by Marta Perry
Jenna nodded. “No problem. The kids will enjoy it. Take all the time you need.”
She glanced at her watch. Only two hours until the meeting. She wouldn’t need all that much time.
Please, Lord, guide me to the answers. Let me find the truth before it’s too late.
Annie hurried across the square, red and gold leaves thrust by the wind sweeping along with her. She’d considered driving, but all of the places she’d needed to reach were situated in the blocks around the square—everything important in Lakeview centered there.
She crossed the street, her gaze darting ahead to search for the number of Harvey Ward’s real estate office. The board meeting was to be held there, in his conference room.
She glanced at her watch. She should still have a few minutes to spare, as long as they hadn’t started early. Even with Vera’s help, it had taken more time than she’d anticipated to find what she needed.
Then she’d rushed to the bank. She had to bring back documentation to satisfy the board.
There it was—another redbrick building, like most of the buildings around the square. She hurried up the steps, asked the receptionist for the conference room, and reached the hallway to see Link about to open the door.
“Link.” She said his name, trying to catch her breath and smooth down wind-ruffled hair. “Just a minute.”
His glance said he was so preoccupied with the challenge ahead that he barely realized she was there. She caught his wrist, feeling the strong pulse under his skin. “This can’t wait. I found it. I know what Frank’s up to with the board.”
For an instant he just stared at her, as if not sure he’d heard her right. Then he pulled her along the hall to where it ended at a window looking onto a brick wall next door. He drew her close.
“What are you talking about? What did you find?” His voice was low and urgent.
“It was the loan payment.” She lowered her voice, too, glancing down the hallway to be sure the door to the conference room was closed. “The payment that should have been made this month to the bank. It was never made.”
Link’s level brows drew down. “That’s impossible. Even without Davis, one of us would have paid it.”
“I talked to Vera. The only thing she can think is that in the confusion after Davis died, you each thought the other had taken care of it.”
“But the accounts—”
“The accounts indicate that it was paid,” she said levelly. “But Vera didn’t. And you didn’t.”
“Someone tampered with the records.” His jaw tightened, and a vein throbbed at his temple. “I guess we both know who that was.”
“There’s no way of proving it,” she said quickly. “Link, I know you want to accuse him, but there’s no proof. If he wants to act as if it was all a mistake—”
“You want me to let him save face after what he’s done.” Link didn’t look as if that were within the realm of possibility.
“I want you not to get into a public fight with him if you can help it.” She’d thought about this as she raced from the office to the bank to the meeting. “The hearing’s tomorrow, remember? Surely it’s better not to give people anything to gossip about at this point.”
“If we could prove he tampered with the files, it would tell against him.”
“But we can’t.” She put her hand on his arm. It was as rigid as stone. “Please, Link.”
“All right,” he said abruptly. “We’ll do it your way, Annie.”
“Good.” She took a breath. Good. “Vera and I made the payment and paid the late charges. Here’s the receipt from the bank.”
He took it, then faced the conference room, his face as taut and determined as that of a crusader going into battle. “I have to get in there.”
“Yes.” She let her hand drop.
Mentally, Link was already in the room, already fighting his private war with Frank. At some point, he’d stop and think, realize what she’d done, probably be grateful.
But right now, he didn’t have time for her or anything else. Saving his company was the only thing on his mind. She’d given him the ammunition he needed to win this round. She’d have to be content with that.
Link put the bank receipt in the center of the polished walnut table, resisting the impulse to throw it in Frank’s smug face. Annie wouldn’t like it if he did that.
“I’m afraid you’re mistaken, Frank. The loan payment has been made.”
He kept his gaze fixed on Frank’s face as Frank snatched up the receipt, but he was aware of the current running around the table. Doc Adams looked gratified, as if his faith in Link hadn’t been misplaced. Harvey Ward glanced at his watch, as if ready for another meeting. Delbert Conrad, Davis’s uncle and the oldest board member, just looked relieved. He’d been devoted to Davis, but too fragile to be up for a battle.
They hadn’t wanted to believe Frank was right in his claim that Link’s mismanagement had put their investment in jeopardy. Even in the midst of his concentration on Frank, he was glad of that. They had wanted to trust him.
