Gemma thought he hadn’t wasted time.
“Well, I don’t need your help!” she snapped. “I just quit and so did Wilson. He’s been offered a full-time Elvis job and we’re getting married and moving to Vegas.” That said, she turned and stalked back to the store.
Gemma sighed, chuckled, and drove away to pick up her kids.
They were ecstatic at her news.
Jaz asked, “Does that mean you get to boss people around?”
“No.” Gemma laughed as they ate their carryout order of burgers and fries from the Dog in her kitchen. It was Thursday, so she had class in a few hours. A real celebratory dinner would have to wait until the weekend.
Professor LeForge had announced at their last class meeting that there’d be a test tonight, so although Gemma had studied, her promotion had her mind elsewhere. Forcing herself to focus, she answered the questions on accounting practices to the best of her ability and when she was done handed him her test paper. He smiled. She didn’t. Some of the students were still working so she quietly gathered up her things and tiptoed out to head home. The other classes in the building were still in session, so as she made her way down the quiet hallway, she was stopped by someone calling her name for the second time that day. She turned to Professor LeForge.
“I was wondering if we could get together?” he asked.
“For?” she asked coolly and waited for his response.
He appeared uncomfortable. “Maybe have a coffee or something?”
She kept her voice bland. “Is your wife coming with you?”
He chuckled softly and looked away for a moment. “You’re a very impressive woman, Ms. Dahl.”
“And you’re a very married man, Professor. I’ll assume my choosing not to have coffee won’t impact my grade.”
“It won’t.”
“Have a good evening.” She resumed her walk to the door.
Outside, she sat behind the wheel of her car for a moment, and wondered how many women would’ve agreed to his offer knowing he was married. Probably many considering how gorgeous he was, but she’d turned him down and had no regrets. She had to admit he had balls, though.
In the days that followed, Zoey and company finished painting Marie’s fence, much to Lucas’s relief, and she swore never to put herself in that position again. Devon and Wyatt planned to hold her to that by letting her know she’d be on her own the next time. Rocky and Jack skipped the rec’s Friday night movie to have their own movie night at his place. They watched a remastered version of Akira Kurosawa’s award-winning 1954 Japanese film, Seven Samurai, upon which the modern-day film The Magnificent Seven was based. They ate popcorn, drank wine and had a great time. Once the movie ended, they stepped out onto the deck to view the heavens through Henry, the name Jack had given his powerful new telescope. Because the happy couple was counting down the days to their nuptials, they spent time with Sheila finalizing things like guests lists and details, and a lot more time on the phone with Jack’s mom, Stella, who was determined to make changes in the plans wherever she could. After Eula’s memorial, Thad and the cubs returned to Oklahoma. Out of respect for the pact he’d made with his sister, he didn’t lay a hand on Olivia. However, Deputy Davida Ransom laid two speeding tickets on Tamar two days in a row, which sent the officer’s stock plummeting further in the eyes of the furious town matriarch, but Ransom didn’t appear to care. Will Dalton and his children held the area’s second memorial, this one for his wife, Vicky, and seemingly everyone in the county came to her memorial to pay their respects.
Bernadine spent the morning looking over the town’s map for the perfect location for her new restaurant. She thought the best place might be on the end of the town where the Power Plant was so as to put as much distance between it and the Dog as possible. She was about to hit up Lily on the intercom to get her opinion when Lily walked into her office.
“Just got an e-mail from the computer place out in LA. They were able to break the password and get into the files.”
“Hallelujah!”
“They want to know what you want done with the data?”
“Can they send it here, so we can review it?”
“I asked the young man on the phone and he said that wouldn’t be a problem. None of the files are damaged as far as they can tell.”
“Good, have them e-mail it to us or send a thumb drive or whatever works best.”
“Will do.”
They sent the files as an attachment and Lily downloaded it to her computer. Two hours later, after going over the numbers, twice, she came into Bernadine’s office. Bernadine took one look at her face and said, “Should I pour myself a drink first?”
