White lies, black lies by karen guyler

Author:karen guyler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unexpected Books

18

Maybe Nikki didn't want to hear more if it was two people involved in an office tryst.

"Who gets things done?” The man said. “I do, it's me."

Nikki knocked on the doorframe and entered the room.

He froze as if he'd just stepped on a landmine.

"Hugh Pearson," Nikki asked, "is this a bad time?"

Then he grinned. "Caught me in my corporate haka, best way to get the blood flowing," he rolled his shoulders, "maintain my edge. Detective Constable, right? What brings you back?”

"I have some questions about the financials⁠—"

"Let's take it to my office." He strode out past her and along the corridor as though they were racing. "So, spill it," he asked when he was seated behind his desk. "What's the deal?"

“I’ve identified a series of transactions that don't conform to the references you use and they're a complicated trail of payments. I understand from Amanda that you could shed some light on them as financials are in your remit."

"Ah, part-timer Amanda sent you my way, did she?" Hugh rolled his eyes. "Have to wonder at her suitability, falling apart after only one week on the job."

"I'm sure lots of people here are grieving, Amanda among them." Nikki's barbed comment apparently failed to land.

He did a shrug thing with his lips. "Some have what it takes, some don't. It's the Wild West here, adapt or die."

"How did you get on with Sir Benedict?"

"He appreciated my management style." Hugh nodded as though in time to some music only he could hear. "And my record keeping. I'm surprised you can't decipher it, maybe you should use one of your police experts. But I'm curious to know why you're even bothering, surely it has no bearing on Sir Benedict's death as a suicide?"

Careful, Nikki, tread lightly. She pulled in patience while she handed him the printouts she'd brought with her. "I'm making sure everything is squared away before we close the file. These are the transactions."

Hugh stared at them. For quite a while.

"You see what I mean?" Nikki finally asked.

"I'm not sure what I'm seeing. These aren't accounts under my remit." He paled, a more rapid change in his skin colour than Amanda in the foyer. "Thanks for bringing this to my attention. You can leave it with me, I'll take it up the chain."

"And you'll let me know what you discover?"

"Always happy to help our boys in blue." His grin was more of a grimace.

"And the women too, I hope." Nikki couldn't get out of his office fast enough, five minutes in his company would have been four too many and she'd been there for twenty. But her dash back to the lift brought her up short when she read the nameplate on the office door where Hugh had practised his haka. Cameron Weaver. Cameron Weaver, she repeated it several times but she hadn't seen his name on the staff list she'd been given. So who was he to have an executive office?

The movement sensitive lights switched on as she walked over to the desk.

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