by T. L. Reeve
Dave gave Benji a shrug. “We’ll take you not showing up as an accessory to the fact. See you in fifteen.” He strode from the office, his head held high and his heart hammering. God damn, it'd been a long time since he played the intimidation card. He'd been content to help businesses form plans and draw up the necessary paperwork for such. Being in that office... Shit, he wished he'd gone into criminal law.
When he met Kenny outside, the guy was leaned against his truck, taking a drag off of a cigarette. Kenny’s features were strained. His right hand had been balled into a tight fist and his posture radiated don’t-fuck-with-me. “We’re on.” Dave squeezed his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get going. We’ll need a dark corner for this.”
Kenny grunted out an answer Dave didn't catch, and it was probably a good thing he didn't. They drove through town in silence until they pulled up to the pub and parked. Kenny turned to him. The strain rolling off of him did nothing to settle Dave's worries. "If he doesn't answer our questions, we go to the police with what we have. I don't give a shit how little is there. Scarlett won't spend another day under her sister's bullshit."
“Think I don’t understand where you are right now?” Dave asked. “I saw her right after the attack. Saw how her family treated her. Saw how her sister got all the praise while Scarlett was compared to Maisie. She had no life. None. That sanctuary is hers. It’s her curse and her salvation.”
“Then you agree?” Kenny popped a brow.
“Yeah, I agree. I would’ve done it even if you didn’t give your macho speech.”
Kenny laughed then groaned. “Shit. I feel like I have a million knots tied together inside me. When one loosens, another cinches down.”
Dave felt the same way. "Let's get inside and get set up. I hate to say it, but I think we should record the meeting."
“Yeah, the minute Benji finds out what Maisie has been doing and how much trouble she’s in, he might change his tune and deny everything.” Kenny popped open his door. “Then where would we be?”
“Right back at square one.” Dave climbed out on the passenger side and followed Kenny into the pub.
“Only we’d have information this time,” Kenny muttered as they stepped inside.
There in the back, with a single light above it, was a small booth big enough for the three of them. Dave nudged Kenny and they made their way to the back. While they sat and waited for Benji, he tried to collect his thoughts and figure out how to ask the questions they’d need to have answered before they could take everything to the DA.
With one phone call, everything had changed. The knowledge of how Scarlett had been treated by her family was always a tangible thing to Dave. However, the depravity of her sister, Maisie, destroyed what little respect he had left for the Leon family—minus Scarlett.
"Heads up looks like Benji wants to do the right thing," Kenny said, lifting his chin toward the entrance.
"We'll find out shortly, won't we?" Dave asked, turning slightly in his chair. "For all, we know he's here to tell us to fuck off."
“Wanna make a little wager?” Kenny teased.
Dave grinned. “You’re on.”
Chapter Seven
"So, obviously this isn't good," Dave said when Benji sat. "You know that now, don't you?"
Benji grimaced. “I sat there for a minute after you left and looked through the folder. I can’t believe we missed it.”
Kenny held up his hand. “We won’t entertain your pity party. Sorry.”
“Oh. Oh no. I didn’t mean it like that,” Benji said. “Not in the least. I’m angry. I feel... Dirty.”
Good. He should feel worse than dirty. Dave stared at Benji for a moment, sizing him up. “What are you going to do to fix it?”
“Whatever it takes.” Benji pushed the file toward Dave and Kenny. “The loan officer was Victory Griffen. She’s one of the top loan people at the bank. Looks like from what I can see, she’s done several smaller projects with Maisie including setting up a secondary account in Maisie’s name. Right now, the balance is four million.”
Dave sat back in his chair and blew out a breath. When approached Timothy about the job, one he knew the guy would take the job and two when Timothy started digging, Dave knew the man would find the missing money, how much, would be the main question. Yet, as of that particular moment, Timothy had only found three hundred and thirty thousand which meant there was more hidden. So, it begged the question, where did the remainder of the money come from and where in the ledgers was it hiding?
