Not realizing they had guests, Wyatt strolled into the room wearing a similar outfit and started to speak until he spotted Jack. He halted, mouth open, and stood staring at Jack and Damien in his lover’s apartment. Finally, he found his voice. “What are you doing here?”
Jack raised an eyebrow at Derrick. “I could ask you the same thing.”
Wyatt cleared his voice. “This is Derrick.” He gestured towards the Greek god. “I told you about him.”
Derrick swiveled his head from Wyatt to Jack and back to Wyatt. “Is this him?” he whispered in near horror, his eyes wide.
Wyatt closed his eyes, his head fell, he took a deep breath, and then he finally looked up at Derrick and nodded. “Yeah.”
Derrick turned on Jack. “You can’t have him! He’s mine!”
Okay, this wasn’t exactly how Jack had envisioned the evening. He wrinkled his brow. Damien caught his hand and squeezed, silently urging him to get on with the reason they were there. Jack nodded and cleared his throat. “I don’t want him, but I do want my money.”
“Your money! It’s my money! I earned it!” Derrick responded. Jack and Damien turned their attention to Derrick. Jack thought Wyatt might be behind the theft, but maybe he was wrong. Was it Derrick’s idea after all?
“You?” Jack stuttered his question. “You’re the one who’s been stealing from me?”
Derrick looked at him as if he had lost his mind. “I didn’t steal Wyatt! You threw him away and he’s mine now.”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t care about Wyatt.” Wyatt gasped, but Jack was undeterred. “I’m talking about my money. Why are you stealing from the store?”
That stopped Derrick. “The store. What store are you talking about?”
Jack sighed and rolled his eyes. “My store, Fabulous, Darling.”
That got a reaction from Wyatt. “It’s not your store. It’s our store,” he spoke between gritted teeth. “And Derrick’s not stealing from it.”
Jack just stared at Wyatt so Damien was the one to ask the next question. “Then how the hell can he afford this apartment?”
Wyatt shrugged in dismissal. “It’s my apartment.”
Jack whipped his head in Wyatt’s direction as Wyatt continued. “You seriously thought Derrick was the one behind the problem?” Jack nodded. “But that means, you thought I was involved.”
Jack took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re sleeping with one of our suppliers and someone’s tampering with the supplier invoices.” He shrugged. “What was I supposed to think?”
“You were supposed to trust me! You were supposed to love me! You were supposed to care about me!” Wyatt’s voice increased in volume as he ranted. “You should have asked me!”
Jack hung his head. He knew he should trust Wyatt as a business partner, but it was increasingly difficult to separate Wyatt—his business partner—from Wyatt—his pissed off ex-lover who wanted to get back together again. He shrugged his shoulders.
Damien placed a hand on one of his shoulders and squeezed. He pointed to the sofas. “Shall we sit and discuss this like adults?”
Wyatt nodded and sat on one sofa with Derrick huddled close to him. Jack walked in a daze and sat on the sofa across from Wyatt with Damien next to him. Damien held his hand and squeezed. Damien leaned over and whispered into Jack’s ear. “You need to tell him what’s going on. He may be a former lover, but he’s also your business partner. He deserves to know.”
Jack stared at Damien. “When did you get so smart?”
Chapter 29
The drama train was chugging along
Jack didn’t know if he could deal with any more drama, but the drama train was chugging along at full speed and there was no stopping it now. He, Izzy, the gray-haired Jessica Fletcher wannabes, Damien, and even Noel had been snooping around trying to figure out where his money was disappearing to, but they’d only ended up with more questions and certainly no answers. He laid his head on his desk and took a moment to pull himself together before taking out his phone to start mustering the forces.
Once again the group of amateur sleuths met at Martha’s house without Noel’s presence or consent. This time Jack was the one begging to exclude Noel. He wasn’t ready or willing to be the cause of a rift between Izzy and her husband. Izzy opened the door at Martha’s house and Jack showed her that his phone was turned off before kissing her cheek and entering the house. Damien gave her a wink and followed Jack in.
