Auf'd (The Belinda & Bennett Mysteries, Book Two)

Chapter 14

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If Mr. Sykes was right about the embezzling, it was time for a visit to her lawyer, Russell Carmichael. She might need his help in the near future, and she had a couple favors to ask. If this Riley person was fired for hacking into restricted files, maybe she found out about the embezzling, and maybe that notebook in the Sykes' liquor cabinet was a record of what they paid her to keep quiet. So before going home on her second trip of hauling kitten supplies, she stopped by his office.

His assistant sat her in Carmichael's upstairs office in the two-story blue Colonial townhouse in the Historic District. The older woman set down a cup of coffee in front of her and smiled. She was a little soft around the edges, and her cheeks plumped out. Carmichael came in and waved a hand to dismiss her.

"I don't know why she works for you," Belinda said when the door closed. "She's far too nice."

Carmichael laughed and slapped his knee. "Now that was a June Kittridge comment if I ever heard one."

"I did spend close to a year with my grandmother."

"It shows." Carmichael smiled. "And I mean that as a compliment. So, Belinda Kittridge, have you come about your shop? Or, more appropriately, truck? Because you are all neat and tidy and legal and have nothing to fear."

Belinda smiled sweetly. "I wish that's all I had to worry about right now." She took her time and explained the situation with the Sykes, and what she'd learned at the pet boutique.

Carmichael swished back and forth in his desk chair while he listened. "Now it all makes sense." He tapped his glasses on the desk in time with the words.

"What does?"

"There has been some legal gossip going around that they aren't doing everything by the books." Carmichael clasped his hands on the desk. "I doubted it was anything they couldn't wriggle out of with minimal damage...but this. This is different." He looked up at Belinda's panic-stricken face and smiled. "Don't worry. If it comes to that, I'll take care of you."

There were some perks to having a lawyer fawning over your grandmother. Belinda tried to relax and drummed her fingers on her purse. "Just one more thing."

Carmichael suppressed a grin. "What favor would you like to extort from me this time? Don't think I don't know you're taking advantage of my crush on your grandmother." He wagged a wrinkled finger at her.

"Would you be able to get a list of all of someone's previous employers?"

Carmichael's forehead wrinkled in confusion, but he said, "I think I can do that for you."

He made her wait downstairs in what was probably the parlor at one point, with his assistant shuffling around and smiling at her with every pass. The woman finally approached her tentatively, her voice hushed.

"Is it true, Ms. Kittridge?" She cast down her china blue eyes. "Because I really can't imagine it is."

Belinda set her coffee down. Instead of a foam cup, Carmichael served it in a flower-patterned china cup and saucer. She felt like a proper Victorian, sipping her coffee out of a china cup on a green velvet settee. "Is what true?"

The assistant hesitated. "That you left the security guard for that designer."

"Who said that?"

The assistant smiled apologetically. "I...overheard...your assistant talking to another client one day. They wanted to know if it was true...they'd seen a photo of you supposedly kissing the designer. Anyway, your assistant said it was true as far as she knew."