Missing Heiress (A Jackie Harlan Mystery Book 2) Read online

  He shrugged, worked for another hour and at last, she logged on.

  Bronco8881: There you are, I’ve been waiting for you.

  Sissy3211: It’s laundry day.

  Bronco8881: What, no maid?

  Sissy3211: Don’t I wish.

  Bronco8881: What’s new?

  Sissy3211: Before I left work yesterday, I noticed fees on an account. I checked several others and all of them have fees now.

  Bronco8881: What kind of fees?

  Sissy3211: Service fees, adjustment fees, and some other kinds. I don’t remember the names.

  Bronco8881: They’re trying to recover the missing money.

  Sissy3211: That’s what I think too. Once the fees are charged, they will eat up all the deposits. They spent the deposit money, they must have.

  Bronco8881: Breaking a major federal law. They are supposed to have the deposits in a special account. They can take the interest, but not the principal. You should tell someone in authority.

  Sissy3211: I know, but I can’t right now. It is not a good time.

  Bronco8881: What does that mean?

  Sissy3211: It means it is not a good time. Suppose the authorities close the doors? What happens to all the employees? They would lose their jobs, right?

  Bronco8881: Probably.

  Sissy3211: I can’t do that. The pay is really low as it is, and most of them can’t find other jobs right away.

  Bronco8881: I see your point, but not going to the authorities might put you at risk. Let me help you.

  Sissy3211: You can’t help me. Besides, I’ll be fine. I learned how to defend myself in school.

  Bronco8881: I’m relieved to hear that. Mind if I ask how old you are?

  Sissy3211: Ninety-three.

  Austin smiled.

  Bronco8881: And still working? That’s got to be some kind of record. Hope you don’t have anything against older men.

  Sissy3211: Not as long as you keep your cane polished.

  Bronco8881: Bright and shiny.

  Sissy3211: Atta boy.

  Bronco8881: Seriously, I can help you no matter where you are. I’m worried about your work situation.

  Sissy3211: I shouldn’t have told you. My fault.

  Bronco8881: Who else can you talk to?

  Sissy3211: No one, not about this. Jim knows about the missing money, but nothing more. He thinks one of us will get blamed for the shortage somehow.

  Bronco8881: Is he right?

  Sissy3211: I don’t see how they could blame me. I don’t have access to the company bank accounts.

  Bronco8881: But you do have access to all the account records?

  Sissy3211: That I do.

  Bronco8881: Jim might be right. Can I give you a phone number to call if you need help?

  Sissy3211: I’ve got one – 911.

  Bronco8881: I mean, so you can call me.

  Sissy3211: And you would jump on a plane and come to rescue the damsel in distress?

  Bronco8881: If I need to, yes.

  Sissy3211: My hero. Don’t worry, I am perfectly fine. I don’t think my boss is dangerous; it might muss her makeup.

  Bronco8881: That’s a relief.

  Sissy3211: I think I know how to stop them without having to turn them in.

  Bronco8881: How?

  Sissy3211: I can’t tell you.

  Bronco8881: Just be careful. There truly are dangerous people in the world.

  Sissy3211: As dangerous as the ones in chat rooms?

  Bronco8881: Cute. At least tell Jim what you are doing so he can watch your back.

  Sissy3211: Okay, I’ll tell him.

  Bronco8881: Promise?

  Sissy3211: Promise.

  Both of them were quiet for a time.

  Bronco8881: Did I ever tell you about William?

  Sissy3211: Not that I recall.

  Bronco8881: He’s a guy I work with and he says things with such a straight face, no one can tell if he is serious or not. Yesterday, Clare was eating watermelon in the lunchroom and when he got up to leave, he said, “You know, watermelon is 98% water and only 10% melon.” Then he just walked away.

  Maggie roared with laughter.

  Sissy3211: That is too funny.

  Bronco8881: I know, he keeps us all entertained. Another time, he said – you know, there are more cardboard boxes in the world than there are children.

  Sissy3211: I bet he’s right about that.

  Bronco8881: I bet he is too. Have any plans for the rest of the day?