The ladies were gathered in the living room drinking coffee. Jack sat on a sofa with Damien next to him. Izzy raised her eyebrows at Damien’s proximity but kept her mouth shut. Jack wasn’t naïve enough to believe she would keep quiet very long. He shook his head at her and mimicked a phone to his ear indicating he’d call her and fill her in later. After a moment, she nodded.
“Okay.” Once again Betty took control of her tribe and the meeting. “What’s been happening, Jack? Did you learn anything about Wyatt and his friend?”
Jack nodded. “Yeah,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “Unfortunately, Wyatt and Derrick may be thick as thieves but they’re not actually thieves.”
“But how does Derrick pay for that penthouse apartment then?” Rosemary questioned.
“He doesn’t. It’s Wyatt’s apartment. Derrick is Wyatt’s boy-toy,” Damien answered.
Ally’s quiet voice responded, “I can see that. That Derrick is quite scrumptious looking.” The ladies nodded and murmured their agreement.
“Don’t think I’d pay for that expensive apartment though just to be able to use him as a boy-toy,” Rosemary grumbled.
Betty laughed. “Only because you don’t have the money to afford that apartment!” She guffawed.
Damien leaned over to Jack. “Derrick wasn’t all that,” he mumbled. Jack laughed and shook his head. Was Damien jealous that a group of grandmas that supposedly knitted together but spent most of their time plotting against their enemies thought Derrick was hotter than him?
Betty turned to Jack and asked, “So what now? What’s going on with the Eric situation?” Guess the time for fun was over.
Jack shook his head. “Noel looked into it, but he didn’t find anything suspicious. No enormous debts. He lives within his means.” He shrugged.
“He’s not using drugs or ladies of the night?” Izzy asked.
Jack rolled his eyes at Izzy’s vocabulary. “Nope, but Noel’s gut is telling him something’s off.”
Izzy raised her eyebrows in surprise at that tidbit. “Really?”
Martha clapped her hands. “We should do a recon at his house.” Four heads with hair so gray it was nearly blue nodded in agreement.
Jack needed to put a plug in that idea. He didn’t want to think about what Noel would do to them when they ended up at the police station for trespassing at Eric’s house because there was no way this group of spy wannabes would manage to do a recon mission and not end up at the police station. Sometimes he thought their actual goal was riding in a squad car, not fulfilling their recon mission.
He cleared his throat. “I don’t think that would help. Noel already went through his finances and mortgage and stuff. He said that Eric’s living within his means.” He shrugged his shoulders. “There’s nothing for us to learn from looking in his windows.”
“Hmmm…” Betty didn’t verbally admit she agreed with him, but the fact that she didn’t immediately dispute his thoughts was a clear indication that she at least didn’t disagree. If the don was on his side, then he could be assured there wouldn’t be any wild recon missions. “What if we do a stake out instead?” But then again, he could be wrong.
The entire group of Mission: Impossible junkies clapped their hands. “Oh, that sounds like fun,” Martha cooed. Every elderly head in the room bobbed in agreement. Crap. He looked to Izzy and Damien for support, but they were both leaning forward, eyes twinkling with excitement. Double crap.
Betty nodded at the team. “Let’s do this then.” She turned to Jack. “We’re
going to need Eric’s work schedule and his address.” Jack just stared at her with his mouth hanging open, but Damien nodded in agreement. She then turned to her co-conspirators. “We’ll need to set up a schedule.”
By the time Jack stood to leave Martha’s house fifteen minutes later, the lady crew had set up a schedule to stake out Eric’s house every night of the week. Luckily, he, as well as Damien and Izzy, were not included as Eric knew them. Damien and Izzy were disappointed, but Jack was more than happy to not have to spend an evening in a car with any of the team members. He could only imagine the complaints about potty breaks and aching bones and muscles.
Chapter 30
It’s too late
Jack was shocked to see Rose standing in the doorway to his office the following week. He promptly stood and greeted her with a quick peck on the cheek before pulling her into his office and closing the door.
