Dude Interrupted (G-Man Next Generation Book 2)

by ANDREA SMITH

  I pulled her up from the bed and wrapped my arms around her. “Now how about we forget about Mandy and make dinner together. I’ve got some kick-ass leftovers thanks to your mom.”

  “Sounds delicious,” she murmured, her lips against mine. “I brought dessert.”

  Chapter 32

  “Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck.” - Orson Welles

  It was the Wednesday after the Thanksgiving holiday. Becky Johnson was alone in the office. Mandy Reynolds had picked up her pay check that morning, and asked for the day off because she was feeling “under the weather.”

  Of all the days for her to be off, this wasn’t one of them. But Becky wasn’t about to deny a very pregnant woman a sick day. Hell, she could be held liable under one of the many labor laws. Was being pregnant covered under Americans with Disabilities? She wasn’t about to test it, so she had told her no problem, and she hoped she felt better real soon.

  Becky had Dawn Childers coming in right after lunch to do a pre-Audit check. Without Mandy there, she’d have to cover the phones, the mail, and anyone else who came straggling into the office needing this or that. Retirement was looking better and better she thought.

  Little did she know that the shit was about to hit the fan, and Dawn Childers would be the very person to save the day for Becky.

  It was nearly four in the afternoon. Dawn Childers had been there since one. They were three hours into the pre-audit. Dawn looked over the checklist she’d prepared prior to arriving.

  “Okay, let’s do the pre-audit on your requisition, purchasing and accounts payable system cross checks,” she said. “I need your printout of purchase order numbers issued over the past thirty days. I’ll randomly select a few, and if you would provide me with the requisition, receipt of goods or services, and invoice so that I can match them with your signatory requirements, that will do it for today.”

  “No problem,” Becky replied, going into her computer system and printing out the data for her. She handed Dawn the list, and when the auditor called out several purchase order numbers, Becky went to the files and pulled the supporting documents she requested. She was thankful Mandy had at least caught all the filing up the day before.

  The second one she pulled raised a flag with the auditor. “This is strange,” she said, checking the paperwork. “Why are your terms different for this supplier? And why wouldn’t you have done a purchase order amendment with the supplier’s acknowledgement since the terms changed after the release? It looks as if the “Pay To” address was also changed.”

  Becky grabbed the paperwork from Dawn, knowing this was not proper procedure. She saw it with her own eyes. The terms had been changed to “Payable Upon Receipt” and the Pay To address had a pre-printed sticker showing a P.O. Box number in Bristol, Virginia. The company didn’t use a post office box. All mail was delivered directly to the office address.

  “This isn’t a change I approved,” Becky said, and she could feel her blood pressure climb. The purchase order was the one which had required Mr. Sinclair’s signature on the requisition. It was the one Carter Sims had presented her with for fifteen thousand dollars for material to do the renovations and expansion of the press box at the racetrack.

  “Mrs. Johnson, are you okay?” Dawn asked, a genuine note of concern in her voice.

  “I’ve been here thirty years, Dawn. There’s never been a discrepancy with the books. This was not authorized, nor does it follow our accounting procedures. I’ve never had a black mark—” Becky knew she was blubbering but only because she strived for a perfect record and this was a crime that could not only cost her employer, but would tarnish her own reputation as a long standing employee. She sank down in her chair, and buried her face in her hands.

  “Listen,” Dawn said, “Call the police immediately. You need to make a report. While you’re doing that, let me look through your files and see if there’s further discrepancies. It will be fine. We caught this early. Let’s not panic, okay?”

  Becky picked up the phone to call the police. She hoped like hell Dawn was right, that they had caught it early enough. Just as she finished making the call, Bryce Slater came into the office, a look of alarm plastered on his face. “Becky, where is Carter Sims working today?”

  It took her a moment to collect her thoughts. “He’s supposed to be working on Cottage #5,” she replied. “All the materials came in last week, why?”

