The P.U.R.E. (6 page)

“I think I’ve just figured out something incredibly scandalous. I need help sorting through the details, someone to double-check my logic.”

“Uh … okay.”

I told Jon about the cufflink I found in the Turner’s gym and where I’d left it. I shared how Kenneth seemed to be looking for something in the bedroom and how the same cufflink showed up on his wrist that afternoon.

“Kenneth Petrovich and Leslie Turner are having an affair,” Jon said matter-of-factly.

“Yes! That’s what I think, too!”

“And now you’re thinking that’s how Anderson-Blakely won the Aphrodite bid?”

“Let’s assume the affair pre-dates Aphrodite hiring Anderson-Blakely. Why would Kenneth want his lover’s husband working for his company or benefitting from landing a new client?” I screwed up my face as I puzzled these questions.

“Aphrodite needed someone to give them a clean bill of financial health. The books were in such shambles no firm in its right mind would have given that to them without additional incentive,” Jon said.

“What’s in it for Bob? And what’s in it for Kenneth other than keeping his job?”

He crossed his arms and gazed down at me as if waiting for me to answer my own questions.

“What do they always say are the primary motivators? Money, lust and revenge?”

“Money seems most likely. Aphrodite wants to go public. That means cash to pay off its debt. The bank will go away, and so will the threat of bankruptcy.” Jon nodded his head as he finished, no doubt signing his name to his logical masterpiece. He was a cool, rational thinker, perhaps a little lacking in passion at times but in good way.

“So, what would motivate Bob? A promotion? Saving his job as a partner? Money benefits the owners of Aphrodite, which would be the Jamesons mostly. Could Bob have some sort of financial stake in Aphrodite?” I rattled off my conjectures as I tapped my chin and stared at Jon’s tie.

“Let’s move on to lust. Kenneth wants Leslie, or Leslie wants Kenneth. Bob and Darla are obstacles. Where’s the link to Aphrodite?” he asked.

“Say Leslie or Kenneth has something on Bob, and they blackmail him into fudging the audit results. We’re right back to money. I can’t help but wonder if we’re missing a piece, like another player.”

He leaned against a bookcase, crossed his long legs at the ankles and his arms at his chest.

“Do you think we should do or say something about Aphrodite before Bob signs the opinion letter?”

“Like what? The advisory partner, Hardinger, has signed off too. The only ones who believe something’s wrong are you, me and Scarlett.”

“And Marilyn. Don’t forget her. I’m going to go talk to her.” I turned to leave the library, but he caught me by the arm.

He narrowed his eyes before he said, “Do you need me to come with you?”

I shook my head. “You should hang back, so it’s just Gayle the PURE causing trouble.”

“You’re not a PURE.” He frowned, shaking his head like my father often did to shore up my self-esteem when one of my brothers shot me down.

“Bob thinks I am. So on my own, I’m not a threat.”

“Alright, but say the word, and Scarlett and I will join you.” He patted me on the back, and we returned to our desks.

• • •

I knocked, and Marilyn beckoned me in. Like the last time I visited her office, I shut the door.

“What’s up, Gayle?”

“Rumor has it Bob is signing off on the audit for Aphrodite, and we’ll be issuing a clean opinion.”

She leaned back in her chair and sighed. “I think that rumor is a bit premature, Gayle.”

“I heard Hardinger signed off too.”

“Where’d you hear that?” She leaned forward, her hands clasped, fingers steepled on the desk.

“The walls are thin at Aphrodite, and some of the employees like to gossip about what they overhear.” No way would I tell her I was the one who did the eavesdropping.

“Ah. Suffice it to say, the fat lady hasn’t sung yet, but she’s off on the sidelines warming up.”

“When do you think she might make an appearance?”

“Soon Gayle, soon.”

8

After a few days in the Anderson-Blakely offices, Doug moved the team back to Aphrodite to wrap up the audit and start the next phase of our project—the initial public offering.

“Tony, give your open points on inventory to Gayle, and give your other open points to Jon,” Doug said when Jon and I needed new tasks. “I need you to do the subsequent review.”

Subsequent review was easy and mindless but very tedious. I didn’t know who got the worse deal, Tony or Jon and I.