If he hadn’t been able to produce the proof of payment? The board members wouldn’t have liked it, but they’d have been too worried about their own liability to do anything else. They’d have voted for the motion Frank had introduced, removing Link and installing Frank as president and chairman of the board.
Frank would have had the power he wanted without waiting for his chance to control Marcy’s inheritance. And he’d undoubtedly thought that discrediting Link would help him at the custody hearing.
Frank seemed to be struggling to control his expression. “I note the payment was late. We can’t afford—”
“Now, Frank.” Doc Adams’s voice held a note of authority. “It’s hardly an issue this time. We all realize it must have been difficult this month.” He pinned Link with a determined gaze. “I assume that is the case, isn’t it?”
Apparently Doc Adams held the same view Annie did. Don’t make public waves.
“It looks that way. Somehow the ledger had been marked ‘paid.’ I suppose Vera and I each assumed the other had made the payment. There’s no way of knowing how it became erroneously marked.”
Annie would be proud of his ability to think this through rationally instead of acting on his gut instinct. Maybe he was learning that from her. Harvey and Delbert were both nodding, as if his explanation made perfect sense to them.
Annie. He’d been so caught up in this battle, he’d never even thanked her. More to the point, he hadn’t admitted to her that he’d been wrong. She had found the answer. Her tenacity and passion for detail had saved him.
“Well.” Frank cleared his throat. “I’m glad, in that event, that this has all been straightened out. I certainly didn’t want to be the one to bring it up.”
No one sitting around the table believed him, of course, but they’d all pretend they did.
“Suppose we adjourn this meeting,” Doc said. “I don’t think we can accomplish anything else here.”
There was a general chorus of relieved agreement, and people began getting up. Frank was the first one to the door. He paused just long enough to give Link a look of pure dislike, and then he left.
Doc waited until the other men had gone out, then he put his hand on Link’s arm. “Looks as if you came out ahead of him this time, son.”
He took a deep breath, trying to release some of the adrenaline that had carried him through the past hour. “Thanks to your early warning, Doc.”
Doc waved a hand. “All I did was mention the meeting. You figured out how to handle it.”
“Actually, I didn’t.” For the first time in days he felt like smiling. “Annie did that. If it hadn’t been for her, I’d have been knocked flat by Frank’s accusation, and he’d be sitting at the head of the table by now.”
“Sounds as if she’s a smart young woman.”
“She is.” She was much more than that.
Doc glanced at the chair placed at the head of the polished
table. “You know, that is what Frank wanted. The trappings of success—the title, the power.” He shook his head. “I knew both those boys from the time they were born. Davis, even with his problems, always had good stuff inside. But all Frank ever cared about was what he looked like to the world.”
Doc made it sound like an epitaph. His words had an eerie similarity to the verse he’d quoted to Annie.
There was something else strange about it. Those were things that he wanted. They were the things that he felt spelled acceptance.
He rejected the thought as soon as it formed. He wasn’t like Frank.
“Well, I’d best be on my way home.” Doc clapped him on the shoulder again. “Good luck to the two of you tomorrow. You ready for that hearing?”
“As ready as we can be, I guess. Thanks, Doc.”
He walked out slowly, fitting his steps to those of the older man. Doc had been around a long time. He knew most of what there was to know about humanity. He’d sized Frank up pretty thoroughly.
Did he realize he’d held a mirror up to Link, as well? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, Link was going to have trouble not thinking about it.
It wasn’t wrong to want to achieve his goals. He’d worked long and hard to build the company, to develop friendships, to secure a place in the community.
He had a good facade now. No one would guess he’d been one of the throwaway kids.
Trouble was, Doc’s words had made him wonder just exactly what kind of man he was beneath that facade.
Annie found herself glancing out the window for the twentieth time. Not that she was watching for Link, but it was a relief to see his truck pull into the driveway.
He got out of the truck and stood for a moment, his tall figure outlined against it. Then he walked slowly toward the house, looking down, seemingly in thought.
Her heart seemed to stop. Link didn’t look as if he were celebrating. The meeting—
She threw the door open, then grabbed Marcy as she bolted straight for it.