  “He’s not there. I’ve checked everywhere. I found a fence line down. Baron is gone. Tula’s a wreck, and my ass is gonna be on the line if that colt can’t be found.”

  The thing you needed to know about Becky Johnson was that she wasn’t used to such chaos in her workplace. “That bitch,” were the only words that left her mouth.

  Chapter 33

  Avery

  I drove into hell on the way home from school. Bryce was blowing up my phone, followed by Hannah before I’d even left campus. I was filled in on the basics.

  Embezzlement.

  Horse Theft.

  Petty Cash Theft.

  Breaking and Entering, with theft.

  Mandy Jo Reynolds: Missing

  Carter Sims: Missing

  Becky Johnson: Flipping out.

  Tristan and Bryce: On the war path.

  That about covered it. It wasn’t my typical Wednesday afternoon by any means.

  As soon as I pulled into the parking lot, I saw the police cruiser parked and two uniformed officers talking to Uncle Tristan and Bryce. A third guy, who appeared to be a plain clothes detective was sitting in his unmarked car, talking on his cell.

  As soon as I got out of my truck, Hannah was right beside me. “Have you heard about the shit going down?” she asked. “Aunt Becky is a mess. I’m heading over to the Belle to see if they’ve found anything else.”

  “Unfortunately, yes,” I replied. “I hope Becky doesn’t blame herself. It’s my fault for encouraging her to give that bitch a job. So, what are the police doing about it?”

  “Not a lot. Lack of proof. Apparently two employees that aren’t around isn’t enough evidence to support a warrant for their arrest. Horses get out when part of a fence is down, petty cash disappears, and there’s not enough proof to nail either of them on the embezzlement thing until the detective follows the “money trail” which takes more than an hour, according to him,” she finished, nodding towards the car where the detective was still on his phone.

  I walked over to where Uncle Tristan and Bryce were talking to the uniformed officers. I was fuming. Why were the wheels of justice moving so slowly? It was so obvious from my perspective. They should be putting an A.P.B. or whatever it was called out on Mandy and Carter this very minute!

  “I know they did it,” I blurted out, interrupting the officer who was trying to explain the protocol for an arrest warrant to a very frustrated and irritated Tristan and Bryce. “When Hannah and I followed them last week one of the places they went to was D & S Equipment Rental. I figured it had something to do with getting a dumpster for the scrap materials from the remodeling. The place rents trailers too, horse trailers. They took Baron, I’m sure of it.”

  “And you are?” the younger police officer asked.

  “I’m Avery Sinclair. I work here. And I know Mandy was somehow mixed up with Carter. My cousin, Hannah and I followed Carter and Mandy last week. We suspected they were up to something, and now it all makes sense.”

  “We can check this out, Ms. Sinclair, Just calm down and give me more details. Did you observe anything else that day?”

  “Yeah, we followed them to their next stop. It was Acme Hardware and Lumber.”

  “That’s the supplier they used for the embezzlement,” Tristan said. “Can you check that angle out as well, Officer?”

  “Absolutely. It’s a starting point for sure,” he answered, jotting the info down in his notebook. “Let’s go check their living quarters.”

  We had to wait ou
tside while the officers, along with the detective searched through each cottage, starting with Carter’s.

  “They’ve cleared out,” he said. “Nothing left behind that links them to anything criminal, but it appears they had this planned out. We’ll get a BOLO out on both vehicles, along with their descriptions. Now there’s something I need to verify. Mrs. Johnson described Mandy Reynolds as being significantly pregnant.”

  “That’s right,” I piped up, “She’s due in early January. She’s out to here,” I finished my hand signaling how far out her belly was.

  “Don’t be so sure,” the detective said. “Let me show you something she did leave behind. Follow me.”

  Bryce, Tristan, Hannah and I followed him up the steps and into her cottage. He went into the bedroom and came out with what appeared to be a strap-on padded belly. “You can find these things on-line or in costume shops. They’re about twenty bucks. My wife wore one of these under a nun’s habit last Halloween,” he said, chuckling.