Tony had twice as many follow-up points to clear as the rest of us. Marilyn had ripped his work to shreds only to have Bob override ninety percent of her correction requests. The contradictory instructions had confused and frustrated Tony, causing him to write and erase repeatedly until he wore holes in the paper.

“What do you want me to do about Marilyn’s points Bob contradicted?” I asked Doug.

“Cross reference them to Bob’s point, then check off Marilyn’s point as done. Bob’s points prevail.” For the first time, Doug hadn’t used a snarky voice with me. I wanted to ask why, to get his take on the Marilyn versus Bob argument, but didn’t want to push my luck. I needed to think of him as I would a coiled snake, ready to strike at any time. No sense poking him with a stick.

“I need to go check the minutes book again,” Jon said. “Anyone else need to review those records after I have Nicky pull them?”

“I need to check something too,” I said.

Doug eyed me, but I stood and left before he could object.

“You know he thinks we’re going off to fool around, don’t you?” I said to Jon as we walked to the executive offices. “That’s how his mind works.”

“Yeah, I do. You’re no longer the only one he drops innuendo bombs on, Gayle. Maybe you shouldn’t have come with me.”

“Or maybe I absolutely should have come with you, because while you distract Nicky, as only you can do, I’m going to paw through some of the files in that room and see what I can find—”

He stopped and pulled me into the break room. “Why? What are you up to?”

I lowered my voice. “Nicky told me in the ladies’ room today that Kenneth chewed her out when he found the storage room unlocked. He said he didn’t want us anywhere near there. Obviously, that means there’s something he doesn’t want us to find.”

“Now that Nicky’s been told to keep us out, how are you going to get in?”

“Easy. You give her a sob story about how you forgot to check something in the minutes book, and you can’t let Doug know you were so dumb. Could a girl help a guy out, wink, wink. Give her some puppy dog eyes. It’ll be your little secret if she could just unlock the room.
Just for you.
You’ll do all your work in the file room with the door locked from the inside, then call her on your cell phone to get her to make sure the coast is clear when you need to leave. I’ll, of course, slip in there with you, unseen, by giving a special knock on the door after she leaves. But before I join you, I’ll go back to the audit room and inform Doug we’re done in the executive area and you’ve moved on to other steps. Blah, blah. What do ya think?” I did my circus ringmaster ta-da.

Jon smiled and wagged his finger at me. “I think you went into the wrong line of work. You should have been a PI.”

“Flatterer. It’ll work though, right? You can persuade her, yes?”

“I don’t know …”

“She’s got a
huge
crush on you. She’ll agree to anything if you smile at her and give her ‘the look’.” I wiggled my eyebrows at him. I withheld that it would also get me back into Nicky’s good graces.

“The look?”

I scoffed. “Don’t act so clueless. You know what to do.”

“I’m not sure I do. Can you show me?” He assumed a serious mug, the obedient student waiting for the master to show him, but the slight curl of the corners of his mouth gave him away.

“Maybe something like this …” I made a suave James Bond face at him and cocked an eyebrow. “Bond, James Bond. Or in your case, Cripps, Jon Cripps.” I couldn’t hold back my laugh. It was silly when I did it, but I knew he could pull it off.

“You do that well, Gayle. I think I got it.” He snorted as we left the break room.

“Do you have your cell phone?” I asked.

“In my pocket.” He patted the back of his pants. My eyes tracked his motion and lingered on his nicely shaped butt an extra second.

“So I’ll give you a few minutes to work your mojo, then I’ll make a showing back in the audit room. If no one’s around when I return, I’ll knock once, then three more times. Got it?”

“Yes ma’am.” He tipped an imaginary cowboy hat at me.

I hung back so I could watch his progress but remain out of Nicky’s sight. I hoped Doug didn’t come looking for either one of us in the meantime.

Jon sidled over to Nicky and sat on the corner of her desk. I couldn’t hear what he said, but I could see their profiles. He leaned toward her, said something to make her smile, pulled back, repeated and moved a little closer each time. I didn’t think he was as clueless as he professed when it came to manipulating women.

Nicky surveyed the area before opening her top right drawer and pulling out a key.

Jon flashed me a victory smile and followed Nicky to the storage room.

I headed back to the audit room and took my seat. I removed a couple of papers from an inventory file and scribbled a few bits of nonsense down. After I consulted the open items list, I rose to leave the room again, papers and pencil in hand.

