They sipped their coffee while he checked the paperwork stacked on his desk. Cassandra watched him for a moment, then set her cup down. “You can tell me I’m out of line, but are you really okay? You’ve never mentioned your father before, but I know how hard it is when you lose a parent. So if you want to talk…”
The last thing he wanted to do was talk about his father. He wanted nothing more than to forget him and his cruelty. He crunched down some more M&Ms before answering.
“Thanks. You’re wonderful. We weren’t close, so maybe it’s a bit easier for me.” Cassandra’s mother had passed away two years earlier, and Blake knew how deeply his friend still missed her.
“I guess.” Her skeptical gaze raked him, and he shifted under her assessing look. Not much escaped Cassandra, but that meant she also understood his boundaries. “Getting back to the work. I’ve been organizing the Brightman file, and you were right. It’s a nightmare. With his wife and daughters working there, it looks like they’ve been using the company as their own personal expense account.”
“I was afraid of that.” He’d seen the charges: expensive lunches, spa treatments, trips—all charged to the account. Unacceptable and a sure red flag for audit. “I’m planning on spending the next week going through it all and then making my report.”
“Okay.” She took his finished cup and hers over to the credenza and tossed them into the trash. His phone rang, and she held up her hand when he reached out to push the button. “Let me see who it is.” She made a face. “Ugh, it’s Scott.”
He laughed and held his hands up. “Okay, you can take that call.”
“Very funny. I’ll leave you to it.”
It was his turn to make a face. Then he sighed and answered the ringing phone. “Hello, Scott.”
“Can you come into my office, please?” The clipped voice of his supervisor sent a chill through him.
“Sure. Be right there.”
Knowing how Scott loved to pontificate and feel self-important, Blake grabbed a pad and pen and hustled out of his office and down the hall. Prina, Scott’s secretary, tipped her head at Scott’s closed door.
“He’s a bear this morning, so tread lightly.”
Blake rolled his eyes. “What else is new? But thanks.”
“Go ahead inside.”
He took a deep breath, then knocked on the closed door.
“Enter.”
Scott sat at his desk in a pristine white shirt, Republican-red tie, and charcoal-gray suit. His steely blue eyes held no warmth and tracked Blake as he took his seat in the chair.
“Sorry about your father.”
A bit surprised at even that perfunctory expression of condolences, Blake gave him a tentative smile. “Thank you.”
“As you can see, though, things didn’t slow down while you were out. In addition to the Brightman case, you’ve been assigned to work on three other audits that need to be completed in the next two months. I hope you weren’t planning on taking any other time off?”
Blake refrained from snapping out:No, I don’t anticipate any other relative dropping dead on me in the next eight weeks, so we’re good.
“No.”
“Good. The audits are Federal, State, and City. I’ll need a summary of the financials by the end of the week.”
Surely he must be kidding. “For all three or one? Two of the clients are banks, and one is a multinational corporation. That’s an insane amount of work for five days.”
“Then I suggest you move your ass and get started. It’s not like you’re doing anything else. Roman and Peter have each brought in two new accounts this month, and Leah is poised to bring us a national jewelry store chain. What have you done for us lately?”
At Scott’s arched brow, consternation twisted Blake’s guts. “I’ve been trying, but I don’t have the contacts—”
“But you have excuses, don’t you? You know what I do see? Passivity. You, sitting here day after day, plodding along in the files, while others make things happen.”
It was elementary school all over again. Boring Blake had resurfaced twenty-five years later, and it seemed that nothing had changed.
Continuing his attack, Scott pinned Blake with his unrelenting stare. “I don’t get the aggressiveness from you that we want from people here. When you were hired, it was expected you’d bring in clients as well as work on accounts. And you’ve done a passable job, but how many clients have you brought to Shipman and York in the past ten years?”
