TWO
HEATH
“Everything okay?” Nelly asks as she takes a seat at the booth and grabs one of the untouched appetizers.
I look back at Meadow one more time and try to take a calming breath. Three guys? Who the fuck are these guys they are going to meet? A quick look at Mace tells me he’s thinking the same thing as me. I don’t need to be his identical twin to read his mind and know we’re sharing the same thought.
“Sorry if I ran your friends off. Dang, these pretzel bites are good.”
“It’s all right,” I say, although it’s anything but. I should have known we’d end up at the same bar, but asking Nelly to meet us here was just shitty timing. I guess that’s the story of my life with Meadow.
Mace and I take a seat on the same side of the table while the waiter comes over and takes our drink order, along with some of the empty plates.
“Okay, let’s get down to business.” Nelly pulls out her tablet and stylus and begins taking notes. “So you’ve got a couple of ideas who you think it might be?”
“I’m hesitant to give exact names in case it turns out to be someone else,” Mace says, and I nod in agreement.
“With all due respect, you’ve hired my husband and me as private investigators. Keeping things confidential is kind of our thing.”
“We’ve also hired one of the biggest forensic accountant companies in the country to go through the books,” I add.
“Good, they’ll take care of where the money went, but I’ll find out why they did it.” She makes a couple of notes and then shows us the screen. “These are a few of the people we’ve come across in a quick background check.”
Mace and I look at one another, and I know he’s thinking we should have been doing background checks a long time ago.
“From what little we’ve been able to figure out, there’s a major discrepancy in some of our higher clientele and their billing. It’s not enough to immediately throw up red flags, but over time—”
“It’s a lot,” Mace finishes for me. “We noticed it after one of our longtime clients died on vacation in the Maldives. It was months from the day he died to when the client's family let us know he passed.”
“During that time, there was some suspicious billing, and that’s what initiated the investigation. His estate needs to track the numbers, so we agreed to hire Gondal Assist to do that. Along with going over every single other account we’ve handled since we started. We want to be as transparent as possible to put the client at ease, but we can’t have this getting out.” I let out a sound that could be interpreted as a growl of frustration. “Mace and I took over the family law firm, but we’ve built it up to be the best, and a scandal like this could bring it all down.”
“The guy at the top of your list oversees the billing department, but I don’t think it’s him,” Mace says.
“It’s never easy to imagine a trusted employee doing this, especially if they’ve been with you for a while.” Nelly makes a few more notes and then puts the tablet away. “Dave and I will start there and work our way out.”
“Thank you for meeting us here tonight,” I say as I stand up and put some bills on the table. “And thank you for your discretion.”
“This is a sensitive subject.” Nelly grabs her bag and stands with us. “It would be best if we came up with a cover story for why I’m at your office so much. Can you let people know I’m there as an intern?”
“Sure,” Mace agrees.
“The person committing the crime will already have enough to keep them busy with the accountants there. Hopefully I’ll slide in under the radar.”
We all shake hands, and Mace and I walk outside. “So what are we doing now?” He checks his watch and then looks up at me expectantly.
The sigh that leaves me is long and low, but afterwards I shrug. “I guess riding by their apartment to see if they brought three guys home.”
“That’s what I thought.” Mace hails a cab, and we give the driver the address without saying another word to each other.
Of course this was going to happen the moment our meeting with Nelly was over. It’s been like this for us since as far back as I can remember. Every time I’m around Meadow, I think about that night at the beach house, when she told me she loved me. I can still remember exactly what she was wearing and the way her hair blew across her cheek. Sometimes at night when I close my eyes, I can still smell her perfume.
At the time, Meadow was way too young for me to do anything about it, and she was as drunk as a sailor. I’m pretty sure that night was the first time she tried alcohol, and in perfect Meadow style, she went ass over feet into it.
Besides, she was heading to Wellesley College with Briar soon, and I couldn’t do anything to derail that plan. That was the dream they talked about non-stop, and Mace and I couldn’t do anything to change it. We did, however, disrupt their lives every chance we got, but I’ll never get over having to see the light in her eyes go out when I turned her down.
Since she graduated, she’s been going non-stop, but just as my bad luck appeared, so did a solution to getting Meadow closer to me. Truth be told, there were already people talking about her talent even before she graduated, and there’s no one else I would want going through our books. Hiring Meadow’s company was a no-brainer, but I trust her with everything I have, including something that could ruin Mace and me.
“You can stop here,” Mace says to the driver, and we get out.