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“Good thinking,” the officers said. “We’ll just wait here while you deal with it.”
Nico nodded. “I’ll let you know if we need help.”
He headed toward Julia’s office, where he found Julia standing behind her desk. Carole, Andra and Ruth stood in front of it.
“… the hell is going on?” Carole said, scowling at Julia. “Our shifts are over. I, for one, have plans. Can’t whatever you want wait until tomorrow?”
“No, it can’t,” Julia said, pinning Carole with a hard glare. “The three of you are fired, effective immediately.”
“What?” Carole stared at her, incredulous. Andra and Ruth demanded to know why.
When their voices stumbled to a halt, Julia pushed a piece of paper across the desk. “The three of you have been stealing from me. I don’t know when it started, but I suspect it’s been a long time. In the past five days, you’ve stolen almost five thousand dollars from me.
“Tonight, the three of you stole a total of nine hundred and sixty dollars.” She pushed the paper closer. “This is a print-out from the terminal system. You can see that nine meals were deleted from the system after they were served. All of them paid cash. I want that money now. Three hundred twenty dollars from each of you.”
All three women began speaking at once. Carole glanced at Ruth and Andra, and they shut their mouths. Carole thrust her chin at Julia. “You can’t prove that.”
“I can,” Julia replied. She stood straighter, and Nico knew she had the situation under control. “I had a program inserted into the ordering system. It registers when a meal is deleted, and which server entered that order. Ruth, Andra, you were the only two servers who had meals missing, both tonight and the three or four previous nights that we were checking. I expect to get all that money back. We’ll start with what you stole tonight.”
“You can’t prove anything,” Carole shouted. She stormed toward the office door, and Nico stepped into the entrance, trapping her there.
“Get out of my way, Nico,” she snarled, trying to push him aside.
“I don’t think so, Carole.” He turned and whistled, and he heard footsteps hurrying toward the office.
Carole punched his chest, trying to shove him out of her way, but he barely felt her weak blows. She’d punched him several times before the two officers arrived.
The older officer, ‘Houlihan’ on her badge, glanced at Carole. “Battery?” she asked Nico.
“Yes,” he said. “And I’ll wait to press charges. After I see how this goes down.”
Carole was still defiant, but Ruth and Andra had backed up until they were pressed against the bookcases, staring at the two police officers. “These are the three women. I think if you check, you’ll find that each of them has three hundred and twenty dollars in cash.” He nodded at the paper on the desk. “Those are the details of the meals Carole, the hostess, erased from the ordering system.”
He stepped aside, and Houlihan and a younger man moved into the office. With no room left, Nico leaned against the door.
Houlihan let her gaze touch each of them. “You three want to tell us your side of the story?”
No one said anything for a tense moment. Then Andra burst out, “Some of the money I have is my tip money.”
“Andra!” Carole snarled. “Keep your mouth shut!”
The officer pinned her gaze on Andra. “So you admit you stole the money.”
“It was supposed to be foolproof,” she said, swallowing. Her hands shook as she pulled a wad of cash out of her pocket. “We weren’t supposed to get caught.”
“Well, you were,” Julia said, her voice hard. Angry. “Give me my three hundred twenty dollars. And each of you owe me an additional $1,350 for the past few nights, which I expect to get on Tuesday. If I don’t get it, I’ll press charges.”
Julia straightened. “In addition, a forensic accountant will be examining my books. I’m confident she’ll find the point when you started stealing, and how much you took. Once I have a total, I’ll expect that money back, as well.” She leaned closer to the three women, holding each one’s gaze for a long moment. “Or I will press charges. And you stole so much money that those charges will entail considerable jail time.”
Her face white and her hands shaking so badly that she dropped money on Julia’s desk, Andra counted out the money and pushed it toward Julia. Her gaze settled on the two officers. “Can I go now?”
“After you give us your contact information.” The officer’s gaze hardened. “In my opinion, Ms. Stewart is being incredibly generous by not pressing charges immediately. If she doesn’t get the rest of the money on Tuesday, you’ll be arrested and booked. Are we clear on that?”
Andra nodded, her head moving like a bobblehead.
“Good,” Houlihan said, transferring her gaze to Julia. “Ms. Stewart, you’ll let us know when you get the total amount from your forensic accountant?”
Julia nodded. “I will.”