“Shit man,” Kenny spat. “Didn’t you think to, I don’t know, keep an eye on the accounts or something?”
Benji shrugged. “Why would I? Look at it from my perspective, no one said there was an issue until this moment. Should I have maybe dug deeper? Sure, possibly, but the bank also handles accounts for other businesses as well.”
“I need everything going back from the beginning. How long do you think that will take?” Dave folded his hands on the table.
“Tomorrow morning? I have to do this without anyone knowing, I would assume?” Benji cocked a brow.
“The quieter the better,” Dave answered. “I’ll be your contact since I’m the lawyer for the sanctuary, and I should have been called when all this shit started. My job, Benji, is to protect not only the Leon family legacy but also the animals sent to live with Scarlett and Maisie. At this point, I've failed both. I don't like being a failure."
"I'll have them for you." Benji pushed the conservatorship paperwork along with the will and power of attorney across the table. "Take these, for now, maybe they'll help you more."
They would. They were the starting point of all of this. If he could figure out who the doctor was that gave Maisie the conservatorship over Scarlett, he could also hand that to his friend in the District Attorney's office. "Thanks."
Kenny leaned forward. Rage burned in his eyes. “If we find out you breathed a word of this, friends with Dave or not, you will go down just like Victory. Don’t fuck with us.”
Benji blanched. “Never. I-I swear.”
Kenny wrapped his knuckles against the table. “Okay. Then we’ll expect the rest of the information by the morning.” He motioned to Dave. “We should go. Don’t need people talking.”
Dave agreed. “See you soon, Benji.”
****
Scarlett sat across from Dave, Kenny, Edward, and Timothy. The conference table between them had been covered in documents, some of which, she'd never seen before. Plus, she was still in shock. When Dave arrived back at her apartment with the conservatorship file along with the new will and power of attorney, she was devastated and although she knew they were forgeries, she also realized there was no depth to her sister's depravity.
If anything, she was in for a showdown with her sister. However, the battleplan was still a work in progress. “So, where do we go from here?”
“I have a meeting with my friend this afternoon,” Dave said. “Afterwards we’ll know if everything we have is civil or criminal.”
“Criminal,” Timothy said, without looking up from his computer. “Embezzlement is a crime.”
Scarlett gave a soft chuckle. She liked him. Though they’d only known each other for a little while, he’d grown on her. “We’ll go with criminal then.” Timothy glanced up at her and smirked, before going back to whatever he’d been working on. “I don’t recognize any of this stuff. I don't know the doctors or psychologists. My parents never sent me to one after the attack. I guess it was some punishment for being on the wrong side of the fence."
“That’s fucked up,” Edward said.
She shrugged. “Can’t say I knew any better either. I made the choice to run headlong into the area knowing full well what the ramifications would be. So, if I had an occasional bad dream, well, it was my penance.”
“Fucked up, is what it is,” Dave muttered. “If it hadn’t been for my father insisting you be added to the will and the ownership of Hearts and Paws, I’d hate to have known what would
’ve happened to you the day they died.”
“Thrown out with the trash,” Scarlett said. “I’m not even being dramatic about it. I know the truth about this place. I hate to admit it, there have been more times than not where I’ve wanted to leave.”
The lingering guilt and how much she despised her parents due to how they treated her after everything happened ate away at her for a long time. It’d been a chore to be there. To see everyone come and go from the animals she loved, yet she couldn’t. And, even when she got up the mental strength to do so, her body shook so bad, she’d been rooted in place. The first time she’d gone into the enclosure after the incident had been with Kenny when he showed her the new additions.
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Scar,” Dave said. “You had every right to pack up and leave this place and never come back.”
“I couldn’t do it,” she whispered. “It’s quite obvious who cares for the big cats and who doesn’t. Then there’s Samantha.”
“You’ve got more compassion than I do,” Timothy said. “I would have cut ties and not looked back.”
She tilted her head. “Would you have?”
