AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What do you have?”
“Nothing.” My father met my eye, his gaze weary. “We’ve gone over these financials. Some are from when I was their lawyer, others are from John. I don’t see anything out of order. I don’t know what financial irregularities John or Lemaire could have found. I don’t have their tax returns, by the way.”
“Who does their tax prep?”
“They use Ryder Bates, one of the small indies.”
“I guess we can’t get them?”
“Not now, not without telling Stan.”
I let it go. “Okay, thanks, Dad. All of you.”
“This is driving me crazy. I’m not giving up.”
“Neither am I.”
•••
“I’m exhausted.” My mother put her face in her hands, and I looked over, concerned.
“Mom, you want to go home? You can.”
“No.” My mother shook it off. “But we’re not finding anything. John’s bills to Runstan look normal.”
“How so?” I sank into the chair on the other side of the table, facing a row of somber expressions on my mother, Gabby, Martin, Andre, and Sabrina.
“Here.” My mother looked up from her notes. “He hasn’t billed forthe acquisition yet. But before that, he was billing them on an hourly basis, four hundred dollars an hour. He billed about thirty thousand a year from 2017 to 2022, for routine business advice. It’s all in order.”
My father frowned, looking over at her. “Marie, what did you say? How much a year?”
“Thirty grand.”
“That’s strange.”
“Why?”
“It sounds high. I doubt I ever billed Runstan that much in a year.”
“Were you as active?”
“Certainly, more so in the early days.”
My mother blinked. “Then your rate must have been lower.”
“Not really. I didn’t charge Stan much because I knew he couldn’t afford it.”
I tried to follow. “But, Dad, you said there was nothing irregular in the Runstan finances.”
“There wasn’t, but I didn’t look at my bills to Runstan. I was looking at Runstan financials. Their statements show that they expensed us as a deduction, and that’s proper. But I didn’t compare what I billed them to what John billed them. I don’t have John’s bills.”
My mother interjected, “I do. Paul, get your bills, and we can compare.”
I rose, encouraged. “I’ll help.”
•••
An hour later, I was back at the dry-erase board, finishing a chart of my findings. On the left side were the years since 2000, which was the date of Runstan’s incorporation. There had been three differentaccountants during that time, and my father and I constructed a timeline: 2000 to 2012, Joseph Beck, deceased, aneurysm; 2012 to 2022, Warren Clemons, deceased, heart attack; 2022 to 2023, Neil Lemaire, deceased, gunshot wound.
