Tawny went directly to the kitchen on Monday afternoon. She wanted to spend some time with Jewel. She knew her son was falling in love with this woman. But not until yesterday had she realized how deeply he had already fallen. It was when seeing her youngest son looking so torn about what was going on at the Casino and his love for this woman that was ripping him apart that she had made the decision to go see Jewel herself. Surely, her son hadn’t misjudged this woman so badly. Not after he told her all about the young lady. His impressions of her had to be correct. But to be sure, she needed to get to know her. The two investigators they had hired out of Tampa were good. Efficient. And fast. Intel, new Intel, had already come in. They were reporting in every few hours. And so far their investigation didn’t reveal a corrupt woman.
Last night they had reported in with Tom and he had updated her this morning. Justin Sock was sitting on a pile of money. His account had over eighty grand. But the Diamantes were nearly broke. The twins had a little over five hundred each. And Jewel’s bank account had about eight thousand. It wasn’t a large enough sum, and they had been able to report by looking at her records that it was what had been left over from an insurance policy she had received upon her parents’ deaths. Gio and Nikko had told Tom they still weren’t sure if the Diamantes were involved, and they definitely didn’t have anything concrete to link them. They were tailing Justin now. So far he seemed the best bet to find the mastermind behind the operation, unless he was it. But they were thinking this went deeper than a twenty year old.
The Marinos had also gotten ahold of Wesley’s phone and gotten the code from someone who worked for their internet provider, so they could keep track of their whereabouts. But they hadn’t gone anywhere that seemed out of character for what normal teenaged boys did. She didn’t know how the Marinos got their information, and she didn’t ask. She was sure it wasn’t above board. But she was willing to look the other way so they could get to the bottom of these thefts.
Doing her regular checks on the staff, Tawny paused longer than was her norm with each of the sous chefs before she went over to Jewel’s work station. She didn’t want the girl to sense anything other than a concerned mother during her visit, or pick up on any signals, red flags so to speak that they suspected she was involved as well. Joseph had been sorely disappointed that Jewel had not called him either. Yesterday, she had remained strangely silent despite his repeated calls that went to voicemail and his texts to call him. So, she was going to keep it casual. Keep this about Joseph.
Approaching the young woman’s station, Tawny noted Jewel appeared calm and was definitely good at her job. She was running the kitchen that afternoon, and her requests were made politely as she gave directions to several of the staff members to prepare for the evening’s menu. She was good. And if she was involved, her coming to work tonight was either extreme bravado, or her way of trying to appear innocent. Or she was just plain innocent. Tawny hoped that was the case.
Tawny opened with the usual compliments. “Everything looks good, Jewel. Just checking on the staff today, and then I’ll spend a little time looking over the books.”
“Very good, Mrs. Sassacus,” came Jewel’s polite retort. When she had seen Mrs. Sassacus enter the kitchen she had carried on with her duties. She usually walked through at least once a week, and Jewel didn’t want her boss, or employees to know how upset she was by her ordeal with Joseph.
“Please, call me Tawny.” Tawny paused before continuing, and gave Jewel a sympathetic look to ease her nerves, if she were nervous. “I know you and my son are growing closer.” She saw the younger woman’s shoulders sag imperceptibly. She ascertained that Jewel was upset by that small reaction. Her smile faltered a bit as well. She cared. But she was still wary. Tawny could tell by the narrowing of her almond shaped eyes, but under the circumstances that was to be expected. She couldn’t fault her for that. “Chef gives you nothing but high praise. We are happy to have you here. And from what my son tells me, I’m happy to have you as part of my family.”