Frank’s bookkeeper had been working for him for years now. She went to First Baptist, as the Howards did, and once in a while Frank and Nancy would have her over for dinner. Frank knew her to be an honest woman, and extremely efficient and detail-oriented. Still, he was startled when she came into his office unannounced a few days after Thanksgiving weekend.
“Mr. Howard,” she said. “I’m not sure about this. But it seems to me there’s some sort of discrepancy?”
Looking up, Frank made a quick calculation: Should he switch his computer screen to hide the spreadsheet he’d been working on and thereby risk raising her suspicions? Should he leave the spreadsheet up and risk her catching a glimpse of the numbers he’d been moving around?
Turning toward her in his swivel chair, Frank switched the screen off entirely.
“This company here—” the bookkeeper began, before Frank cut her off.
“That’s the file I’ve been looking for!”
Frank grabbed the file, flipped it open, and glanced at the printout inside—paperwork relating to one of several holding corporations he’d set up to skim money from Richard Raley’s company, American United Logistics. Raley’s contracts with the Department of Defense were staggering. Frank couldn’t believe how much ice Raley had shipped to the Middle East. He’d been even more surprised when he learned about the amounts that Raley had earned in return. At first, Frank had thought the sums involved wouldn’t be missed. Also, he happened to know that Raley himself had a habit of going off the rez. There was a drug conviction in Raley’s background. An arrest for drunk driving, which Raley had pleaded no contest to. How clued in could the businessman possibly be?
Still, the numbers involved were significant. And with Frank funneling more and more money off to Suzanne, and to Billie Earl Johnson, the amounts had gotten out of hand. Frank had stolen millions of dollars already. He intended to skim millions more. So, at this particular moment, the fact that his bookkeeper was good at her job was beginning to look like a terrible thing.
“Look at this, darlin’,” Frank said. “You’re absolutely right. The sums in this column don’t add up.”
Clearly, Frank had been making mistakes. Keeping track of the holding corporations, along with all of the attendant transactions, had been taking up more and more of his time. And given his business with Billie Earl Johnson, Frank Howard couldn’t afford to draw attention to any of his secret dealings, especially now.
The thought of some dumbass, backwater divorce court judge poring over his financial dealings gave Frank the shivers. And now, sitting here with his bookkeeper’s stack of folders, Frank felt a panic attack coming on. What looked like a windfall, when Richard Raley first appeared on his radar, was starting to feel more and more like a trap.
“Mr. Howard,” the bookkeeper said. “Are you okay?”
“This is excellent work,” he said after a moment. “Excellent, because this stuff’s such a maze, such a headache. I’m impressed you found these errors. Why don’t I take it home with me tonight to look it over and fix it up and put you onto this other account that’s been troubling us?”