Before she could ponder further, Kyle jumped down from the tree trunk and ran up to grasp Conner’s other hand.
“I’m hungry.”
Conner smiled. “Then we’d better get back.”
Darci snagged Jayden’s hand. Then the four of them walked down the beach, all abreast. Conner didn’t release her, even when they rounded the bend and came into view of the others.
Meagan smiled up at them from where she knelt on one of two blankets spread out on the sand. Allison was next to her, the two of them distributing individually wrapped deli sandwiches. Blake tore open a large bag of chips, and Hunter pulled drinks from a cooler. Beyond them, a flock of seagulls waited for whatever morsels might get left behind.
Meagan’s gaze went to their joined hands, and her smile widened. She probably thought she was getting her wish—the two of them a couple. She was a little premature. A lot of issues stood in the way, some of them insurmountable.
Kyle released Conner’s hand and ran to stand in the middle of the nearest blanket. “Come on, you guys. This one’s for our family.”
Darci’s heart stuttered. Our family. That was what they would look like to anyone who saw them—a husband and wife with their two children. Longing carved a hollow trail through her heart.
She sank down next to Kyle, and Conner and Jayden followed. As Hunter blessed the food, two hands gripped hers, one large and one tiny. Kyle completed the circle of four.
A family. Someday it would have to end. But today she would enjoy the illusion. She wouldn’t focus on the loneliness sure to bombard her when Conner and Kyle were no longer part of her life. And she wouldn’t think about the impact it would have on Kyle when his grandparents took him back. Yet another upheaval in his short life.
That sad, angry boy had woven his way right into her heart. So had his kind and caring uncle. Almost from the start, she and Conner had shared a special bond.
She would cherish it while it lasted. And when it was over...well, she would face that when the time came.
And not a moment before.
* * *
Darci stepped through the break room door into the noonday sunshine. Her small cooler hung over one shoulder, her purse over the other. Today lunch would be in her car. Conner had sent her a text shortly after ten this morning, telling her to call when she got a chance. Whatever he wanted to talk to her about, they probably wouldn’t want Wiggins eavesdropping.
After unlocking her car, she tossed her cooler and purse over the console and slid into the driver’s seat. She finally had her Corolla back. She’d gotten the call yesterday morning that it was ready. So after work, Conner had followed her to return the rental car and taken her to the body shop. The whole situation had been a little inconvenient, but at least she’d gotten a new paint job for her trouble.
She removed her sandwich and apple from her cooler and unscrewed the cap on her water bottle. After tearing open the small bag of chips, she pulled her phone from her purse and dialed Conner. “Hey, what’s up?”
He got right to the point. “I talked to Jerry, and one load of aggregate goes out to Marion Concrete once every week or two. Someone’s creating fake tickets.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. Now we need to figure out why.”
“That’s not all. The bulldozer has been here for years.”
Darci wrinkled her brow. He was losing her. “What bulldozer?”
“The Case.”
“That’s impossible. I’ve got a copy of the cashier’s check and everything. Before April of this year, that piece of equipment doesn’t show up on the depreciation schedule, the book asset detail or anything.”
“Then what you’re looking at has been doctored.”
“How did you find this out?” Maybe his information was faulty.
“One of the equipment operators, Joe Samson. During our morning break, I was asking him about some of the equipment. I wondered if P. T. was going to be replacing any of the older pieces, because we’ve got some expensive repairs coming up. He didn’t think so. I said that the Case probably blew this year’s budget. That’s when he told me it wasn’t bought this year. When he came to P. T. five years ago, it was already here.”
She shook her head, confusion swirling inside her. What was purchased with that $40,000 check? Apparently it wasn’t the Case. “I’ll see what I can figure out.”
“Be careful. Don’t do anything on your computer.”
She took a bite of her ham-and-cheese sandwich and talked around it. “I can look at the depreciation schedules. I deal with those all the time.”
Although Conner finally agreed, his tone held reluctance. “Just don’t take any unnecessary chances.”
“I won’t. But I’m hoping I’ll have some news when I meet you out here at five.”
She said farewell then dialed her mother. Last night, she’d had a long conversation with her. It wasn’t fair to expect her to keep Jayden and not level with her. Besides that, her mom was a praying lady. And right now, Darci could use all the prayers she could get.
At her request, her mom put Jayden on the phone. Only two days had passed since Saturday’s outing, and already the separation was killing her.
“Hi, sweetie, it’s Mommy.” She injected enthusiasm into her tone. “Are you being a good boy for Grandma?”
There was no answer. She didn’t expect any.
When her mom came back on the phone, her tone was filled with worry. “Please stay safe.”
“That’s my plan. I’m a lot safer with Conner than staying alone. He’s even hired a bodyguard.”
“He seems like such a nice young man. A much better choice than Doug was.”
Darci shook her head. She’d told her mom last Saturday that she and Conner were nothing more than friends. Her mom had just nodded with a knowing half smile. Whatever she thought she knew, she was seeing things that weren’t there.