  “Oh my God,” I breathed, “You mean–she faked the whole pregnancy thing?”

  “It appears so.”

  I looked over and my eyes locked with Bryce’s. I could tell he was relieved, and in that moment I wanted nothing more than to see Mandy Reynolds put away for a long, long time for her duplicitous and criminal ways.

  The detective and officers finished up with taking our statements and said they’d be in touch the following day once they’d questioned the proprietors of both the local businesses.

  After they’d gone, Tristan and Hannah left mentioning they were going to check on Aunt Becky on their way home.

  Bryce came up to me, throwing an arm around my shoulders. “This is nobody’s fault, babe. We’ll get Baron back, I promise. Let’s go check on Tula. She’s been a mess since all this went down. I want to make sure she’s settled down for the night.

  “Okay,” I said with a sigh, curling in to him as we walked towards the barn. “And once we make sure she’s settled for the night, I’m going to need some looking after, Bryce.”

  “You’ve got it A-Girl.”

  Chapter 34

  Bryce

  Two days had passed since Mandy and Carter had torn several lives apart with their thievery. I hadn’t mentioned it to Avery, but the bitch had somehow found the metal box where I’d kept my savings and cleaned that out as well. We all felt like fools. We all felt like we’d been violated in the worst way, but the truth was, nobody could’ve predicted that any one person, let alone two, had that kind of evil inside of them. And the fact that they’d pulled it off in such a short time frame was unbelievable. But things done in haste could always make waste, and I was hoping they’d fucked up in covering their tracks.

  I’d just finished nuking a pizza when my cell rang. I glanced at the Caller I.D. It was the same number that had called me a couple weeks back. I’d totally forgotten to call the number back.

  I answered the call.

  “Hey, Bryce. It’s Sami.”

  “Sami Lee?” I asked.

  ‘Yeah, dude. I called before. Sorry I didn’t leave a message. I felt kind of weird calling you at all, but I ran into your brother a few weeks back. He said you had some info I might be interested in. He wouldn’t say more than that so I debated. But hell, the curiosity won out. What’s up?”

  Timing was everything. Unfortunately, I wished I’d called Sami back before Mandy had gone all “Bonnie Parker” on us. “It’s about Mandy Jo Reynolds,” I replied. “She was here.”

  “You say was? Were you lucky enough to get rid of her? How much did she take you for, dude?”

  And for the next thirty minutes, Sami Lee filled me in on what exactly Mandy had taken him for, along with several others I knew from back home, and provided me with some insight as to where she might be holed up.

  “So, you’re saying that Mandy Jo Reynolds and Carter Sims, knew one another previous to them both ending up in Bristol?”

  “That’s the information I got, Detective Snyder. They have a relationship of sorts. You see, Mandy apparently has a history of conning guys she’s slept with out of money under the guise of being pregnant. She takes what she can get from them, and then disappears before there’s any proof of a child. It was basically low rent stuff until she pulled the same con on Carter Sims. She was waitressing at a truck stop near Decatur. He was a truck driver she met and slept with whenever he passed through. She figured she might get some higher stakes with him versus the dudes her own age.

  “Carter figured it out and wasn’t pissed about it. He figured as a team, they could work bigger cons. So, that’s where I came into the picture as their next “mark.” When she found out where I was, Carter knew about the Sinclair wealth, and figured they could lay out a plan to get some of it for themselves.”

  “Well, it does put some of the pieces into place,” Detective Snyder said. “The audit found two other instances of embezzlement. Between those, the horse’s worth, the petty cash, and what she took from you, it comes to around sixty grand. I’ll give the state police this information. This puts us even closer to nabbing them. Thanks, Bryce. This helps a lot.”

  It wasn’t twenty-four hours later when Avery came running into the barn where I was spraying down the stalls, squealing with delight.

  “They found them! They found them, Bryce! And they still had Baron! The guy who was purchasing the colt, recognized him from the Warm Bloods Gazette. He found the listing number and called only to find out the listing had been pulled because the colt was gone. So he called the authorities and they set up a sting. They are now in custody.”

