"Ethan, this is stunning!" I gazed at the scale model Ethan built of the museum with its new wing. It was a marvelous mini building, dollhouse sized, with all the museum's stunning features detailed, along with his interpretation of the new wing. The latter had a detachable roof that he lifted off so I could see inside. Although it was supposed to be the final touch to sign off the project before construction began, I was glad I persuaded him to allow us to display it. We kept it safely under glass in the lobby inside a custom-built case to protect it from inquisitive fingers. Hopefully, it would remain there even after the new wing was completed. The visitors certainly seemed to love it just as much as I did.
"Glad you like it," said Ethan. He replaced the roof and closed the glass case. "It was just a little thing I knocked together. Barely took me any time at all." He winked and I laughed. I couldn't imagine how much time it took to create the painstakingly beautiful building.
"It's perfect."
We were gathered in the museum lobby two weeks after George attempted to throw me off the roof. The museum had just finished its first successful late-night opening and now that all the visitors had gone home, the staff were having our own party in the lobby. The party was supposed to be for me, as a surprise, but I knew it was more than that.
"To Tess!" said Artie, raising his glass. "Congratulations on your promotion. I know you will do a far better job than I and the museum is in safe hands with you."
Glasses were raised and I felt a blush rising on my cheeks as my friends and colleagues saluted me. I hooked my arm in Artie's and raised my lips to his ears. "You have to stop beating yourself up about this," I told him. "You were an excellent Manager and the museum wouldn't be what it is without you."
"If I hadn't been so eager to start my retirement, I might have taken a closer look at the accounts over the past few months and realized what was going on before that... that terrible man... he killed Lance, tried to frame Karen and even tried to kill you. I don't know what I would have done if he hurt you! Tess, I'm so..." Artie choked on his unshed tears.
"Don't you dare apologize again," I told him. "The only person to blame here is George for being greedy and tapping the museum for all the money he could get his covetous, grasping hands on. He thought one more murder was his way out and he could frame me. He's going to get exactly what he deserves for his crimes."
The trial was a long way off but Detective Logan assured me it would be "a slamdunk" given that both he and Ethan were witnesses to George's confession. With their testimony and mine, and Ethan’s clever recording of George on his cell phone, not to mention the other evidence mounting against him, there was no chance George would be exonerated for his crimes. He would soon face a long stretch in a prison, exactly where he belonged.
In the days after George's attempt to get rid of me, I discovered Detective Logan's tech buddy cracked the whole cipher almost immediately, since it was so simple. He alerted him to the contents almost at the same time as I emailed him to let him know I cracked the numbers portion of Lance's notes. Knowing that I could be in danger, the detective came to the museum first instead of searching for George elsewhere. I was lucky that he and Ethan arrived at almost the same time. Ethan realized I was in trouble and Detective Logan knew exactly what to do.
If they hadn't arrived when they did, I was sure George would have wrestled me over the side of the building and sent me plummeting to my death. I fully believed that he would have framed me to facilitate his own escape. I wasn't convinced anyone would swallow that I was responsible for any of the crimes but by the time they figured it all out, George would probably be far away, along with the money he siphoned off from the museum's accounts.
Once George recuperated from the effect of the taser, he protested his innocence and said that he was really afraid of me but Detective Logan just laughed that off. By the time his lawyer arrived at the police station, he attempted to put all the wrongdoing onto me and Lance, insisting we were working together and lying about what he apparently uncovered.
Fortunately, by taking that stance, he provided enough information for the police to uncover all of his crimes. A specialist forensic accountant had to be brought in to look over the museum's accounts but even when I ran through the figures, I could work out that George was siphoning off money for some time. He started small by keeping some donations, cashing them and taking the money, and then he went bigger, filing phony invoices and paying them with the museum's money. It turned out he could no longer afford the lifestyle he’d gotten used to and he was desperate to keep up appearances. Having access to all the museum's money, and being trusted to run the accounts as president of the board, provided an easy way to grab some money for himself.