After finishing her conversation with her mother, she dropped her apple core into the cooler and stepped out of the car. Once inside her office, she sat down at the computer. There was nothing in the equipment file that would show what really happened. She’d already looked.
Of course, she’d checked the depreciation schedule, too. As expected, the Case was added in April. She’d even gone back to the prior year, and there was no mention of it, fully depreciated or not. And it wasn’t on the book asset detail, either.
But she hadn’t gone back any further than that. Somewhere in the past, that 2006 Case bulldozer had to be in the records. Unless Joe was mistaken.
She clicked on a folder titled Depreciation Schedules. There was one for every year, going all the way back to 2004 when the mine opened. She would start with 2006 and work her way forward.
She brought the cursor over the file, but just before clicking on it, she hesitated. The date modified was May 31...of the current year. In fact, each depreciation schedule from 2006 through last year was modified in May.
Right after Claire found the irregularity on the bank statement.
Her eyes widened. Someone made off with almost $40,000, and when Claire figured it out, they created backup for an equipment purchase that never took place and wiped out all traces of the original one.
Movement in her peripheral vision drew her attention. Wiggins stood in her doorway. She jumped and clicked off the folder.
“You startled me. I was getting ready to work on depreciation entries. The John Deere 410G backhoe is going to be fully depreciated next month, so I’ve got to redo my calculations.”
Wiggins crossed his arms. “That won’t be necessary. I’ve decided I don’t need you anymore.”
Her jaw went slack, and her thoughts scattered. “You’re firing me?”
“Firing, letting go, laying off, however you want to put it. Pack up your things and leave.�
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She shook her head, her mind still spinning. “You can’t do this. I’m going to Peter Turlong.” It was an empty threat. Turlong had hired her, but he’d left everything in Wiggins’s hands, including the hiring of new employees and the firing of current ones.
Wiggins stepped into her office and closed the door behind him. “Don’t threaten me, Tucker. I can bury you. I think you’ve figured that out.” His voice was low, ensuring that his words wouldn’t carry beyond her office walls. But it held a lethal coldness. “If you want to be around to raise the boy of yours, you’d better gather your things and leave quietly.”
Before she could formulate a response, he opened the door and disappeared down the hall.
She dropped her head into her hands, the full weight of her situation bearing down on her. She was jobless. But that wasn’t her biggest concern. Without her work at P. T., she’d never be able to clear her name.
Why was he firing her now? It had to be about more than the depreciation folder. He’d accessed the LogMeIn activity log.
She slid the two pictures of Jayden into her purse, retrieved her cooler from the closet and flipped her sweater over her arm. That was pretty much it. Once she left, she would text Conner and ask him to call her on his afternoon break. Since he had ridden with her, she would need to pick him up. But she would have him meet her at the road. If Wiggins didn’t know that the two of them had contact outside of work, she wasn’t going to broadcast it to him. Maybe Conner could continue trying to clear her.
She made her way through the break room and out the back door, thankful that she didn’t encounter anyone along the way. Having to explain she’d just been let go would add humiliation to her despair. She’d never been fired from a job. She’d never even been reprimanded.
After stepping out the door, she made her way toward her car. As she got closer, dread bore down on her. Her passenger door was slightly ajar. Someone had broken in to her car.
She picked up her pace, closing the final yards at a jog. The window was whole, but the rubber around it was warped in one spot. Someone had used a Slim Jim or similar tool to gain access. Nothing inside looked disturbed. Her stereo system was even still there.
Then she saw it—a black duffel bag on the front passenger floorboard.
She backed away, shaking her head. Fear slid down her throat and settled in her stomach like lead. She needed to call the police. It could be a bomb.
Or it could be something Wiggins had planted to get her arrested. She needed to find out what the bag contained before bringing in law enforcement.
She crept back to the car and opened the door. She wouldn’t pick up the bag. She would just carefully open the zipper and peek inside. Then she would decide where to go from there.
Leaning into the car, she dropped her sweater and cooler into the seat and reached for the zipper. A phone had slid between the seat and the bag, its edge barely visible. Was it dropped accidentally or planted there? She grasped the zipper and pulled it back one tooth at a time. As the bag fell open, her stomach went into a free fall. It contained bundles of money.
Dear God, no. More evidence against her. Physical evidence, right in her car. She needed to get rid of it, but not leave behind any prints. The thought went against everything honest in her. But what choice did she have?
She straightened and looked around her. Her purse still hung from her left shoulder, her phone inside. But before she could call Conner, the knob twisted and the break room door started to swing open. Instinctively, she pushed her car door shut and ducked.
Wiggins’s voice drifted to her. “That’s hers there, the red Toyota.”
Her pulse began to race. Wiggins was with someone. And he was talking about her.
Staying in a crouch, she duck walked around the back of the SUV next to her and peered beneath. Although she hadn’t heard the second person speak, there were two sets of feet, and they were moving toward her car. Who was Wiggins with?
