“I’m fine. Just thinking about your future.”
“Not a very interesting topic.”
“It could be. Imagine if you do well during the race. You’ll have it all.”
He shrugged, as if it didn’t matter, but she knew otherwise. Josh would never be happy just being a regular guy. He was someone who needed the roar of the crowd, and she was just one person.
BERNIE JACKSON HELD A meeting on Monday, to bring everyone up to speed on the investigation. Charity spent the first few minutes doing her best not to let her newly discovered dislike of attractive redheads get in the way of paying attention. She reminded herself it wasn’t Bernie’s fault she had a more than passing resemblance to a barracuda-like reporter.
“We’ve tracked the money from the state to here,” Bernie explained. “We have copies of the cleared checks. They show the city stamp and apparently passed through the city account. However, there are no records of a deposit and even more troubling, no records of a withdrawal.”
“Do you think someone went back and removed the items from the computer?” Marsha asked. “The deposit and the withdrawal?”
“Possibly,” Bernie said. “But what about the bank? It doesn’t show the money going in or out, which means it went into another account.”
“Do we know if it even arrived here in town?” Charity asked. “The check could have been intercepted in Sacramento or before it physically arrived here. It was a paper check, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” Bernie said. “If it never arrived here, then whoever is perpetrating the fraud is going to be harder to find. But based on what I know so far, that seems a fairly likely explanation. I’ve contacted other communities to find out if anyone else is having the same problem.”
“I don’t like it,” Chief Barns said. “I like criminals who do their dirty work out where someone can see.”
“That would make things simpler,” Bernie agreed.
She discussed the rest of her investigation, took a few more questions, then the meeting ended. Charity found herself walking with Robert back to their floor.
“How are you holding up?” she asked.
“Okay. People are still looking at me funny. I’m living with it. Bernie’s told me privately that she should have me completely cleared in a couple of weeks.” He grimaced. “I’ve given her complete access to my financial records. Checking and saving accounts, my retirement account. All of it.”
“I’m sorry you’re having to deal with all this,” she said.
“It’ll pass. Things will get back to normal.” He paused by her office. “I just want her to catch the bastard who’s doing this.”
“So does the chief.”
“I think she’s happiest when she’s arresting someone.”
“Everyone needs a moment of joy in his or her life.”
Robert shuffled his feet. “Are you… How are things going with Josh?”
Not a question she wanted to answer, she thought, wishing this were easier. “Good.”
“You really like him, don’t you?”
As she was sure being in love fell very close to “really liking” she had no problem nodding.
“Too bad.” He turned and walked away.
Another downside of small-town life, she thought. There was no way to escape seeing Robert. Working with him didn’t make matters easier. She could only hope he would find someone who could appreciate his niceness, along with his little quirks.
WEDNESDAY AFTER WORK, Charity headed out on an errand she’d been rescheduling for some time. She liked her new and improved wardrobe, which was great, but now she had to deal with her hair.
She’d been wearing it exactly the same way since she graduated from high school. Blown dry, so no hint of her natural waves showed, parted in the middle, hanging just below her shoulders. Some days she pulled it back in a French braid. Other days she wore it up. Occasionally it was loose. But there wasn’t anything stylish about it and the color was a boring medium brown. It was time for a change.
She’d asked around for recommendations and had been given two names. Sisters who were in competition with each other. Pia had warned her she would have to alternate between the two unless she wanted people to think she was taking sides. When Charity had asked what the fight was about, Pia couldn’t say for sure, which was part of the problem. No one really knew, which made staying out of trouble that much harder.
But they were the best hairstylists in town, so Charity had randomly chosen Julia’s salon—Chez Julia—not to be confused with her sister’s establishment, the House of Bella.