  Sissy3211: Jim and his wife are taking me to the zoo. Do they have horses in zoos?

  Bronco8881: I don’t know, I haven’t been to a zoo in ages. You could look it up on the internet.

  Sissy3211: Good idea. What are you going to do the rest of the day?

  Bronco8881: Work. I have a couple of special projects that need my attention.

  Sissy3211: What kind of projects?

  Bronco8881: The boring kind. You wouldn’t find them very interesting.

  Sissy3211: I probably wouldn’t. Well, I best be on my way.

  Bronco8881: Okay, have fun at the zoo.

  ---Sissy has signed off---

  Concerned about the shady people she apparently worked with; he considered having Jackie find out who and where Sissy3211 was. He thought better of it, however. If she found out, she would be furious, and that would blow any chance he had of meeting her. Austin ignored his foreboding, and went back to writing a counter to a lawsuit filed against Nick’s recycling company.

  *

  “Mrs. Connelly, are you still going to the Gladstone Charity Ball?” Teresa asked. She watched as Laura turned the page on the book she was reading. Her reading glasses had slid down her nose again.

  Laura looked up. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I haven’t been to one of the Gladstone balls in years. Mother loved the balls and I am hoping to take her place as hostess someday. She would have wanted me to.”

  Teresa walked into the closet. “What will you be wearing? We should choose something and get it cleaned.”

  “When is the ball?”

  “Next Saturday.”

  Laura’s mouth dropped. “So soon? I hadn’t realized that. What would I do without you, Teresa?”

  “I sometimes wonder,” Teresa muttered too softly for Laura to hear. She pulled a blue gown out of the closet and took it into the bedroom. “This one is lovely?”

  Laura had her nose back in the book and didn’t bother to look up. “Which one, dearest?”

  “This blue one.”

  She finally looked over the top of her reading glasses. “I like that one too, but I think I wore it to the Christmas party at the country club. Yes, I believe I did.”

  “Well then, what about the white one?”

  “Oh dear, I had forgotten all about that one.” She finally set her book down and stood up. “I should try it on and see if it still fits. As you age, you get a bit rounder, you know. I should probably buy something new, but who has the time?”

  Teresa helped her slip into the gown and then tried to zip it up. She tugged a couple of times before Laura said, “Never mind, I would be miserable in this one. What else is there?”

  Teresa went back in the closet, pulled two more formal dresses out and carried them to the bed. “Try these on.”

  For the better part of an hour, Laura tried on gowns, one after another, and in the end, she couldn’t choose which she liked best. Exhausted, she finally sat down on the bed.

  Teresa smiled to comfort her. “I’ll just get these three cleaned and then you can choose later.”

  “Splendid idea. I think I’ll take a nap.”

  Teresa went to the closet, tucked the white dress under the other three, and walked to the door. “Night, night.” By then, Laura was stretched out on the bed sound asleep.

  *

  Taking three little girls to the zoo was not as easy as Maggie expected. As soon as they were parked, Jim got a two-seat stroller out of the trunk and set it up. All o
f them wore shorts and tank tops, and his wife, Hanna, insisted on suntan lotion for everyone, especially those with red hair like Jim. That included the three girls. Hanna also insisted on a layer of a white paste on Jim’s nose.

  He wrinkled his nose twice before Hanna scolded him. “Stop that, you’ll rub it all off.”

  “It itches.” He set the two youngest girls in the stroller, and then pulled the top forward to offer them some measure of shade.

  “When do we get to ride?” Maggie asked, trying not to laugh at Jim’s white nose.

  “Never,” Hanna admitted, “not until we are rich enough to rent an electric cart.”

  “Walking is very good for the health,” Jim said, pushing the stroller toward the welcome sign. “Coming?”

  Hanna laughed, took the oldest girl’s hand, and hurried to catch up with him. Jim bought tickets, and the gang of five females and one male paused inside the gate to read the signs.

  “Here’s the deal,” Jim said. “We can go anywhere you want except Predator’s Ridge.”

  “Why not there?” Maggie asked.

  “Because that’s where Nicole lives.”

