She Left Me Breathless (18 page)

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Caitlyn asked. She glared at Allen from her open doorway, her hands on her hips.

Allen shoved the desk drawer closed with a bang. “I ... um ... I was looking for the report on the Dem Project,” he stuttered as he got up from her chair.

Caitlyn’s right eyebrow shot upward.

“You know, for the new recycling plant,” he said after a few seconds passed without Caitlyn saying a word.

“I know what it is but that doesn’t explain why you were just rummaging through my desk.”

“I ... I just thought that since it’s a current project that ... that it would be in your desk drawer.”

 “Well, you’re not going to find it there,” Caitlyn said as she walked over to the filing cabinet located against the wall, next to her coffee maker. She pulled out the bottom drawer and flipped through the stack of manila folders. She pulled out a file that had a red tab affixed to the top of it. She kicked the drawer shut with the back of her foot as she turned to face Allen.

“Why do you need this folder anyway? I thought Virgil was handling the logistics behind this project with Sydney having the final say.”

“Yeah ... yeah he is. I just thought I would take a look at it in case something got overlooked.”

“Really?” Caitlyn asked.
Something just isn’t adding up here
, she thought to herself as she held the folder out to him.   

“Thanks,” Allen said as he took the folder from her. “You know what they say here at Welsh? An extra set of eyes on a project never hurt anything,” he said as he walked over to the doorway.

“Hey, Allen?”

“Yeah?” he said, stopping to turn and look at Caitlyn.

“The next time you need something from me, try asking me first. I don’t appreciate you or anyone for that matter, searching through my desk or being in my office when I’m not here.”

“Sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Caitlyn smiled at him. “I hope not, otherwise Sydney and I will be having a nice conversation about it.”

“Have a good day, Caitlyn,” Allen said over his shoulder as he left her office.

“Yeah, you do the same,” she said to the empty room. Once she was sure that he was gone, she went over to her desk and pulled out the drawer she caught Allen searching through a few minutes earlier. She shook her head as she looked at the stack of papers. “The Project Dem file my butt. Just what were you doing in my office and what were you really looking for Mr. Carmichael?”

She sat down in her chair and glanced around the office. “What are you up to, Allen? Whatever it is—”

The sound of her desk phone buzzing stopped her from finishing her thoughts. She looked at the caller-ID and seeing that it was Sydney, pressed the answer button. “Hey, Syd, what’s up?”

“Are you free at the moment?” Sydney asked.

“Yes, ma’am I am.”

“I would like for you to join me and Jackie in my office, please.”

“I’ll be right there,” Caitlyn said and then pressed the button to disconnect the line.

Sydney leaned back and stretched her legs out in front of her. She took a sip of her coffee and looked at Jackie over the rim of the cup. A knock on the door caused her to sit up in her chair.

“It’s open,” Sydney said as she placed her cup down on the desk.

Caitlyn pushed the door open and poked her head in. “What’s up, boss?”

“Come on in and close the door behind you, please,” Sydney said, motioning to Caitlyn with her hand. “Get yourself a cup of coffee, this could take awhile.”

Caitlyn’s right eyebrow shot upward. “We having a party?” she asked, looking at Jackie and then Sydney.

Sydney tried not to laugh at the characteristic eyebrow thingy that Caitlyn did. She looked just like Rachel when she did that. “I would never have a party without inviting you,” Sydney teased. “But to get to the heart of this little pow wow, Jackie has some info regarding
our little problem
,” Sydney said, making finger quotes in the air for emphasis.

“I have some news of my own concerning the same thing or at least I think there may be a connection,” Caitlyn said as she poured herself a cup of coffee and then sat down in the chair beside Jackie.

“Well, let’s get this party started then.” Sydney looked directly at Jackie. “So, out of all of the executives, you have two who you think may be the most likely to have pulled this off based on the background checks you ran. Is that correct?

“That would be correct,” Jackie said, nodding her head.

“I guess the floor is all yours.”