He nodded. “Don’t know what these guys think, but it sounds like your sister hates you so much, she’d rather have you dead than alive. Or if she can’t kill you, she’d have you committed.”
Observant. “Well, she didn’t kill me, and I’ve not been committed yet.”
“Yet,” Timothy said. “I believe she set you up that day in the enclosure.”
“I think we’re all of the same thinking,” Kenny said, speaking for the first time since they arrived at Dave’s office.
“Can’t prove it,” she replied. “Unless we get a confession out of her. Maisie incriminating herself is slim to none.”
Dave motioned to the conference table where all the documents were laid out exposing Maisie’s schemes and scams. “You sure?”
No, but if she had to guess, her sister would blame her new husband or worse, Scarlett for trying to remove Maisie from the will or whatever ridiculous excuse she could come up with on the fly. Scarlett learned early on, Maisie got what she wanted, when she wanted, and no one crossed her. Scarlett, on the other hand, got shit and shoved into it.
“I can’t comment.” She pulled the banking statements forward. “I still can’t believe I missed all of this.”
“It’s pretty easy to when Maisie’s your conservator,” Kenny quipped.
“Touché.”
Dave glanced at his watch. “It’s time for me to head out. Why don’t you head back to the sanctuary and I’ll let you know something when I can?”
"No." She shook her head. "This is my life. If you're going to talk to the district attorney, I'm going with you. He should have to look me in the face and tell me whether he can or can't do anything with the information we have."
“Well, you heard the lady,” Kenny teased, winking at her. “Take her with you. If you can’t knock any sense into the DA, you know Scarlett can and will.”
Warmth bloomed within her as heat spread across her cheeks. “You’re so bad.”
“I’ve been wondering what you’d look like when you blushed,” Timothy said.
Scarlett blinked surprised by his words. “Oh?”
He nodded. “Yeah. You’re absolutely gorgeous.”
****
An hour later, Dave and Scarlett sat before the district attorney going over all of the information they’d collected. Nervous energy coursed through her. What if all of this was for not? It was only their word against the documents that fooled even the bank. But surely the DA would dig deeper than they had, and would find the truth, right?
Someone, somewhere in her life had to begin to believe her over Maisie. Yes, each of the men who'd spent the better half of the week surprising her and trusting her, were in her corner, however, it wouldn't mean anything if her life wasn't her own.
“Where did you say the phone number for this psychologist lead you?” the District Attorney asked.
“Defunct number,” Dave answered. “The same can be said for the lawyer who put the new will together as well.”
“And the bank accounts?”
“Shills,” Scarlett answered. “Our forensic accountant found the website. It’s a basic blog theme made to appear sophisticated. However, when you delve into the site, it all leads back to the home page and a comment page.”
The DA scrubbed his chin as he picked up the loan application and file from the bank. Benji had been forthcoming, Dave explained, but not without some persuasion. To think, while she did her level best to keep them in the black, her sister had been undermining her. No matter how many times she thought she'd be able to retain her sister's love and approval after so many years, she had to face facts, Maisie hated her for no particular reason, other than, Scarlett had been born.
"Did this Benji Brinks know at any point anything was going on regarding the conservatorship or the changing of the will?"
“He thought it was on the up and up,” Dave said. “I believe him. I think if he’d have thought something was wrong, he’d have called Scarlett.”
“And this Victory Griffen?”
“Not sure. She is on all of the loans since the new will and conservatorship were created. So, either she is an unwitting pawn or she’s working with Maisie.” Dave scrubbed his face. “Marcus. Give it to me straight, what can we do to fix this? Scarlett has never been hospitalized, except for after the lion attack. She’s never been seen by a psychologist. All of the paper trails end in bogus information.”
“Would you be willing to prove it wrong, Miss Leon?” Marcus folded his hands on the desk. “Are you willing to go through the paces, see a psychologist and talk with a doctor?”