  Maggie nearly doubled over laughing.

  First, they went to the underwater viewing widows to gawk at the polar bears as they dove beneath the surface of the water. Next, they saw cats of every size, and then they went to admire the bears. The girls especially liked the bears.

  “Bathroom break,” said Hanna, as they approached the duck pond and the public restrooms.

  “Ah, my favorite time,” said Jim, taking the little ones out of the stroller.

  “Why?” Maggie asked.

  “Because,” Hanna answered, as she ushered the girls toward the restroom door, “we have to take the girls with us and he gets a rest. I should have had boys.”

  Maggie lowered her voice, “I want to tell you something anyway.”

  “What?” Hanna asked, as she opened the door to the restroom.

  “Jim very much loves and adores you. I never knew a man could be so devoted.”

  “Oh,” Hanna cooed. “Thank you for saying that. I know he loves me, but it is nice to hear it from someone else.” She took the littlest ones into a stall and kept talking. “Do you have brothers and sisters?”

  “No.” Maggie answered. When it looked like the oldest girl couldn’t wait much longer, Maggie took her into a stall.

  “None at all? What about your parents; are they still in England or did they come to America with you?”

  Maggie puffed her cheeks, waited to answer until she flushed the toilet. “They are…”

  “What?” Hanna asked, “I couldn’t hear you.”

  “I wanna go see daddy,” the eldest girl said as soon as they came out of the stall.

  “And so you shall,” Maggie said, happy to get away from Hanna’s questions. She opened the door and walked the child back to Jim. By then, he was sprawled out on the lawn.

  “That looks heavenly,” said Maggie, as she sat down not far from him. “I am quite out of shape these days and all this walking is tiring.” She dug in the pocket of her shorts and handed him the fifteen-dollar admission price.

  “I got it.”

  “Okay, then take this and buy next week’s candy bars…on me.”

  “What a swell idea.” Jim quickly slipped the money into his billfold and put it back in his pocket. “You’re pretty smart, you know that?”

  “Not smart enough to keep from telling Nicole about the shortage. I told my axe-murderer about it and he is worried.”

  “For your safety?” Jim asked. He smiled at his wife when she sat down next to him. Yet, Hanna never took her eyes off the girls running across the grass.

  “Yes,” Maggie answered. “I told him Nicole isn’t dangerous, but he is worried anyway. If they took the deposit money, it’s a federal crime and he thinks…I am not sure what he thinks.”

  Hanna got up when the girls got too close to the pond and left the two of them alone. “I wouldn’t let it worry you too much. I don’t think Nicole bumps people off. I just said that.”

  “Oh, I know, but I promised him I would tell you what I’m going to do, so you can watch my back.”

  “What are you going to do?” Hanna asked, coming back to sit beside Jim again.

  “I’m going to mess up their plans,” Maggie answered.

  Jim sat up straight. “How? Furthermore, how can I help?”

  “Well, it depends on what Nicole asks me to do, but I’m pretty sure I know what she will want, and that she’ll trust me to do it. If I am right, she will…”

  For the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening, Jim and Hanna helped Maggie shoot holes in her plan, just to see if they could. They couldn’t, although doing what Maggie proposed was somewhat dangerous…to their jobs, anyway.

  *

  Monday morning came early for the investigators. While on a case, they normally didn’t let a hotel maid come in and straighten the place. Empty coffee cups, plates, bowls and utensils from room service were piling up in the kitchen. None of them were bothered by it – they just couldn’t take the chance that a maid might move something and they’d never find it again. The dining room table and every other table in the room held stacks of papers they’d printed out to examine.

  “Let’s see what else we can find on social media. Michael, you take all the Georgias you can find on twitter, Carl you get Facebook, and I’ll search the job sites. She must have needed a job, wherever she went, and there are several international job sites.”

  “Yeah, and she would have to use her real name. How come you always get the easy stuff?” Michael complained.

  “Because I’m the boss,” said Jackie.

  “Oh yeah, I forgot.”

  “You seem a little irritable this morning,” said Carl, sitting down at the table. “Couldn’t sleep?”

