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“S-someone called. Th-they said to close m-my m-mouth. Th-they said they were coming for m-me.” She sniffed as he picked her up off the floor. “Th-then the outer bell rang.” Her fear was tangible. She trembled in his arms, nearly bringing him to his knees. They would pay for what they had done to his sweet, trusting woman. But first identify the “they,” and then end them.
“I’m taking you into the conference room. You aren’t answering any more phone calls, not your cell phone, not the office phone, no phones. And you’re never going to be alone again. If someone wants to play these games, they will play them with me, not you. Maybe if they get the idea that you’re no longer available to their harassment or intimidation tactics,they’ll come out into the open. But don’t you worry. If they don’t come out into the open, we’ll go into the dark and find them.”
Becky nodded as she listened to him and sniffled the last of her tears. Carter grabbed the box of tissue off Jac’s credenza as he passed it and patted her face dry. He kissed her lips, snuggled her tight to him, and then set her on her feet again. She needed to walk into the conference room, not as a frightened woman but as one who knew she had backup. She couldn’t do that if he carried her in, but it was hard for him not to hold her tight. All he wanted to do was capture her in his arms and lock them away. Carter wrapped his brawny arm around her waist in substitution and supported her while she walked into the conference room.
As they made their way around the table to their seats, Carter filled them in on what Becky had told him.
“Becky, do you want water or tea? Coffee?” asked Callie.
“A good strong drink?” asked Sharlee. “Ow! Jac, wouldn’t you want a strong drink if you had something traumatic happen to you?”
Jac grunted, and then when Becky sat in her usual empty seat next to him, and Monroe moved down so Carter could sit next to her, he nodded. Jac’s hand reached out and covered Becky’s.
“Rebecca, I know this is scary as hell, but we need to go over every moment you can remember about this whole thing starting with the day last month that you girls had a fun night at Ivy’s through when Garrett picked you up yesterday morning.”
“I think we should add the addition of when Becky started to go over her father’s business books,” said Garrett.
“Agreed,” said Mark. “Jessie said there was something fishy going on there.”
Carter set two cold bottles of water on the table, opening and placing one bottle in front of Becky. Her hands were shaking, and Carter wished he’d had a sippy cup that he used when shewas recovering last month. No spilling, so it didn’t matter how she drank it. It only landed in her mouth.
“Be right back.” Carter left the room and quickly returned with her water bottle. Without saying a word, he poured the water into the bottle and put the lid back on it. “Now it will stay cold.” But he and Becky knew it was for a different reason. A way for her man to give her comfort and help her settle into her pampered headspace without announcing it.
She took a slow drink. Carter replaced the water bottle on the table and placed his hand on hers. Jac patted the hand he covered and leaned back into his seat at the head of the table.
After a sigh, she said, “I think I’m okay.
“Okay, now take us through the Ramirez angle,” said Jac.
“Well, that all started when Ramirez came at closing time, and instead of turning him away, reception sent him through to Jac. I’m still angry about that.”
“That isn’t quite what happened, but we will get some retraining scheduled. Go on,” said Jac.
Becky nodded. She went on to discuss the goons in the front waiting room, then the guys showing up, and that she had parked in the front lot because she was running late at lunch.
“It would have taken too long to park in the underground lot and walk the length of the building to get to my office. So I parked up front.”
Carter made a grumbling sound deep in his chest that always sounded like he was growling. “That won’t be happening again,” he said.
She went on to describe the conversation that she had overheard while sitting in the car. Then the truck with the snowplow.
“Then nothing.”
Monroe asked, “Tell us why you were at your mom’s house?”
Becky took another drink, followed by a deep breath. Carter rubbed the back of her neck to help center her. “Carter was gone on assignment. It made perfect sense to talk to my parents, in person, about the discrepancy in the inventory numbers. I was working the inventory because my dad needed the extra help and didn’t think hiring another person was the right answer. He has been having some memory loss or extra fogginess in the last months. Still, he thought something felt “off,” but he couldn’t pinpoint why he felt that way.”
She explained the setup in the pet supply store he ran, and that Becky’s Uncle Karl ran a pet store that mostly just sold pets. “Dad has nothing to do with his brother’s side of the business and vice versa, except they share a warehouse. Dad uses most of it, and Uncle Karl leases part of it. They have one warehouse manager and one warehouse employee on which they split the salaries.”
“So, you went there to figure out the problem?” asked Mark.
“Right. Well, I went mostly because of timing. April is coming up, and Dad’s accountant needs the inventory numbers. I did the count from last year’s ending numbers, which should have been this year’s beginning, and ran it continuously to the end of this fiscal year when a re-inventory was to be done. I knew how much was supposed to be in the warehouse, but there was a huge difference when I compared my numbers to the paperwork totals.”
“Could something like a shipment go unrecorded?” asked Garrett.
“Possibly, but the numbers on the paperwork wouldn’t even fit in his warehouse. Anyway, after talking to Jessie, I decided that I should do a new inventory. So I went, took pictures and video, and did a digital count of the entire warehouse. Both owners have claimed the inventory was mixed.”
“Wow, that’s a lot of work,” said Garrett.
