited.
Teagan smiled and asked for the Fishers’ slip number.
“Totally, totally. You wanna go down the stairs — that little gate don’t have no lock — go four in and you’re there. I can walk ya.”
“No thanks, we’ve got it.” She gave him her best smile, and we were off before he could question us further.
We got to the boat, and there was no one home.
I wanted to smack Teagan. “Didn’t you call?”
“No, I didn’t call. I didn’t want them to leave. If they did something wrong, you think they are going to sit around and wait to tell me about it?”
“Well, that didn’t work out very well. Now what?”
“Maybe they’ll be right back?”
I didn’t throw her overboard. Mostly because we were on the dock thingy, not the boat, and a little bit because the water looked yucky. I didn’t want her to have to sit in her car with all that yuck on her once we got back on dry land.
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