“Maybe.”
Bernadine drew in a calming breath.
“There’s roughly one hundred and twenty thousand missing. And it was withdrawn in big chunks. The first was for seventy-five grand and another for forty-five.”
She thought she might be sick, but said, “Maybe he was helping somebody in need, maybe—I don’t know, Lil.” Without him to personally explain there was no way to know the truth.
“This doesn’t look good, Bernadine,” Lily said softly.
“I know, but as dumb as it may make me sound, I can’t believe he’d do something so underhanded. He said he’d be back to give Rocky away at her wedding.”
“And if he doesn’t show?”
“Then I’ll have to overlook the fact that he’s the man I love and turn this over to law enforcement.”
“Lord,” Lily whispered.
“I know, but I don’t have much choice.”
“I know. Okay, let me go and tell Trent.”
“I’ll call Rocky and then Tamar.”
After Lily departed, Bernadine did her best to set aside the mountain of unanswered questions and picked up the phone.
After getting Bernadine’s call, Tamar decided it was time to stop pussyfooting around and get some answers. Like Bernadine, she didn’t want to believe her son was a coldhearted thief, so she drove out to Clay and Bing’s farm. Rocky had already questioned Clay and gotten nothing, but he and Mal had been friends since they were little. If anyone knew where he was, Clayton Dobbs was that person.
When she walked up, shotgun in hand, he was out in the pens filling the feed troughs for his hogs.
“Where’s my son?”
Clay froze.
“If you lie to me, so help me Clayton, I will take this shotgun and put it right between your eyes. Where’s Mal?”
“Oklahoma. Oil fields.”
“Why?”
“He—he’s trying to make back the money he borrowed.”
“Borrowed?” she shouted.
Clay wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“Why’d he borrow it in the first place?”
“It’s hard to explain, but a man has his pride, Tamar. When he and Bernadine got back from Key West last Christmas, he told me, having to stand aside while she paid for everything hurt—you know—made him feel less than himself.”
“So, he stole one hundred and twenty thousand dollars!”
“He wanted to invest it, and make enough money to pay back the cash he borrowed—”
“It wasn’t borrowed, Clayton! Borrowed implies he had consent.”
When his jaw tightened and he glared, she wanted to shoot him just for having the nerve to be mad that she kept correcting him. “What did he invest in?”
“I’m not sure.”
She blasted the ground less than six inches from his feet, and he jumped, cried out, then yelled, “I’m not some little child! I’m over sixty years old! Don’t you—”
She fired at his feet again. “And I’m over ninety and I have a shotgun. Don’t you dare lie to me! Where’d the money go?”
Bing came hobbling out of the house on his cane. “What the hell is going on out here!” Seeing Tamar, he stopped. “Oh. Hey, Tamar.”
“Hey, Bing. Just trying to get Clay to tell me the truth about Mal’s thievery.”
Bing glared at his
seething, tight-lipped housemate. “I told those two from jump it was a dumb idea, but nobody wanted to listen to the old man with the cane. All I ask is that you leave enough of this one for me to bury. I owe him that much.” He turned to make his return to the house and called back, “They invested in a condo complex in Kansas City. Builder disappeared. Left them both holding an empty bag.”
Muttering, Tamar returned to her truck. After locking the shotgun inside the gun case in Olivia’s bed, she got in the cab and drove away.
“A condo complex?” Bernadine yelled, jumping up from her desk’s chair.
Tamar, who’d just shared Bing’s revelation, looked fit to be tied. Rocky shook her head and Trent ran his hands down his face in disbelief.
Lily asked, “Did he know which oil field he’s working in?”
“I was so angry I didn’t even think to ask,” Tamar admitted. “Had I stayed one minute longer I was going to need bail money.”
“But why did he invest the money in the first place?” Trent asked her. “Does he have gambling debts he needed to cover? What?”
