Chapter 14
Lainie
By the time I get to Murphy’s, I’m not surprised I’m the last one to arrive. Even Keely made it here before me. Checking my watch again I see I’m right on time. At the table, I spy two baskets of wings, one with fries, and another with fried pickle chips. It’s our standard order but the fact it’s already on the table says someone was here extra early. “I’m not late, right?”
“Nope, I just needed a drink, so I got here early,” says Agatha as she raises her beer glass to her mouth.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say she’s been crying but that’s so not Agatha. “What’s wrong?”
“She won’t tell us.” Keely stares at her sister with concern. “She’s had an entire pitcher on her own already.
“Aggie. What’s up? Spill.”
Setting the glass down, I watch as her eyes well up and fresh tears pour out. “I g-got f-fired.”
There’s a collective gasp at the table. My workaholic sister fired? No way. “No!”
“What the hell happened?” asks Keely. She never holds back. I guess that’s a good thing.
Wiping fresh tears away, Agatha takes in a deep calming breath. “They said I, er, I embezzled money.”
“No fucking way.” Keely again. She’s the only one with a potty-mouth at this table.
“That’s insane,” says Sadie as she moves two seats over to sit by Aggie. “Why would they think you did something so preposterous?”
We wait for her to respond. She takes a big gulp of her beer. “Money’s missing. They said they followed the trail and it led right to me.”
“What evidence do they have?” asks Violet.
We all know Aggie’s penchant for solving puzzles. She loves reading mysteries in her spare time and prides herself by solving the crime before the book detective.
“I don’t know. They wouldn’t show me anything. All they said was, ‘If you leave today, without another word, we won’t press ch-charges.’” She starts to sob again. “Charges?” she squeaks. “Seriously? I’m not criminal.”
“Honey, it was probably just some accounting error. You do work in their accounting department. I’m sure they’ll find it. How much is missing?” I ask holding her free hand.
“Over a hundred thousand.”
“Dollars?!” shouts Keely. “Whoa, when you decide to turn to a life of crime, you really do it right.”
“Keely!” shouts Violet.
We’re all struck dumb by Violet’s raised voice. We stare at her, waiting.
“Sorry,” she mumbles. “Keely’s joke. It wasn’t helping.”
No, it wasn’t, but that’s sort of Keely’s stress-mechanism. Humor or an attempt at it. Most of the time she gets a laugh, but not this time. This time her joke falls flat.
“What can we do?” Sadie redirects us all back to Aggie.
“Nothing,” she sighs. “Well, it would help if we could change the subject.” Turning to me. “What’s with the email today? Why did you ask about Lewis?”
“Wait. Before we get to that,” says Sadie. “Don’t you think it’s odd they aren’t pressing charges? I mean, over one hundred thousand dollars? That’s not chump change.”
We all stare at Sadie. No one speaks for several minutes and it’s Aggie who breaks the silence. Sniffling, she says, “I thought of that. Right now, I need to process everything before I try to wrap my head around it.”
Standing up, I walk over and wrap my arm over her shoulder giving her a squeeze. “That’s a good plan, sis. We’re here for you.”
“I know.” She wipes her nose with a napkin. “Now, can we get back to the reason you called the meeting?”
