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Laura continued, “The third time we were completely convinced the thief wasn’t the girl but she was the one we mentioned that was having a rough pregnancy. So, we are letting her work at home on some special projects and using a little creative bookkeeping to keep her on the payroll and covered by insurance. Actually, she’s going to do most of the Accounts Payable work for us. That way she will help free you up to do your investigation. That is top secret too, of course.”
“If she’s doing the work, why is so much of it piled up?” Kate asked, filled with curiosity. “Payables is a mess.”
“Two reasons. First, she’s been sick a lot lately, and second, we didn’t want her to do too much until we had someone sitting at your desk. Otherwise, it would look suspicious.” Laura smiled. “I mean, why hire anyone if the work is all caught up? And who could be doing it? I doubt if anyone would believe we had elves coming in and doing AP at night.”
“What about the fourth girl?” Kate managed between bites.
“She was a temp, a very good one, so we fixed her up with another company. She wound up earning more money and working closer to her home. Once we figured out the temps were being blamed for something that someone else was doing we tried to make sure that none of them were hurt. That’s one thing about Bob, instead of that cold corporate mentality, he cared enough to try to make things right. Most bosses would just let the girls go without worrying about them. These girls never knew they were suspected of theft. They were spared that embarrassment.” Laura looked Kate straight in the eye. “Now this time we’ll handle it a little bit differently. This time we will make it seem like you are under suspicion.”
“Even as a ploy, that’s going to be hard.” Kate wasn’t looking forward to being accused. “Emotionally, I mean.”
“If you need to talk to either Bob or myself, call us at home.” Laura gave Kate Bob’s home number, adding innocently, “And you already know where he lives. Personally, I think the biggest strain is going to be on all of our acting skills.”
The waitress brought their check and Laura paid it. “We’d better get back to work.”
“Aw gee, do we have to?” Kate protested jokingly.
“No, but remember, Bob’s there,” Laura bribed.
“Okay, I’m ready.” Kate rushed for the car, laughing.
Laura settled in the car then got serious for a minute. “After Joe, I thought you never would be, ready for someone, I mean.” She started to drive back to the office.
Kate’s husband, Joe, had been hit by a drunk driver coming home late from work one night. At the time, Suzy and Sarah were eighteen months old, and Sam was three and a half.
It had taken about a year and a half, but Kate knew she was ready to get back to living again. She smiled to herself; it’s just that she wasn’t sure she was ready to fall head over heels in love again, and she was also partially afraid that’s exactly what was happening to her.
“I’ll never stop loving Joe, but I will go on with my life,” Kate replied with quiet dignity.
“Because Joe would want it that way?” Laura asked.
“Partly, as cliché as that sounds. It’s also partly because I believe that if I live my life to the fullest and have my own interests, I’ll be a better mother to my kids. I wouldn’t want to wind up a bitter old hag. And, last but not least, for myself.” She smiled, “Life’s too short not to fully enjoy it.”
“So how serious is it between you and Bob?” Laura quizzed her.
“Well, it’s way too soon to be sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion this could turn out to be major. The real thing.” Kate was suddenly very quiet, then finally she added, “It’s almost frightening the way I feel about him; after all, I only met him yesterday.”
“I remember that you fell in love with Joe almost the instant you met him. I swear I heard a click,” Laura smiled, remembering, “sort of like the click I heard yesterday, when you looked up and met Bob’s eyes.”
“It wasn’t his eyes I met yesterday when I looked up.” Kate laughed, flushing.
Laura parked the car. “Not then, you silly goose. In the pool, when we were tackling Jack. At one point in the game, you and Bob looked at each other and almost made the water boil.”
“I remember.” Kate laughed. “And you, my dear friend, notice too darn much. Let’s get out of my love life and go back to work.”
Shortly after lunch, Kate got a call from her mother. “I have a wonderful idea, dear,” she exclaimed. “Why don’t I come to your house to sit for the kids? That way you wouldn’t have to work so hard to get them fed and dressed and over to my house, while you’re getting ready for work.”
“Gee, Mom, why didn’t I think of that?” Kate had brought up the same idea before, but her mother insisted on having the kids brought over to her house.
“I don’t know, dear, but it’s going to be great.” She gave a sly little laugh. “And then your house will be the one that looks like a tornado hit it.”
“Golly, that will be great, thanks Mom.” Kate hung up laughing.
The rest of the afternoon passed without incident. Kate buried herself in her work. She made a sizable dent in the backed up stack of invoices in Accounts Payable, then she made a list of the type of reports she would like to begin studying from all the other desks. She gave her list to Laura, who said she would arrange for Bob to get the records to her.
She only met one other co-worker that day, Jerry Weisner, a tall, friendly man who was in charge of the purchasing department. He came into her office and introduced himself. He gave her a list of some of his special vendors, vendors that had unusual terms or ways of doing business.
He sat on the corner of her desk, and tried to give her the insight on some of the things that were peculiar to this company. He had black hair, brown eyes and an easy, relaxed manner that was matched by his attire of comfortable jeans and a well-worn green polo shirt.
Just as Jerry was about to leave her office, he smiled at her and remarked sadly, “I don’t know if you’re going to make it around here.”
“Why not?” Kate was indignant. “What’s wrong with me?”
“You’re dressed way too formally, and we’re a pretty relaxed group.” He smiled at her. “You’ll have to loosen up and wear something a lot more casual or you’ll make the rest of us peons look bad.”
“Okay, I will.” She had already realized that she was way overdressed for this particular office. She smiled at him. “I promise to be casual in the future but I had to try to make a good impression on my first day. You can’t blame a girl for that.”
“When I talked to Bob earlier, I got the feeling he was impressed.” Jerry smiled. “Tomorrow, wear tight jeans and you’ll knock him off his feet.”
Kate was shocked; did her infatuation show? “Do I want to knock him off his feet?”
“Why not? It couldn’t hurt.” Jerry waved a hand at her as he left.
Kate went back to work. She barely saw either Laura or Bob until it was time to leave, except for one time when she was at the water cooler and saw Bob coming out of his office.
She heard Laura whisper in her ear. “Careful! You’re making the water boil again.”
She was cleaning off her desk when Bob walked into her cubicle. “So, how was your first day?”
“Well, this is a simple job but there is something that I can’t quite put my hands on,” Kate answered. “I think it may be very hard for me trying to picture one of these women as a thief. They all seem so normal,