Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 77220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
I laughed. “That’s good to know.”
She left the office and I leaned back in my chair. Then I summoned my secretary.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her face showing nothing except a natural curiosity about the unusual activity going on around her.
I marveled at her coolness. “Nothing much, other than you’re fired.”
“Sorry?” I could tell by her expression she honestly thought she had heard me wrong.
“You’re fired, Sheila.”
“What? Why?” she asked, shocked.
“Because you’ve been spying for Robert.”
She frowned. “No, I haven’t. I swear I’m nobody’s spy. I mean he gave me his number, but I never called him. I don’t know what he told you, but there’s nothing going on between us.”
“Did you take me for a fool, Sheila?” I asked softly.
“No, of course not, but what you are accusing me of is simply not true. How could it possibly be true when he only gave me his number a few days ago? You saw it yourself. Here, in your office.”
“Robert didn’t slip his number to you a few days ago. He hired you to apply for this job before I got out of prison.”
She shook her head vigorously, but something flashed in her eyes. Fear. “No, that’s not true.”
“What are the odds that a woman who applies for the post of my secretary would be the doppelganger of the woman I was head over heels in love with?”
“We’re not exactly alike,” she said defensively. “We just have the same coloring and build. Strange as it may seem, these kinds of coincidences do happen in life.”
“You were supposed to seduce me, weren’t you?”
“No. Of course not. Not at all. It was just a coincidence. I swear it, Max. I’m not Robert’s spy. I don’t even like him. He gives me the creeps. I swear⎯”
“Don’t bother, Sheila. I happen to have proof. The program that Robert stole from me bears the hidden code that I made sure only you had access to.”
She took a step backwards guiltily, but her head shook vehemently in denial. “No. You have to believe me. It’s not me. Someone else, I don’t know who, must have stolen the program from my desk. It wouldn’t exactly be a difficult feat as my desk is pretty much unguarded whenever I’m off running errands or away at lunch.”
“I also took the liberty of having you investigated. Some intriguing things that are none of my business came up, but what interested me were some odd payments into your bank account from a shell company in Belize.”
Her face reddened suddenly when she knew I knew about her feme fatale dominatrix website.
“The only reason I kept you on was because it suited me for him to think you were still his inside person. Now, I no longer have use for you. You have thirty minutes to clean your stuff out of your desk and leave.”
A cunning expression crossed her face. “You mean you’re not going to take any other action against me.”
“No. Never having to see your face again will be reward enough.”
“Thank you, Max. Thank you. I’m really sorry. He forced me⎯”
“Don’t push your luck, Sheila. Get out now before I change my mind.”
She fled then.
News kept coming in throughout the rest of the afternoon. By the time I tuned in to the evening news, the writing was on the wall for Robert, and I knew it would not take long either.
Within three days, he filed for bankruptcy.
I had been avoiding all his calls and told Savannah to do the same. It was the only way to make him so furious he would incriminate himself.
And he did.
The voice notes full of screaming expletives and threats he left were perfect. As if icing on the cake he even did me the unexpected favor of further implicating himself by reminding me what he had done to me years ago. I saved the time dated messages, knowing I would need them for my next step.
On Friday, I made a phone call to Rick to check on our financial position. Revenues were up due to the influx of clients and it would be a few weeks before I could initiate the purchase of Steinberg, but I wanted to make sure we had the funds in place to do it when the time came.
On Monday, it came as no surprise to hear that Robert and all his Belize connections were also being scrutinized for tax evasion by the IRS. I smiled as I listened to that piece of news. It was amazing what one call to the right person in a government agency pointing them in the right direction could do.
I gave that one another few days to sink in before I added the cherry on top of the shit fest sundae of Robert’s destruction. More files. More incriminating proof of Robert secreting money into offshore accounts.
A few weeks later, I had my day in court.