“No. Pride.”
Trent’s confusion was mirrored on the face of the others in the room.
She explained, “Clay said when Mal and Bernadine went to Key West last Christmas, Mal’s pride was hurt by her paying for everything.”
Bernadine dropped back down into her chair. “Good lord.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Trent said, then had to come to his own defense in response to Tamar’s heat-filled glare. “I’m not saying it’s a valid excuse, but it’s how society has men wired. We’re the protectors and providers. We pay. I’m kind of surprised, though. He always claimed to have no problems with your money, Bernadine, and he was the one who raked Reg over the coals something fierce when he was acting out over the money Roni makes.”
Lily asked him in a cool voice, “So if I made more money than you, you’d lose your mind, too?”
He shrugged. “I say no, but in reality, maybe at some point I would. But, as I said, before I get tarred and feathered, it’s how men, especially OGs like Mal, are wired.”
“In a way, I understand,” Rocky tossed out. “But it’s still stupid.”
Trent didn’t argue. “I’m not saying it isn’t, but it is what it is.”
Bernadine had a question. “Can he make over a hundred grand in a less than a month working the oil fields?”
“Maybe, if he was younger. No way he can put in enough hours in such a short time at his age.”
Bernadine understood Trent’s explanation of why Mal had taken the money, but he’d never expressed any problem with her wealth. She supposed his pride played a part in that, too. So where did this mess leave her and their relationship? And was she supposed to be the villain for wanting to take a nice vacation so they could spend some time together? She didn’t think so.
Rocky asked, “What do you want to do, Bernadine? The wedding is ten days away. Do we call Will’s office and have Mal picked up? Do we ride to Oklahoma and drag him back?”
“A part of me wants to find him and strangle him, while the part that loves him wants to wait and see if he shows for your wedding so he and I can talk. Maybe he can pay it back. Maybe—I don’t know. I’m just so blown away by this, I’m having trouble telling up from down.” She looked to Tamar for advice.
“It’s your money and your relationship. You get to decide.”
Bernadine’s eyes met Trent’s. “Up to you. I can probably find him now that we know where he is. Might take a few days of calling sites to figure out which field he’s working though, but it’s doable.”
Bernadine turned her attention to Lily. “Your call, Bernadine.”
Although Bernadine knew her response might come back and bite her in her butt, she made the decision with her heart. “I’ll wait for the wedding. And afterwards, if I must tie him to a chair to make him talk to me, that’s what I’ll do.”
Chapter 18
Gemma drove home from work and thought about the surprise and joy on Edward Plainwell’s face when she offered him the job of head cashier. She’d recommended him to Gary because he was a hard worker, took his job seriously, and the other cashiers liked him very much. Everyone agreed he should’ve been given the position during Alma’s tenure but she’d given it to Sybil and to this day no one knew why. A new dairy manager had been hired to replace Mr. Elvis. Her name was Celeste Koppelman. She’d held a similar position at a store down in Hays and it was working out well. Now that Gemma had finished night shift training she was back on days. Although unloading the trucks and shelving the stock had been grueling work, she’d enjoyed learning the ropes from the night supervisor Melvin Green. A former high school phys ed teacher and football coach, he was gruff on the outside and an old softie in the middle. He’d been up front about his dislike for Alma. He said she always thought she knew more about the operation than he, and he was retired Navy, which Gemma took to mean the two branches of the military didn’t get along. She’d also been correct about how helpful Amari and his crew would be.
As she pulled into her driveway and got out, she looked up at the security cameras on the utility pole in front of the house. They’d been mounted on all the poles in the neighborhood but were small enough to be unnoticeable unless you knew they were there. Will Dalton’s office still had no leads in her tire slashing incident and although she really wanted to know the person’s identity it didn’t look as if she ever would.