Doug’s gaze bored into me as I did.

When I returned to the executive area, I knocked once and three more times before slipping inside after the lock clicked. “Good job, double o seven,” I whispered as I gave Jon a high five.

He returned to his work while I started opening drawers. When he finished, he began looking through files with me. “What are we looking for?” he asked.

“I’d say something to do with the missing assets or the inventory.”

For the next fifteen minutes, we pawed through the files. So focused were we that we almost didn’t hear the noises outside the door.

A man’s voice said, “I need to wrap up a few things at the office, then make an appearance, but I should be free by seven.”

It sounded like Kenneth Petrovich.

“Shit!” I whispered and searched for a place to hide. Jon clicked off the light. Just as we scooted under a folding table and behind a couple of boxes of copy paper, the lock flipped and the door opened.

Kenneth entered, talking on his cell phone. He switched on the light, shut and locked the door behind him, but remained near the exit as he continued his conversation.

“You know, you worry too much. She won’t be home till after midnight. She has girls’ night out.”

Pause.

“Excellent. That’ll be what—four or five hours? Better if I meet you there. Rocky’s. It’s near White Rock Lake. I have a booth for us way in the back—very private.”

Pause.

“Afterward, we can go to my place and have a little fun … no mirrors though, but I’m sure we can improvise …”

Pause.

“Hmm, I’m sure you can, you vixen. Baby, I can’t wait to get you alone. It’s been too long and torturous.”

Pause with way too much breathy air.

“Okay. See you later.”

I looked at Jon and did a finger in the mouth gagging motion. Jon countered with a scowl. He’d probably chew me out later for sullying him with my hijinks.

Kenneth ended his call and came right toward us. My pulse hammered through my veins as my heart revved for flight. He stopped at the file cabinet next to our hiding spot and opened the top drawer. I could have touched his cordovan-colored shoes with wingtips of chocolate brown if I’d wanted. I peeked at Jon. His face was ashen and his eyes jacked open to their maximums. The confines of the space had his large body and limbs contorted in uncomfortable-looking positions.

In what seemed like eternity but in reality lasted only two minutes, Kenneth clicked out the light and exited, locking the door behind him.

Jon and I remained where we were for a few more seconds until I said, “Shit, that was close!”

“Why did I let you talk me into this?”

I ignored his whining and scrambled out to flick the light back on. Inside the drawer Kenneth had accessed, I found a box of blank Aphrodite checks.

“That bastard is stealing from the company, Jon. He just swiped a check bold as brass, and I’ll bet he’s not using it for anything legit.”

“We need to get moving. Nicky’s going to get suspicious, especially if she knows Kenneth came in here.”

“Yeah, okay. Something very shady is going down. I know it. You know what else, Jon?”

“I’m afraid to ask.”

“You and I are going to Rocky’s tonight.”

“We are?” He smiled down at me, amused like I was a hyperactive little terrier barking at his feet.

“Yes, we are. We’re going to see who Kenneth is meeting. I’ll bet you a dollar it’s not Mrs. Petrovich.”

9

I rang Jon’s doorbell a few minutes before six. He invited me in while he wrapped up some last minute tasks. I toured his living room and kitchen, taking in his décor, or lack thereof, and photographs. Oddly, he only had pictures of his Porsche—him in the Porsche, him working on the Porsche, the Porsche posing all by itself.

“What’s with all the Porsche idolatry?”

“Rebuilding cars is my hobby, and Christine is my baby. I built her from a kit and spent hours scrounging junk yards for original parts.”

“The car’s name is Christine? Like Stephen King’s novel?”

“The same.”

“That’s creepy. Why did you name your car Christine? I hope she doesn’t go berserk if she catches you getting into my little Japanese number.” We were going in my car since a Honda was more likely to pass unobserved than Jon’s Porsche.

“She’s been known to act strangely with some women. She won’t start. She’ll move the passenger seat forward, change the heater setting, weird stuff. The good news is you passed her test and are safe around her.”

“Huh?” I wanted to laugh, but he remained poker-faced. “How do you know I passed?”

“When we drove to Lemon Advertising in Fort Worth, you found a quarter in the seat, remember? You complimented her beauty and mentioned what a comfortable ride she was.” He concluded with a shrug, but was he smiling or not?