Jackie flipped open the folder lying on her lap. “I’ll start with the reports I just received last night and as you said, two in particular stand out.”

“I’m not sure that’s good news or bad news. I’ve been secretly hoping you would come up empty,” Sydney said, her brow furrowing into a frown.

“Well, at least this way we may be getting one-step closer to finding out who your embezzler is. Either of you care to take a guess which two it is?” Jackie asked, looking at Sydney first and then at Caitlyn.

“I’ll guess. One of them wouldn’t happen to be Mr. Allen Carmichael by chance?” Caitlyn asked.

 Jackie grinned at her. “Give that girl a prize.”

Sydney looked at Caitlyn with a mild expression of shock on her face. “I’m not even gonna ask but I will say this ... you cannot have the red vacuum. I’ve already won that fair and square,” she said, winking at Caitlyn.

“Dang it and I needed a new vacuum worse than anything,” Caitlyn laughed.

“How about a brand new shiny silver blender instead?” Sydney asked, causing Caitlyn to chuckle.

Jackie looked at Sydney and then Caitlyn as if the two of them had completely lost their minds. “Am I missing something here?” she asked.

“Just a private little joke,” Caitlyn said as she wiped tears from her eyes. “Seriously though, I told you I had some news of my own,” she said, looking at Sydney.

Sydney got up from her chair. “I think I need a warm up. Would you like one?” she asked Caitlyn.

“Sure why not. I’ve only had two pots already this morning. What’s one more cup, right?” Caitlyn answered.

“Would you like some, Jackie?”

“No thanks. I’m all coffee’d out.” She looked at Caitlyn. “Two pots by yourself?”

“Probably three but who’s counting,” Caitlyn laughed as she held her cup up for Sydney.

“Who’s the other exec?” Sydney asked as she sat back down in her chair.

“The other is Robert VandDersmote,” Jackie answered.

Sydney leaned back in her chair and laced her hands over her head. “Okay fill us in about Allen first. What’s going on with him?”

“I’ll start by saying he likes to play the stock market and he’s not very good at it. Actually, he really sucks and he sucks so bad that his house is one month away from foreclosure.”

“Are you serious?” Sydney asked. She couldn’t believe it. Allen made over a half-million dollars a year just in salary. That didn’t include what he took home in bonuses.

Jackie nodded. “Yes ma’am and that’s not all. Last week he applied for a loan at one of Welsh’s credit unions.”

Sydney leaned forward in her chair. “Which one and for how much?”

“The East Dayton branch and,” Jackie flipped through the papers inside the folder and then said, “four hundred grand.”

Sydney shook her head as she digested the information. “You think he’s so far in debt that he would embezzle from Welsh?”

Jackie shrugged. “The question is do you think he’s capable of it.”

Sydney looked at Caitlyn. “What do you think?

“Do I think he’s capable or do I think he did it?”

“Both,” Sydney answered.

“I certainly think he’s capable but I really can’t say yet as to whether he did it without seeing the proof in black and white. I can tell you without a doubt that he certainly has the programming skills needed to pull it off and if I recall correctly, he graduated at the top of his class.”

“Where did he go to school, Jackie?” Sydney asked.

Jackie used her finger to scan down the top document on her lap. “B.A.S from the University of Dayton, Masters degree from Ohio State. He majored in computer programming at U.D. and as Caitlyn stated, he graduated at the top of his class at both colleges.”

“All right. What’s going on with Robert?” Sydney asked.

“Not quite as drastic as Allen but his financial problems could still be a red-flag. He has a very sick mother he’s been caring for financially. She has a rare blood disease and lung cancer on top of that. He’s been paying all of her medical bills in addition to covering several trips to Europe over the last year.”

“What’s in Europe?” Sydney and Caitlyn both asked at the same time.

“They say great minds think alike,” Jackie laughed. “To answer you both, experimental medicine is what’s in Europe, more specifically, a clinic just outside of London claims to have made a breakthrough in curing the blood disease. Some sort of multi-drug cocktail that’s not available here in the states.”

