Cooking the Books by Chelsea Thomas

Author:Chelsea Thomas
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Chelsea Thomas
Published: 2019-01-01T22:00:00+00:00

17

Pot Roast and Planning

THE NEXT NIGHT, MISS May made a big dinner and invited Gigley over to give him an update on the case. Miss May told Gigley every detail as we ate a nice pot roast with potatoes and gravy. And although Miss May tried to be succinct, Gigley interrupted every thirty seconds with a clarifying question.

“What kind of computer did this Vlad use?”

“Where was this secret apartment?”

“Are you sure you saw a squirrel, or could it have been a chipmunk?”

Over an hour later, Miss May got to the part about the post-it note with the number for the overseas bank account. She pulled the note out of the stack of papers she’d taken from Charles’ apartment and handed it to Gigley.

“Can you make anything of this?” she asked. “I never had to deal with any anonymous banks in my practice, but I figured you may have.”

“I have.” Gigley took a sip of wine. “Once. With a client.”

“Who was it?” I scooted to the edge of my seat.

“They prefer anonymity.” Gigley put on his reading glasses and held the post-it up to his face. “Hence the secret account.”

“That makes sense. Dumb question.” Didn’t have to make me feel even dumber though.

Gigley looked over the note for a few seconds. “Yep. This is an overseas bank account number. At least I think it is.” He lowered the note and took off his glasses. “Problem is, that’s all I know.”

Miss May cracked a knuckle. “That’s what I feared.”

Gigley ran his thumb over the note on the table. “Did you bring any of this to the cops? Or that new detective? What’s his name?”

“Wayne,” I said, a little too much enthusiasm. “Er, Detective Wayne Hudson.”

Miss May side-eyed me, then turned back to Gigley. “I haven’t looped in the police. No.”

“Good. Don’t.”

I looked at Gigley in surprise. He was by far the most law-abiding citizen of Pine Grove, so his desire to keep something from the police was way out of character. “Why not?”

“This kind of money, you never know who you can trust.” Gigley ripped into a piece of roast and swallowed it in one bite. “Especially when it comes to the authorities.”

“You’re right about that.” Miss May buttered a small hunk of bread.

“Besides, you two are better cops than those cops will ever be,” Gigley said, gesturing at me and Miss May.

Miss May waved Gigley away with a dismissive flick of the wrist. “That’s not saying much around here.”

“Wayne seems like a decent cop to me,” I said.

“Decent being the operative word.” Gigley took another big bite of roast. “When it comes to my money and my town? I want way better than decent.”

“Amen to that.” Miss May put her fork down. “How did I ever trust Charles Fitz? Remember what a terror he was as a teenager?”

Gigley nodded. “Egged my house every year at Halloween. Ten years straight. With hundreds of eggs!”

Miss May pushed her plate away, annoyed. She looked down. I could sense her energy shifting, and my energy was a notorious copycat.

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