Dave opened his mouth to speak, but Scarlett placed her hand on his forearm. “I’ll do it.” She didn’t like it one bit. She shouldn’t have to prove she was innocent. Nonetheless, she’d agree to it. If it meant proving once and for all who her sister was, she'd do whatever it took. "When can we start?"
"Let me call a few people. If we can get the ball running quickly, I'd say as soon as next week. We'll do everything in one go." Marcus picked up a document off the table. "Your sister got married recently. Do you know anything about her husband?"
“Eduardo?” She shook her head. “No. Should I?”
"He's got ties to some intense people," Marcus answered. "I'll do a little digging there too. It would be great if you knew when they started dating or got together."
Scarlett snorted. “My sister has a baby by a man she’d never tell us about and has now gotten married to another man I didn’t know existed until the night of the auction. Plus, according to our vet, she’s sleeping with one of his techs.”
He frowned. “Right, the auction.” Three thumb drives sat on the desk in front of his laptop. “Have you seen the facilities these cubs are going to?”
“Some,” she replied. “My parents would have known them longer. They were all in the rescuing business together.”
He handed Scarlett the original will she’d had since her parents passed away. “Can you show me the clause about not selling or no reproduction of the animals at the sanctuary.”
“It’s not in the will. It’s in the by-laws of the sanctuary—something my grandfather insisted on. All big cats must be neutered or spayed when they are brought to the refuge.”
“And this just started happening?”
She nodded. Scarlett had done a little investigating on her own when no one was paying attention. “Yes, Fabien our veterinarian was going to spay one of our oldest female tigers, but Maisie put her plan in place and with the new arrival of a male, well... Nature took its course.”
“The lion?”
“Maisie claims the lion was already pregnant when she arrived at Hearts and Paws.” It still rubbed her the wrong way. If what Maisie said was true, that meant the organization that rescued the lion had also lied about the animal’s status—something Scarlett had a hard
time believing since they’d worked together for more years than she could remember.
“You’re not convinced,” he said. “Why?”
Scarlett explained her theory. “If I were to believe my sister, the company would have had to have known the tiger was pregnant and deliberately not told us. In all the years my family worked with them, they never lied. Why all of a sudden would they start now?”
"All right," Marcus stated. "So, without doing any more digging and going by what you've both said and what we have evidence for, we have two cases here. One for embezzlement and fraud and the other for the illegal sale of exotic animals, which might be a bit harder to prove. Since you've agreed these sanctuaries also taken in big cats who need to be rehabilitated and live free lives and, since they are preserves dedicated to taking care of the exotic animals, they have permits to do so."
“But—”
Marcus held up his hand. “We could go after each refuge if you’d like, however all of the animals would be confiscated. Where would we put all of them to be sure they were safe?”
She knew of some places offhand who would take the cats, no questions asked, but not the hundreds in all of their care. "So, what do we do?"
“Go with the embezzlement and fraud. We should be able to prove it without a reasonable doubt.”
“Should?” Scarlett cocked a brow.
“We never deal in absolutes, Miss Leon,” Marcus said. “Telling someone they’ll win is a big no-no. It opens us up to lawsuits. I’d rather be cautiously optimistic than completely pessimistic.”
It seemed reasonable, considering the situation they were in. "Fine. We'll do it your way then."
“It doesn’t mean the charges are any less heinous, Scarlett,” Dave said, trying to reassure her. “It means, giving the other animals a chance at having fulfilling lives from here on out. I know you couldn’t deal with their neglect on your hands if something was to go down.”
She would too. She'd take all of the guilt and suffering upon her. She always had. It made her empathetic to the plight of the big cats. If they investigated the individual sanctuaries and found wrongdoing, who knew where the animals would end up or worse, euthanized. Yet, on the other hand, she felt ganged up on, like she had to consider everyone else before she thought about herself or her cats. She had to make sure others were still taken care of first and wasn't that some shit? Why couldn't she be selfish for a while? Why couldn't she come first?