“And his education is in what?” Sydney asked.

Jackie pulled out the sheets from the folder she had written up on Robert. “Same as Allen’s except his B.A.S. is from Wright State University.”

Sydney leaned forward, lacing her fingers together on top of the desk. She took a deep breath. “Just how much in debt is Allen?”

“Almost a million,” Jackie answered.

“And Robert?”

“One point six.”

“Holy shit,” Sydney said, shaking her head. She looked at Caitlyn. “So which of those two would you put your money on?”

“Allen,” Caitlyn answered without hesitation.

“Why?” Sydney asked.

“Remember me saying I had some news of my own?”

Sydney nodded.

“A few minutes before you called and asked me to join you and Jackie, I caught Allen in my office. He was going through my desk drawers.”

“He was doing what?” Sydney asked, not believing what she was hearing.

“You heard me right. He was going through my drawers.”

“What did you say to him?” Sydney asked.

“I asked him what the hell he was doing. He gave me some lame excuse about wanting to see the Dem Project files.”

“I take it you didn’t believe him?” Jackie asked.

Caitlyn shook her head. “Not for a minute. If you could have seen the look on his face, you wouldn’t have believed him either. He was looking for something specific and it wasn’t the Dem Project files. I told him that if he ever did it again, I would talk to Sydney about it.”

“Do you have the slightest idea of what he was looking for?” Sydney asked.

Caitlyn shook her head. “Not a clue but I will figure it out.” 

Sydney looked at Jackie. “Are you any closer to tracking down the owner of the checking account where the funds are being dumped?”

“Not as close as I’d like to be. Whoever he is, he’s a lot smarter than I thought. The funds have been funneled through several different accounts, ending in the Bahamas’s.”

Sydney sighed in frustration. “I think until we know who this man truly is, it makes it hard to pin anything on Allen or Robert or anyone for that matter.”

“I know you’re frustrated but we will get this guy,” Jackie said.

Sydney stood up from her chair. “Just keep me updated, please.”

“I’ll keep at it on my end and hopefully I’ll have some concrete answers for you soon.”

“I sure hope so,” Sydney said.

Jackie got up from her chair. She walked over to the door. She stopped, turned, and smiled at Sydney. “Have I ever failed you?”

Sydney smiled and then shook her head. “No you haven’t and believe me when I say, I appreciate everything you’re doing now and everything you’ve helped me with in the past.”

“I’ll catch you gals later.”

“See ya,” Caitlyn said with a wave of her hand.

Sydney waited for Jackie to close the door. She came out from behind her desk and leaned against it. She crossed her arms over her chest. “All right, out with it.”

Caitlyn laughed. “Out with what?”

“You know what. Tell me what you’re really thinking about Allen.”

“Honestly, I’m not really sure what to think.”

“I can see those little wheels turning in your head.”

“Seriously, Syd. This whole thing is kinda crazy but I’m willing to bet a year’s salary that Allen was looking for something else.”

“And I agree with you, so how do we figure out what that
something
is?”

“I’m going to start by running a key log report on his laptop and desktop. I’m guessing that I will be able to find some kind of trail indicating what he’s been searching for. Whatever it is, he’s obviously convinced that I have it and if I do, I will find out what it is.”

Sydney grinned at her. “I have no doubt about that at all.” Sydney glanced at her watch. “I’m going to be working at home for the rest of the day so if you need me, that’s where I will be.”

“Yeah, I heard that you put Mom on a special project to redecorate your house,” Caitlyn said, grinning from ear to ear.

Sydney frowned. “She told you?”

“I didn’t give her much choice. The duffle bag with a change of blue jeans and a t-shirt gave her away.”

Sydney’s thoughts automatically took a wrong turn as she imagined Rachel wearing a very tight pair of jeans and an extremely snug t-shirt. The image made her smile and she suddenly had an overwhelming urge to get the hell out of there.