Homicide at High Noon by Jamie L. Adams

Author:Jamie L. Adams [Adams, Jamie L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romantic suspense, romantic comedy, ghost town, old west, yellowstone, modern west
Publisher: Gemma Halliday Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

"A blast from the past."

As much as I loved my job, working on payroll was my least favorite thing to do because it was such a time-consuming task. We had paid employees, part-time workers, volunteers, substitutes, and a team of professional stuntmen who joined us two days a week. Since most of them expected to be paid, or sometimes reimbursed, I set aside Tuesdays for making sense out of who gets what for the week. To ease my load, Sheriff Tom took care of giving any tours, while Gretchen took my calls and monitored the website for me.

Like any other Tuesday, I went over the spreadsheet, running down the list of people on the payroll, names I knew well. It saddened me to think that one of them must belong to the person who had apparently been trying to frame me. I paid extra close attention to the names of people in each group. Parker overlooked the maintenance department, which had a crew of five. The office staff consisted of Gretchen, me, and Joyce, who filled in on a part-time basis. There were four groundskeepers as we had an opening for a new head of the department. The general staff referred to the person in charge of individual attractions, such as the saloon, jail house, bank, and so on. The largest group was the reenactors, who worked for general staff members. Then, occasionally, we had workers who filled in for others who could not come in for various reasons. Thank goodness, the miners collected their pay from a special fund overseen by the bank.

When I finished the list, I leaned back in my chair and stared off into space. How and when had anyone taken money from the account since I was the only one with access? There were a few accounts I dispersed funds into, like petty cash, but we made sure every purchase was accounted for and every expenditure had a receipt or my signature. I closed my eyes and pressed my head against the headrest of my chair and let my mind wander over the list until I realized it could be an old employee. Of course! I sat up straight and pulled up a record of all present and past workers.

The list was long, which meant I would have to stay late. I texted Ava to see if she could get a ride home with one of her friends. We lived in a small community, and everyone loved my sister. She shouldn't have any trouble. As I suspected, I heard from her in less than ten minutes.

I got a ride. Will you be home for dinner? Ava asked.

I'm not sure. I texted back. I'll get a burger from next door.

The café around the corner stayed open till seven on Tuesdays, so I'd have them deliver something if I got hungry. With Ava's ride home taken care of, I rolled the chair as close to the desk as possible to concentrate on the long list of names.

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