Whad?The man was dumber than a fence post, but that was the least of his problems. “You said ‘damn it.’”
His thick brows furrowed. “I thought it was ‘fuck’ we couldn’t say.”
And I was going to bang my head on my fucking desk. “We do not use any curse words when on duty, Captain, even something as innocuous as ‘hell’ or ‘damn.’” When his brows scrunched together again, I figured he was trying to puzzle out whatinnocuousmeant. Whatever.
“We have a problem, several in fact.” I had to look away when he crammed the rest of his doughnut into his mouth.
“Like what?”
“Like this contract with Ed’s Garage.” I slid a copy of the contract across the desk, but he didn’t pick it up. I didn’t blame him because it was a snake that was about to bite him.
He eyed it warily. “What about it?”
“The department is paying Ed’s Garage at least twice what we should be for the maintenance on our vehicles.” And since Ed was Moody’s cousin, I could guarantee Moody was getting a cut. Unfortunately I couldn’t prove it. Yet. I was working on it, though.
“It’s the going rate. You calling him a cheat?”
That was exactly what I was calling him. I wished I could say that my captain was smart enough to be nervous, but the dumbass was getting mad. The next sheet I slid his way was the breakdown of costs I’d gotten last week from the head of Chicago PD’s motor pool.
“Captain Moody, those are the going charges for maintenance and repair items in the city of Chicago, where they pay union rates.” I pushed the page closer to him, but he refused to even glance at it.
He glared at me. “Just because—”
“You can sit there and talk yourself blue in the face, but there’s nothing you can say to convince me that we should be paying Ed’s Garage double what a big city does. Here’s how this is going to play out. Can I assume that there is an Ed at Ed’s Garage?”
Moody gave a curt nod.
“Then Ed has a choice. We have nine months left on our contract with him. We will honor that on the condition he charges us the same rates as Chicago PD pays, minus ten percent. When he asks why the discount, it’s because he doesn’t have the overhead that a big city does. If that is unacceptable to him, then the contract is null and void.”
“You can’t do that,sir.”
“Oh, but I can.” He’d practically spit thesirat me, and without doubt more colorful names for me were circling around in his head. “According to the fine print, we have the right to audit his books and invoices at any time during the length of the contract. Do you think he wants that?”
Silence greeted me. “Didn’t think so. When we finish here, you and I are taking a ride over to Ed’s Garage to explain things to Ed.” I wasn’t about to let Moody get there before me. If Ed cooperated, I’d let him finish out the contract, but it wouldn’t be renewed. There were two other garages I’d scouted out that I’d ask to bid on the contract.
“The next item we need to discuss is the building’s cleaning service.”
Because I was watching for a reaction to that one, I was rewarded with pure hatred in his eyes before he blanked them. “You can tell your sister that her cleaning services will no longer be needed unless she’s willing to accept the job at twenty dollars an hour.” The fifty we were paying her now was ridiculous. “You might remind her that even that is more than she’d get for the same job anywhere else.”
“You can shove the job…” He clamped his mouth shut.
I wasn’t even deducting points from the man anymore. Why bother? He was gone as soon as I could make it happen.
“Is that all?” he said, standing.
“No, there’s one more thing.” I waited for him to sit again, stifling a smirk when he eyed the door as if he’d like to run straight through it, leaving the outline of his body in the wood. “There will be no more lunches or dinners charged to the department’s entertainment account. In fact, we no longer have charge privileges at any restaurant in town.”
After I’d discovered he was entertaining his family and friends, charging it to the department—and why did a small-town police department even have an entertainment budget?—I’d spent all afternoon on Saturday visiting restaurants. They weren’t any happier now than Moody was. Not surprising considering how much money that was not his that he’d spread around.
The only response he gave was to press his lips together so hard that they turned white. Those three things were all I’d found so far, but I wouldn’t be surprised as I dug deeper to find more ways he’d figured out how to fleece the department.
“Now we’re done. Let’s go have a little talk with Ed.”
“We can’t affordnew uniforms,” Mayor Jenkins said.
“Yes, we can.” My little trip to Ed’s Garage with Moody had gone as expected. There’d been a lot of sputtering and denials, but Ed had come around to my way of thinking when the subject of an audit was brought up. Now I had a mayor I hadn’t quite figured out yet how to deal with. I was pretty sure I could count on Buddy Ferguson, our town manager, as an ally, and I hoped to have that confirmed by the end of this meeting.
“The budget that was submitted three months ago wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on.” I handed both men copies of my new budget, then sat back and gave them a few minutes to review it.