“What’s up, Rose? Is everything okay?” Jack’s heart skipped a beat thinking that she might have come to his work to give him bad news.
Rose patted his arm. “No. There’s nothing wrong.” Rose answered and then cleared her throat before gaining the courage to speak again. “Listen, I was thinking about something, and it just doesn’t add up.”
Jack led her to a chair at the conference table and had her sit down. He leaned against the table in front of her, stretched his legs out in front of him, and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “What doesn’t add up?”
“The invoices, the suppliers.” Jack raised an eyebrow at her. “If the suppliers aren’t involved, that means that you’re paying them way too much money.” Jack nodded to encourage her further. “So, why aren’t they returning the overpayment? If I overpay the electric company, they give me a refund or give me a credit for the amount off my next bill. In any event, they do something.”
Jack stared at Rose. How could they have missed something so freaking obvious? Of course, they had checked to see if the invoices were paid but that’s as far as they got. Why weren’t the suppliers saying anything about overpayments – unless the suppliers were involved? They had quickly discounted that idea as Fabulous, Darling had suppliers from all over the state and even some from outside of Oklahoma. It just didn’t make sense that they were all in cohorts together. At least that’s what they had thought.
Jack immediately called Damien and told him to get all the supplier invoices and bring them and his laptop to his office. Damien took less than five minutes to arrive. His head jerked when he noticed Rose in the office. “Hi Rose,” he said and reached over to give her a quick kiss. “How are you, sweetie?”
“Rose has brought a problem to my attention,” Jack said and gained Damien’s attention. He then quickly explained Rose’s train of thought.
“So, you want me to look through and see if we’re getting any refunds or credits?” Damien asked after Jack finished his explanation. Jack nodded. “Okay.”
“Can I help?” Rose asked.
“Sure,” Damien instantly agreed. “Let me just print out the bank statements for the past months and then you can take half and I’ll take the other half.” He quickly gathered all the documents together and then gave Rose half the pile while Jack paced in the background.
Rose grabbed a notebook out of her purse and began making a checklist. She wrote down all the invoice amounts and the amount paid. She quickly blinked in surprise when she realized the amount of money that was being misappropriated from Fabulous, Darling was in the six figure range. She shook her head and got back to work.
After a while, Rose cleared her throat. “Damien, can you help me with this? My eyes aren’t what they used to be.”
Damien smiled and walked over to her side of the table. “Sure thing, darling. What can I do?”
“Can you read off the bank account numbers from the bank statements?”
Damien wrinkled his nose in confusion but agreed. He rattled off five numbers before he realized what Rose had already figured out. “Shit. That’s clever.”
Jack stopped his prowling around the office upon hearing Damien’s words. “What’s clever?” he asked, his voice tight.
Damien looked at Rose, who nodded at him in encouragement. “Well,” he began but cleared his throat when the words wouldn’t come. “All the invoices have been fully paid, but they weren’t paid in the proper accounts.”
“What? I don’t get it.” Jack walked over to the table and looked over Damien’s shoulder.
“Look,” Damien said and pointed to an invoice and then to the corresponding payment. “The bank account isn’t the same.”
“What? No, it’s the same.” Jack quickly skimmed the numbers.
“Look again,” Damien pushed.
Jack re-read the documents. “Holy shit. It’s only off by one number. No wonder we missed it.”
Damien nodded. “They’re all like that.”
“How long has this been going on?” Jack asked even though he dreaded the answer.
“Several months from what I can tell, but I’ll have to do a thorough review of the books to be able to say for certain for how long and to know what amount we’re talking about.”
Jack ran a hand through his hair. “Whose account is the money going to?”
Damien shrugged. “There are several different account owners. Each with nearly the same name as the supplier.”
“Who pays our invoices?” Jack asked with a tight voice. He knew the answer, but he needed to have someone else confirm it out loud.
“I do now,” Damien answered but gulped when he realized why the question was asked. “Before I started, Eric did it.”