  She was totally on Cloud Nine, and I laughed and twirled her around, my own happiness apparent. “God I’m so fucking glad they’ve been caught, babe. I’ve felt so damn guilty!”

  “You?” she asked, “What about me? I felt guilty as hell. Becky is ecstatic! And Uncle Tristan and Hannah are driving up now to wherever they had holed up to bring Baron home. Let’s go tell Tula,” she said giggling, grabbing my hand and pulling me along behind her.

  And that’s what we did. We found Tula in the pasture and gave the mare the news that her baby was coming home. And Avery made a promise to her that Baron would be staying at Sinclair Stables permanently.

  When I asked her whether she was authorized to make that promise she rolled her eyes. “Seriously Bryce? Are you seriously going to question my persuasion skills? Especially with my grandparents?”

  “Never mind,” I said with a chuckle. “If your persuasion skills are even half as good with them as they are with me, they’re putty in your hands, A-Girl. Dumb question.”

  “And don’t you forget it Bryce Slater,” she purred, throwing her arms around my neck and tilting her face upward, waiting for a kiss.

  She didn’t have to wait long.

  Epilogue

  “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” - e.e. cummings

  Avery

  Six months later

  MCRD, Parris Island, SC

  I couldn’t believe I was here.

  Finally.

  I hadn’t seen Bryce for thirteen weeks. It seemed more like thirteen years. I got the occasional letter (for every three I sent) from him, but I understood that military basic training was no day in the park. He was exhausted from the grueling training and he studied at night, sometimes getting only two hours of sleep before it all started up again.

  Yeah, that’s right. My Bryce was graduating tomorrow as a U.S. Marine. I’d thought he was joking when he gave me the news he’d enlisted. Not that I had anything against the military or his choice to join, it had just been so unexpected.

  Let me backtrack.

  The best part of last year was seeing Mandy and Carter arrested. The embezzled money had been returned to the company, Baron had come home to stay, and Becky Johnson was still held in high esteem at the ranch. She’d even passed the audit once a procedure that Dawn Childers wrote had been put
into place. It was something about requiring a background and credit check be performed prior to hiring permanent or temporary help.

  Mandy and Carter ended up taking a plea bargain to avoid a trial, so both of them were now behind bars for the next five to seven years depending upon their behavior while incarcerated. It had taken a load off of our minds knowing we wouldn’t have to go through the stress of protracted litigation.

  Life continued on as it was before, with my schooling and Bryce continuing to work at the ranch. He turned nineteen at the end of December, and I turned twenty a month later. We settled into what I thought was a very comfortable relationship. I was truly looking forward to having the summer off and being able to spend more time with him at the ranch.

  Then he dropped the bomb on Valentine’s Day. He took me to what I thought was going to be a cozy romantic dinner. He’d bought me a card, and a dozen roses. And then, over a special chocolate soufflé he’d ordered for our dessert, he shared with me that he’d enlisted in the Marines. He would be leaving in mid-March for boot camp.

  Needless to say, I couldn’t finish my dessert. It wasn’t one of my proudest moments, I admit. I kind of whined, whimpered, sobbed and then blubbered all the while he drove us back to the manor, wiping my cheeks of the tears that wouldn’t seem to stop.

  He did his best to allay my fears and insecurities about his decision, but in the end, he didn’t capitulate. “This is what I want to do, Avery. It has nothing to do with my love for you, but it has everything to do with my need to be a man.”

  “But you are a man, Bryce. In every way. You’re a good man. You’re the man I love,” I argued. “Being a Marine is just your way of being macho. But it’s dangerous, don’t you see that?”

  “I didn’t go into this without giving it a lot of thought, babe. I need your support. I need you to understand that it doesn’t mean the end of us. I love you, you know that. I’m doing this to be the man I want to be; to carve a future I can be proud of, and hopefully, you’ll be proud of too.”