When Artie announced his retirement, George panicked. He knew I was diligently looking for new ways for the museum to make money as well as keeping an eye on costs for the new wing. Especially after George's own gripes about the museum apparently not making enough money. He was right that I would have checked the accounts regularly and although I wasn't a financial whiz, I would have quickly uncovered his theft. At the same time, Lance knew an audit was due on the museum's contents that would uncover the missing artifacts he stole. The two of them conspired to put Lance into the manager's role and get rid of me. That way, they could keep covering up their crimes. What Lance didn't know was that George was far smarter than him and he was about to become George's fall guy for everything. Unfortunately for George, he didn't know Lance kept a ledger, implicating him in every theft.
George discovered news of the ledger from me. When I informed Artie and Karen, the problematic office door hadn't closed properly and he overheard me talking about it. That’s when he came up with a plan to steal it. Attacking me was a case of me being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He insisted he didn't try to kill me but I wasn't sure I believed him, especially after his confession on the roof.
Unfortunately, all that remained of the ledger were the pages I photocopied. George burned the rest. He denied it, of course, but Detective Logan found embers in George's log fire in his den and I identified the cover from the scraps.
I wasn't exactly sure why he killed Lance but I figured since Lance wanted out, and George needed him around until he had his plan in place, they had some kind of argument and George panicked and killed him. He might have even thought Lance was about to turn on him. When it was clear to everyone Lance was behind the thefts, George knew he could pin the rest of the crimes on him too. I wasn't sure we'd ever know the full story.
"I'm so glad this all turned out okay," said Karen.
"Me too," I told her. All the charges against her were promptly dropped and the board started to make noises about promoting Karen too. Her ideas for fundraising were always excellent, and consistently better than Lance's ever were. I hoped she would be offered Lance's old job. She certainly deserved it. I had a feeling the board felt terribly guilty that George so deviously framed her with the missing dagger.
I looked around at the board members present. We were two short now that Lance's uncle resigned and George got fired. I wasn't entirely sure everyone else would stay on but I hoped Caroline would. She’d been a huge support over the past two weeks, ensuring the museum ran efficiently despite the substantially reduced staff.
"I'm going to miss you," I told Artie.
"Hmph. About that," he started. "I'm not so sure I'm ready to retire after all."
"Do you want your job back?" I asked, frowning. It took me a few days to accept the job offer and I still wasn't quite used to the idea but if I had to give it up, I would, but only to Artie.
"Oh no. Absolutely not!"
I frowned. "Then you're going to volunteer?"
He shook his head, grinning now. "Not that either. I've been invited to join the board. Turns out they need a president. I figure I can do a couple meetings a month. I'm sure things will be a lot quieter now the insurance claim is going through and our own people aren't robbing us."
"That's great news!"
"And," said Ethan, slipping his hand into mine, "I've submitted my application for the vacant board post. I'm well placed, given my work, and passionate about preserving the museum for future generations. I've been informally accepted and I hope to know the outcome soon. Naturally, if you don't want to work together..."
"Of course I do!" I squealed, hugging him, releasing him as my daughters joined us.
"You'll have to come over for lots of meetings at our house," said Leah.
Brooke nudged her. "Or you could go to a nice restaurant," she said.
"Yeah, or a bar," added Leah.
"I'd prefer to take your mom on a date rather than a work meeting," said Ethan.
"I suppose you could do that," said Leah as she and her sister giggled.
"And we could go out to dinner tomorrow night," suggested Ethan. "The four of us."
"We want to pick the place," said Brooke.
"Fine, but make sure it includes bowling in Hallowell too," said Ethan, grinning.
"You have no idea what you've let yourself into," I told him as he put his arm around my shoulders and kissed me on the lips, just long enough to make my girls giggle and for me to color. Ethan confessed he never dated a single mom before, and was surprised to learn I had children, but he was eager to continue dating as long as I was willing to. I definitely was.
"I think I do. I'm applying for the board here and a position with your family too. I'm not sure as what but I think it’ll be a combination of boyfriend, friend, chef, chauffeur..."
"Homework helper," said Leah.
"Mentor," suggested Brooke.
"All of the above," laughed Ethan.
"What do you say, Mom?" asked the girls together.
I smiled at them, my perfect little family. How lucky I was! I had everything I wanted. Two great daughters, a job I loved, people around me that I trusted and cared about. Now Ethan too. The future looked brilliantly bright. "Application received and granted," I said, with a decisive nod. I held my wine glass high. "Now let's party!"
Somewhere, a champagne cork popped.