Inside, she found the kids playing Scrabble with Genevieve. If she didn’t love Henry Adams enough already, her feeling for the town soared when Tamar’s crew offered to keep an eye on them not only at the rec but at home too until school started. Wednesdays were Gen’s day. She was a literary tutor and loved word games as much as the kids.
“Who’s winning?” Gemma asked as she put her purse on the couch and walked over to where they were gathered around the kitchen table.
“Ms. Gen, of course,” Jaz groused. “She never lets us win.”
Gen said, “If I just let you win, you won’t have a sense of accomplishment. In life, you have to work to get what you want.” And she set down the word conundrum.
The kids groaned and Lucas asked, “Is that even a real word?”
Wyatt already had the dictionary open and read aloud. “Conundrum. A challenging riddle or a situation where there is no clear answer or right solution.”
Gen smiled. “And on that note, I’m going home.”
Lucas said, “Geez. She got like a thousand points on that word.”
She replied, “And you now know the definition which’ll give you big points on your SATs.”
Gemma chuckled softly. Everyone in town adored Genevieve.
With a wink to the kids, and a quick hug for Gemma, she made her exit.
The Scrabble board was put away and they made dinner together—pork chops, mashed potatoes, and broccoli.
As they ate, they talked about their day. Gemma said, “We finally found out who’s been leaving the butt pictures around the store.”
The kids laughed. They’d enjoyed hearing about the ongoing search for the person behind the mysterious butties.
Wyatt asked, “Who was it?”
“One of the knuckleheads in the dairy department.”
“How’d he get caught?’ Lucas asked.
“He made the dumb mistake of leaving one on the chair of his new supervisor. She rounded up her whole department and threatened to fire everybody if she didn’t get answers.” Elvis had run the department like a clown car. The work got done but they liked playing pranks on each other. Celeste Koppelman was the taskmaster dairy needed, and when she threatened firing they believed her.
“Was he fired?”
“No, but he’s on probation. He said he thought it was funny.”
“Ew,” Jaz said. “Pictures of his butt? Not funny. Ew.”
“I agree,” Gemma said. Gemma didn’t tell them about the teenagers caught doing some heavy necking in the bea
n-bag chairs in the store’s small Home section. They were escorted out and warned that if they ever entered the store as a couple again, their parents would be called and shown the security footage. Being the assistant manager meant she got to know more about what was going on in the building than she cared to.
Lucas asked, “Is tonight the night you Skype with the financial planner Ms. Brown got for me and Jaz?”
Work had been so crazy she’d all but forgotten about it and was grateful for the reminder. “Yes, and I want you and Jaz to sit in on the conversation.”
Wyatt said, “Mr. James said he got in some new maps of the moon. Can I go over while you guys are talking?” Wyatt had dreams of being a cartographer.
“Were you invited?”
He nodded. “He sent me a text earlier.”
“Okay. You can go over after your dinner chores. I’ll text you when we’re done with the financial person.”
He did a fist pump. “Thanks, Gram.”
After the meal, they cleaned up. Wyatt left to visit with Jack and Gemma booted up her laptop for the Skype conference set for 7:00 p.m.
Lucas asked, “Do Jaz and I really need to listen in? It’s not like we can do anything with the money until we turn eighteen. I wanted to see the moon maps, too.”
“Yes, you do. It’s your money and you need to hear what’s going on and learn about it, just like I do. Mr. James can show you his maps another time.”
He didn’t look happy but didn’t argue further.
At seven the laptop beeped, signaling the start of the session. A middle-aged brown-skinned woman with natural hair and perfectly applied makeup came on screen. She introduced herself as Nadine Iler.
Gemma introduced herself and kids, and the meeting got under way.
“I’ve looked over the portfolio,” Ms. Iler said. “Mr. and Mrs. Herman made some very smart moves financially, so we’ll just leave everything the way it is for now. I’ll send you copies of everything I have for your files.”
“They have college funds?”
“Yes. One for each, and both are growing at a good rate. With the way college costs are skyrocketing, this will help them immensely when the time comes.”