Poetic Letters

Perfect Fit: Rosé & Lisa ii

Lisa

"You're not the boss of me," Rosé mumbles against my neck as I cradle her against my chest.

"Sure, beauty. Keep telling yourself that." I carry her inside the house and then make my way up the stairs. As soon as I get to the top, I hear a knock on the front door, and I look back to see Lalisa standing on the other side of the glass.

She waves at me, and when I nod my head for her to come in, she does. She takes one look at me holding Rosé in my arms, and I see all the questions forming.

"Give me a second," I say quietly because I'm pretty sure Rosé has passed out already.

When I get her into my room, I place her on the bed and remove her shoes. The kittens meow to get to us, so I go over and unlock the baby gate, and they rush to Rosé. Even the grumpy cat follows at a safe distance and then curls up at the end of the bed.

"I'll be right back," I whisper to Rosé before I brush a kiss over her lips. She hums in pleasure, and I watch her sleep for a moment longer before I force myself from the room.

"Hey," I call to Lalisa, jogging down the stairs and meeting her in the living room. "What's up?"

"Why were you carrying her?"

"She took a swim in a neon pink martini, and I had to fish her out." Lalisa chuckles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"We've had a breakthrough on the embezzlement case."

A few weeks ago, we got the death certificate from a client's estate, but when we pulled the files, we saw that money was being siphoned out of his account long after the client died. That was a huge red flag, so we hired a forensic accounting firm to comb through our books and look for any other irregularities. We also hired a private investigative team to find out who in the company would have a motive to do something like steal from our clients.

That was how Lalisa and Roseanne reconnected. She was part of the company we hired to go through our books, and they are well known for being the best in the business.

"The last time we talked about this, our investigators were digging into Leo Jenkins," I say, and Lalisa nods.

"Yeah, and after what Minnie found, Jinx is the prime suspect."

Minnie and her husband were suspicious of the accounts manager everyone calls Jinx. Lalisa and I were skeptical because he worked for our dad for decades before we took over the company, and he's a close family friend.

"How? He's in France right now, isn't he? I remember hearing him say they were going on vacation."

"Minnie somehow had a friend track his movements while he was there." Lalisa pulls out her phone and pulls up an email. "You weren't in the office today, but look at this."

Lalisa passes me her phone, and I scan the document from Minnie. In it, there's a detailed list of everywhere he went, including photos of him outside several financial institutions. All of which she says don't report their client funds to the United States.

"What the fuck?" I scan the document a couple of times while Lalisa paces.

In the beginning of this, I gave Lalisa the reins to pursue this since Minnie and her husband didn't need the two of us in their faces all day. I knew that Lalisa would let me know what they found out and if anything important came up. It also gave her the perfect excuse to work side by side with Roseanne, so the whole thing really hasn't been at the forefront of my mind.