“So? Tell me anyway.”
I’m too excited about my results to wait. “I think I can prove the existence of at least two fake companies that this woman has set up to divert funds into an account she owns.”
May’s jaw drops open, and it takes visible effort for her to start talking. “Oh . . . my god. That is . . . incredible. How did you find it?”
I shrug. “Well, she had some pretty high-level computer skills going for her, I’ll give her that much.”
“But not as much as my sister does,” May says, squeezing my arm.
I smile. “You know it.” I use this opportunity with my sister to explain what I did in a way that a non-geek could understand, knowing she’ll cross her eyes if I say anything too technical. “She was using file-hiding software that had a pretty difficult AES 256 encryption matrix . . .”
May’s eyes cross almost on cue with my description. “Oh my god, you are such a nerd.”
“I’m a geek, not a nerd. Big difference.” I try again to explain. “Let’s just say she had a super-hard password on the system, but I figured it out. And I might have accessed some legal documents online that I wasn’t supposed to see that allowed me to track the companies back to her. I think she paid a lot of money to some lawyer to keep that all secret, but she should have budgeted for a computer engineer too.” I grin like the Cheshire Cat.
May leans over for a spontaneous hug. “You are so awesome. I knew you could do it. But do me a favor. Don’t tell them like you told me. Use all the fancy words.”
I laugh. “Why?”
She suddenly sounds desperate. “Because! I want them to offer you the job! If you act like it’s no big deal, they’ll think they can just hire some doofus off the street to do it.”
I’m a little surprised by that. “Do they want to hire some doofus off the street?”
May shakes her head. “No, of course not. They want to hire you. But Toni tends to be very negative about people coming on board, so I’m afraid she’s going to make the team worry that you don’t really want to be there. But if you can show them that what you do is very special and that not any doofus off the street can do it, I think they’ll be more inclined to ignore her.”
“Wow. I didn’t realize she disliked me so much.”
May shakes her head vigorously. “It’s not that she doesn’t like you. I promise. She’s just really prickly, like, all the time. Even when she’s being nice to me, I’m suspicious she’s just messing around. So don’t take it personally.” She looks like she’s about to say something else, but she stops herself.
I’m instantly suspicious. “What were you going to say?”
“What? What do you mean? I wasn’t going to say anything.” She’s way too bright and cheerful now to be telling the truth.
I give her my best annoyed-mother look. “Don’t play, May. You were about to say something about Toni. What was it?”
May fiddles with a wrapper from one of the muffins for a little while before she answers me. “I really shouldn’t say.”
I steal the paper from her to get her attention. “No, you really should say.”
May is opening her mouth to answer my question when her phone rings. She picks it up to look at the screen, and holds up her finger at me. “I have to take this. It’s Ozzie.”
I try not to be annoyed when she pulls his call up. Instead, I clean up our mess as she exchanges a short conversation with her boyfriend. I really want to know what she was going to spill about Toni. If I knew the woman better, maybe I could fix whatever I’ve done wrong. I wouldn’t want to work at Bourbon Street Boys if Toni hates me; it would be way too uncomfortable.
I’m rinsing the coffee mugs in the sink when May stands.
“Are you leaving?” I ask.
“Yes. Ozzie has something he needs me to do right away.”
How convenient. “Are you going to finish telling me about Toni before you go?”
“Maybe another time.” She throws her purse strap over her shoulder and shoves her phone inside the bag. “You’re going to be at the warehouse today at eleven-thirty, right?”
“Yes. I’m going to finish typing up a report about what I found this morning, get dressed, and drive over.”
May gives me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Great. I’ll see you then. Thanks for the muffins.” She grabs another one off the plate on the counter and heads down the hallway toward the front door. “I’m going to give one to Ozzie. Don’t be surprised if he asks you for the recipe!”
I shake my head as I walk over to the hallway and watch my sister go out the front door. I can almost imagine myself doing something as inane as exchanging a recipe with that giant hulk of a man—the man she fell in love with after meeting him one time. Our lives are totally crazy right now, but for the first time ever I’m starting to like crazy.