“I’m sorry, Mr. Hedgeman. I’m no longer employed by CPH.” She unclenched her jaw, trying to ease the near-constant headache she’d carried around for the past threedays.
“I’m well aware of that. Our general manager tasked me with figuring out just how these mistakes happened. We were always quite pleased with your work. The GM in particular. He spoke highly of you and mentioned that you had a phenomenal memory fornumbers.”
“Um, yes. I do. But that doesn’t mean I know what happened. I suggest you contactCPH.”
“We did that. They blamed you,” he said matter-of-factly.
“So why are you calling? To get ammunition for a lawsuit against me? I’m notinterested.”
His desperate voice stopped her from disconnecting the call. “Wait! No. We have a fax you sent last year with preliminary numbers. Do youremember?”
Tucking the phone between her shoulder and her ear, she said, “Hang on, Mr. Hedgeman. Give me two minutes.” She grabbed a pad of paper and a pen and then closed her eyes. Numbers floated in her head. Thousands. Millions. Salaries, deductions, charitable contributions, depreciation, and insurance. “What’s the bottom line of that fax? The estimated taxowed?”
“Twenty-three million, four hundred and sixty-twothousand.”
“And how much did you pay CPH? Not counting theirfees?”
Elizabeth’s stomach twisted into a knot. She’d seen the file on Carter’s desk just a few days ago. She knew exactly how much they’d supposedlypaid.
“Twenty-six million and change. What I need to know, Miss Bennett, is where the mistake happened. The IRS has a six-week turnaround time for information requests—if we’re lucky. Our independent audit suggests we owed a sum much closer to your fax than the final return. All the owners want to know is whether another set of hands touched our return besidesyours.”
She chewed her lip.“I can’t answer that, Mr. Hedgeman. I’m under a strict confidentiality clause. It binds me for five years after my employment ends. Believe me, I wish I could. Please tell Larry that I’msorry.”
Her hands shook as she set down the phone. Every return at CPH went to one of the three partners before it was delivered to the client. When she’d sent the Red Sox files to the partners last year, their tax owed was within five thousand dollars of the preliminary fax she’d sent to their offices. Most clients didn’t ask for interim numbers, but the GM was a little OCD and had demandedthem.
Something happened to those returns. But who was responsible? And what the heck could she do about itnow?
Elizabeth wasn’t any closer to answering those questions when Alexander texted her that night. Still, she found herself laughing more with him than she felt she had right to given hersituation
They’d texted half of Thanksgiving night, and now, she was up past her bedtime again. She slipped into bed with her phone and grinned as she typed out areply.
Why are you up so early on a Saturdaymorning?
There is no rest for me here, Elizabeth. My employees get weekends off. I often do not. Though if I am successful this week, I might have more free timesoon.
Alexander was bored out of his mind with meetings. He was trying to hire someone to handle the day-to-day operations of the London office and had found no onesuitable.
Who would you hire? The woman with the string of successful companies under her belt who claims to want a new challenge?Or the man who retired as the COO of British Airwaysand decided he was too bored to stopworking?
Elizabeth pondered before returning:I haven’t met them or seen their resumes. But the woman would be my gut. If the man changed his mind once, he could do itagain.
That was my assessment as well. Thank you. How was yourday?
She didn’t know what to say to him. Awful? Frightening?Stressful?
I’ve hadbetter.
What’s wrong? Can Ihelp?
No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. Don’t you have your mother’s partytonight?
I do. Nicholas arrived late last night. Mother is thrilled. The two of us haven’t been home together in three years.He’s staying at thehouse.
You’renot?
Bloody hell, no. I love Mother dearly, but she’d drive me mad if I had to spend every moment with her. Nicholas might not survive theweekend.
A sudden pang of jealousy hit her. She never thought to ask. Did Alexader have a date for the party? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. It was well after one in the morning before he bid her goodnight. She didn’t think she’d sleep a wink wondering about his social life, but then he texted her one lasttime.
