“It might be better if I don’t share all the details with everyone.” I shrug. “For deniability reasons. You understand.” Not that anyone will be able to trace what I did, but still. It doesn’t hurt to keep the circle of people-in-the-know very small, and I’m pretty sure she’s not a decision maker around here.
Toni scowls, but Thibault smiles, and I take that as a good sign. Ozzie’s expression is as unreadable as ever. Dev and Lucky are nodding. May looks like she just watched her baby take her first step. I think she’s having a hard time not clapping. My chest is ready to explode, my heart is so full right now.
“How much money are we talking here?” Thibault asks.
I turn to Lucky for that. I found all the connections and did the tally, but I don’t want to step on his toes. He’s the financial guy, not me. I know how to be a team player.
“Nearly a million dollars over five years.”
Dev whistles in appreciation of the awfulness, forcing me to look up at him. We catch each other’s eyes and my face starts to burn. I have to look away. I cannot believe how silly I feel, with my stomach doing flips and my heart going nuts, just looking at him. He’s like the cuttlefish, hypnotizing me with his powers of adorableness.
Ozzie’s focus is back on me. “I know this is more of a legal question, but what do you know about prosecuting for embezzlement? Do you know if we have enough evidence here?”
Now my heart is stopping for a whole other reason. “Uhh . . . I have no idea. Sorry.” Oops. Was I supposed to research that?
Lucky picks up the conversation. “No worries. It’s not your area of expertise. This report is really nice. Very thorough. It must have taken you hours to put it together.” He pages through it for effect, holding up a screenshot for Thibault to see.
“It did, but I had a lot of coffee and the kids were asleep, so . . .” I shrug, appreciating Lucky’s efforts at making me feel better but still sad that I didn’t think to look up the legal aspects. Sure, it’s not my area of expertise, but I knew what we were doing the work for.
“I told you she’s good.” My sister is still beaming.
When Ozzie is done paging through the report, he hands it over to Thibault. Then Thibault takes his turn with it, nodding with every turn of a new page. Dev nods his head and winks at me before shifting his focus to studying Thibault’s expression.
“You’re right, Lucky. This is nice. Very nice work product. I don’t even understand most of it.”
Dev speaks, his voice making me flush all over again. “So what’s the plan? What’s our next move?” I can’t look at him, afraid everyone will see in my expression how over the moon I am.
Lucky answers. “Well, I need to sit down with Jenny and have her show me all this on the computer, and then we need to invite Mr. Jorgensen to come in and show him what we’ve found. And at that point, I assume he’ll want to get the police department involved.” Lucky looks over at me. “Are you cool with that? Do you mind sitting with the client and explaining what you found? I think you’re the only one who can really explain the details.”
I’m anxious to keep the good vibes flowing. “Absolutely. I want to help however I can. You guys hired me to do this job, so I’ll do anything you need to finish it up.”
“That brings us to our next order of business,” Ozzie says. The room goes silent and Thibault puts the report down on the table, turning his attention to me.
I look around at everyone, but the only one giving me any hint as to what’s going on is Dev. He’s smiling at me and then he winks.
I have to look away because my face is turning beet red. I feel like I just caught fire.
“I think, based on this report that we’re looking at here, and the feedback that I’ve gotten from Lucky out in the field and from Dev as well, not to mention the information that Thibault was able to find, and of course May’s recommendation”—Ozzie pauses to glance at his girlfriend, making her blush—“I’d like to move forward with our earlier conversation if that’s okay with the group.”
Everybody at the table with the exception of Toni nods in agreement. She doesn’t say anything; she just stares straight ahead into space.
Ozzie turns his attention to me. “I know we had a bit of a rough start with you last week, but we’ve all been really impressed with your work product and your performance in general. Thibault, Lucky, and I have conducted an analysis of our business, and we’ve come to the conclusion that we’ve been turning down a lot of work because we’re lacking some particular skillsets in our current roster. It appears as if you could pick up some of the slack on that.”