As they passed the vehicle she was hiding behind, she crawled to the next.
Wiggins continued, “She knows I’ve been watching her. She probably suspected that we were closing in on her and planned to take off. But her car’s still here, so she’s got to be hiding nearby.”
“I’ll call in backup.” The voice belonged to the other man. He continued, no longer talking to Wiggins. After relaying details, he requested more units, ending with the suggestion that they send a couple of K-9s. “In the meantime, I’ll keep an eye on her car. Without transportation, she won’t get far.”
She swallowed hard against the bile rising in her throat. The other man was a cop, someone Wiggins had called. And she was their suspect. Within minutes, the property would be crawling with deputies. But if she could get enough of a head start...
She crawled past several other vehicles, moving toward the woods. But between her and safety lay the stretch of asphalt that held the two picnic tables. She would never be able to pass through it unseen.
As she reached the last vehicle, Wiggins’s voice stopped her. “Hey, look what she left behind.”
Anticipation coursed through her. Wiggins had seen the bag. Of course, he was probably the one who had put it there, or had someone put it there. For the next several seconds, both men would be focused on that bag.
She pulled off her shoes, straightened and ran barefoot the final fifteen feet, clutching her purse to her side. After slipping around the corner of the building, she covered the final thirty feet.
Inside the forest, dried pine needles and twigs crunched beneath her feet, digging into the tender skin of her soles. She slipped back into her dress shoes, then resumed her panicked dash. If the men heard her, they would come after her. She prayed that the breeze rustling the trees would be enough to mask the noise she was making.
Because she couldn’t slow down, even for a moment. She had to put as much distance as possible between her and the authorities now descending on P. T. And the dogs. She would have to somehow elude the dogs.
For several minutes, she ran, panic pounding close on her heels. Her lungs burned, and perspiration ran down her sides and back. She had no destination in mind, no thought for where she would spend the night. The fight-or-flight response had kicked in. And she was in full-blown flight.
Her toe caught a root, and the ground rose up to meet her. She slammed forward face-first, the bed of pine needles doing nothing to cushion her fall. After several moments, she pushed herself to an upright position. Her purse had landed three feet away, its contents strewn about the forest floor. Her left hip hurt, likely bruised from a tree root. And needles of pain shot through her left shoulder and wrist. She rubbed the complaining joints, then made a couple of circles with her hand and a wider one with her arm. Everything seemed to work.
But she had no clue where she was. For ten or fifteen minutes, she’d run blindly. The road should be to her left, but she had no idea how far.
She needed to get her head on straight. Not only were the cops after her, but Wiggins’s men likely were, too.
And she had nowhere to turn. Her parents would be watched. So would all her friends on Cedar Key. And there was too much of a chance that someone would be keeping an eye on Conner, too. Maybe she could call Doug.
She dismissed the idea as soon as it crossed her mind. She didn’t trust him, even less since he’d threatened to fight her for custody of Jayden. If she was going to bring Doug into her confidence, she may as well hand Jayden over to him now.
Hopelessness descended on her. She was on her own, alone in the woods in a pair of dress pants, a silk blouse and a light sweater. And nothing to eat or drink except a protein bar and a minibottle of water that she carried in case of emergency. When she’d put them in her purse, this wasn’t the kind of emergency she’d had in mind.
No, she wouldn’t give up. God gave her a brain. She would
use it. If she conserved, she could make the water and protein bar last till morning. And she had cash. Not much, but enough to get her by until she came up with a plan.
First she would call Conner to tell him what had happened. He would have to find a way home. With all that money in there, the sheriff’s department would probably impound her car.
A whine sounded in the distance, gradually becoming louder and more shrill, shattering her already frayed nerves. Then the sirens stopped. The call to Conner would have to wait.
Reinforcements had arrived.
She pushed herself to her feet and ran like she had never run before.
EIGHT
Conner stepped around the dump truck he was working on and looked toward the office building in the distance. The sirens he’d heard were now silent, but they had sounded awfully close.
He immediately found their source. One Levy County Sheriff’s vehicle was parked next to the building, two more at the back, lights flashing. Tension spread through him. Had some disgruntled former employee decided to take out his grievances on the others?
He removed his cell phone from his pocket and sent Darci a text—R U OK? When he tried to return to the truck that was demanding his attention, his focus was all over the place. He cast another glance at the building. If he drove up there, the deputies would probably shoo him away. But Darci was inside. It was all he could do to stand back and let law enforcement do its job.
But when ten minutes had passed with no return text, he got into his truck and drove down the dirt road toward the office. He had to make sure that whatever had happened, it didn’t involve Darci.
As he drew closer, though, activity in the parking lot told him it did. Two deputies stood at her car, the passenger door open. Wiggins was with them. Another deputy was headed toward the woods, a German shepherd leading the way. A fourth sheriff car pulled to a stop, and a deputy exited with another dog.
Mistletoe Justice Page 11