  “I tossed and turned all night,” Michael answered.

  “Why?” Jackie asked. “What’s bothering you?”

  “Mathew Connelly, that’s what. The thought of him getting his hands on Nick’s money has really gotten to me.”

  “All the more reason to find Georgia,” said Jackie. “What about looking for other art schools?”

  “Yeah, but she still needed a job. What kind of job can you get painting pictures?” Michael grumbled.

  “Billboards, advertising,” Jackie suggested. “Maybe she’s selling her own art for a living.”

  Carl shook his head. “If she were, we would have found her name on the internet somewhere. The first thing they do is set up a website.”

  “Okay, I’ll do twitter and look for artists first,” said Michael. “Then can we put Mathew back in prison, please, pretty please.”

  “Will it help you sleep at night if I say yes?”

  Michael nodded. “It would help me sleep right now.”

  “In that case, no.”

  Michael rolled his eyes. “Twitter, here I come.”

  “Georgia Marie James does not have a Facebook page. That would be too easy anyway. We don’t like easy, right?” Carl asked. When he looked, both Michael and Jackie were staring at him. “I’m working, I’m working. If your first, middle or last name is James, I’m going to find you. James,” Carl moaned. “Connelly couldn’t have chosen a more common name.”

  *

  In an effort to make GSTS look more professional, Nicole decided that the departments should have meetings at least once a week. To Maggie, they were normally a boring waste of time, but at least she got out of her cubicle for a while. The new accounts, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and the account cancellation departments all met together. Instead of meeting in one of the meeting rooms upstairs, they sat in a semicircle in Nicole’s extra-large office, with Jim and Maggie seated across the room from each other.

  As usual, Nicole wore a skirt that was barely long enough to be proper, no bra, and a blouse unbuttoned as far down as possible. They were obviously designer clothes, and likely the best money co
uld buy, but they truly did make her look like a hooker. She had the perfect figure for what she wore and the right makeup, but her long, black hair was still a little hard to get used to.

  Maggie asked no questions during the meeting, answered the ones she was asked, and filled out the ridiculous, multiple-choice quiz Nicole required them to take. Usually it had a few trick questions designed to trip everyone up, and last week’s test had disastrous consequences. One of the new guys got several wrong and Nicole made him stand in a box, so she could exhibit what it meant to think out of the box. The employee was appalled and everyone else kept their eyes down. Maggie didn’t think this meeting could be any more abysmal.

  She was wrong.

  The meeting should have been over after the quiz, but Nicole had something else to say. “As you know,” said Nicole, returning to the chair behind her desk, “Colleen is no longer with us. I should do this in private, but you will all be pleased to know, I have decided to offer the manager’s position to Jim.”

  Maggie held her breath and watched as Jim bowed his head and stared at the floor. The room fell excruciatingly silent, and stayed that way, as the passing of several frozen seconds seemed to stifle the very air they breathed.

  “Yes,” Jim said, at length, “you should have asked me in private.”

  The complete surprise on Nicole’s face slowly turned to fury. “You don’t want the job?” she pressed.

  “I do not,” Jim answered.

  “Why?” Nicole dared ask in front of everyone.

  Jim tightly folded his arms and took a moment to think of an answer…other than the one he desperately wanted to give. “I don’t feel I am qualified.”

  Good answer, Maggie thought.

  Nicole thought otherwise. “I think you are well qualified, and if I think you are, then you are.”

  Maggie dared not move. For Jim, things just went from bad to worse. Going against Nicole publicly was the kiss of death. The only question was…would he go quietly, or would he have a few well-chosen words to say before he walked out?

  Jim did neither, and instead, stared at the floor.

  In a less demanding tone, Nicole finally said, “Well, we can discuss this later.”

  Seated next to Maggie, Richard covered his mouth with his hand and whispered, “With the door open.”

  As soon as the meeting was over, Maggie went back to her cubical. She stood in the opening and waited, but Jim didn’t come out of the office and Nicole closed her door. Slowly, Maggie eased into her chair and put her head in her hands. Without Jim, the place would become even more intolerable than it already was.