“Shit,” Jack swore under his breath. “Fucking Eric is stealing from me.” Rose cleared her throat. “Sorry, Rose.”
“You don’t know that, Jack.” Rose was the voice of reason. “There could be all kinds of things going on.”
Jack shook his head. It all made sense now. Eric’s irritation. His refusal to work with Damien. His secrecy. Why hadn’t he seen it before? He whipped his phone out of his pocket. “Noel? We need to talk.” He hung up and then stared at Rose. “You need to call the troops off Eric. This could be dangerous. We don’t know what’s going on.”
Rose blushed but nodded her head. She pulled her phone out of her bag and dialed Betty’s number. She spoke rapidly into the phone, but her voice was so quiet that Jack couldn’t understand her. She hung up and stared with wide eyes at Jack. “It’s too late.”
Chapter 31
Chances were it was dangerous
“What do you mean it’s too late?” Jack asked.
Rose cleared her throat. “Betty and Martha were at Eric’s house today. We’ve been staking out his house for a week now.” She sighed before continuing. “It’s really boring. I was ready to quit doing it, but everyone else was so excited about it. Anyway, he’s hardly ever home. No one ever comes over. It doesn’t look like he has any friends or a girlfriend.”
Jack was getting impatient. He took a deep breath to calm himself before speaking again. “Get to the part about why it’s too late.” Damien heard the impatience in Jack’s voice and grabbed his hand.
“Well…” Rose refused to look him in the eye. “They decided to follow Eric tonight since nothing was happening at the house.”
“And?” Jack pushed when Rose stopped speaking yet again.
“He’s at a casino, gambling. Betty and Martha followed him in. They’re hiding behind the slot machines while Eric plays blackjack.”
“Crap” was Jack’s not so eloquent response. His body locked in disbelief when he realized that Eric was gambling away his money. And not a little bit of money either.
“What casino?” Damien asked as he packed his laptop and documents at the speed of light.
Rose shrugged. “I’m not sure.”
“Find out,” Damien told her and then looked to Jack. “You got a safe for this stuff?”
Jack just nodded and pointed to the safe in the corner of his office. “You gonna open it up fo
r me?” Damien asked as he stood in front of the safe waiting for Jack to awaken from his stupor.
Jack shook it off and bent down to unlock the safe. Damien quickly shoved everything in before slamming the door and spinning the lock mechanism. “You got the address?” Damien asked when he heard Rose’s phone beep. She nodded and handed the phone to him. He quickly noted the casino before handing the phone back.
“Come on.” He grabbed Jack’s hand and started pulling him to the door. He stopped and turned around. “Rose, go home. Please, please don’t go to the casino or follow us.” He implored her with his eyes to follow his instructions. Rose nodded in agreement.
Damien pulled again on Jack’s hand and they moved quickly through the back offices to Damien’s car. He opened the passenger door for Jack and gently guided him in. Once Jack was seated, he bent down and kissed his forehead before shutting the door and running to the driver’s side.
They were on the road for several miles before Jack found his voice. “My most trusted employee is stealing from me,” he murmured.
Damien placed his hand on Jack’s thigh and squeezed. “It’s going to be alright. We’ll figure everything out. Don’t worry.”
The rest of the trip to the casino was completed in silence. After Damien parked, he turned to Jack and spoke. “Jack, you’ve got to snap out of it. We’re here now, and we’re going to find out what’s going on. But first, we need to get Betty and Martha out of there.”
Jack nodded. “Yeah.” He knew Damien was right. He couldn’t be selfish right now. Not when they had no idea what Eric was up to. Eric had misappropriated more than $100,000 in funds from Fabulous, Darling. If he was gambling that amount of money, there was no telling what he’d gotten himself involved in. Chances were, it was dangerous. Fuck yeah, they needed to get the ladies out of there.
“Let’s try this the easy way.” Jack grabbed his phone and dialed Betty’s number. She answered on the first ring.
“Are you here?” Betty, the aspirant spy, whispered.
The Gray-Haired Knitting Detective Series: (Books 1 - 3) Page 27