“What is it? What’s wrong? Did Frank have something else besides the bank payment?”
Link held up his hands to hold off her questions. “No, not at all. He was dumbfounded.”
Marcy, thwarted from getting outside, decided to climb Link’s pants leg instead. He lifted her in his arms, tickling her cheek.
“Then, why did you look so upset?”
He shook his head, shrugging out of his jacket without putting Marcy down. “Sorry. I was just thinking. I should have called you, but it was getting so late I thought I might as well come home and tell you.”
The tension that had gripped her at the sight of him eased. But something was still wrong. He didn’t act like a man who’d just won a battle.
“How did Frank react? What did the board members say? Do I have to pry it out of you?”
His face relaxed then, his smile reaching his eyes. “Sorry. Am I being annoying?”
“Just a little.”
“Frank brought it up right away—made a motion, in fact, that since I’d proved to be ‘fiscally irresponsible,’ he should replace me.”
He sat on the sofa, extending his hand to pull her down beside him. Marcy, not content to sit still, wiggled her way down and ran to her toy cabinet.
“How did the board respond?” If the board had turned against Link easily, that might account for his attitude. She knew how he valued their good opinion, especially Doc’s.
He shrugged. “They wanted to give me the benefit of the doubt, I think. But with Frank pushing them and the statement from the bank that we were behind in our payments, he had a good argument.”
“Until you produced today’s receipt.”
“The receipt you brought me.” He squeezed her hand. “After you left, I realized I hadn’t even thanked you. You saved me today, Annie. You’ve got to be the smartest accountant in the world. How did you get onto it?”
That surprised a laugh out of her. “Not by being a smart accountant, as a matter of fact,” she said, and she told him about Jenna’s experience.
“And that made you think of it?” He held her hand close, and the admiration in his eyes made her heart thump.
“It made me start thinking about how the board would react if something like that happened.” She made an effort to sound professional. “At first I thought of the company’s account being overdrawn, but that wasn’t the case. Then I thought about the loan payment.” She relived those moments in the office. “Vera insisted the payment had been recorded, but my instinct told me to check with the bank. And there it was.”
“You told me once that a good auditor relied on instinct. If you hadn’t this time…” His eyes darkened.
“I did, so all’s well that ends well.” A shiver ran down her back in spite of the warm clasp of his hand. “If Frank had won today, we’d have gone into the hearing tomorrow with a pretty heavy strike against us.”
She looked at Marcy, busy pulling everything out of her toy box. They could have lost her. They still could.
“He’d have presented me as a financial failure who wasn’t taking proper care of Marcy’s inheritance.” Link’s jaw tightened. “He wouldn’t have stopped at becoming chairman of the board. He still wants control of Marcy’s inheritance, and I almost gave him the weapon he needed to take it.”
“It wasn’t your fault.” That must be what was bothering him—the thought that he’d put Marcy’s custody in jeopardy. “You couldn’t have been expected to see the problem. I must have looked over those accounts a half dozen times without realizing anything was wrong.”
“I should have double-checked on the payment. I knew when it was due.” He seemed determined to blame himself.
“You were trying to do everything yourself—your own work and Davis’s, too. Nobody could do all that without missing something.”
“This was a pretty big something, Annie.”
“You wouldn’t have missed it, if someone hadn’t altered the records.” She wanted to smooth away the frown lines on his forehead with her fingertips, but she didn’t quite dare. “I wish we could pin it on him, but I’m afraid it’s impossible. You didn’t—”
“No, I didn’t start a public fight with him.” His tone was gently teasing. “I was tempted, but I knew you wouldn’t like it.”
The look in his eyes flustered her. “Well, it—it’s not just me,” she said hurriedly. “I mean, we both agreed we didn’t want to give people anything bad to talk about on the day before the hearing.”
“Right.” He squeezed her hand. “Tell you what. Let’s give people something nice to talk about, instead. I’ll get changed, and then I’ll take my two best girls out for dinner. Okay?”
“That sounds lovely. What do you think, Marcy? Want to go out to eat?”
Marcy looked up, holding her toy telephone to her ear, and let out a string of babble that might have meant anything.
“I think she agrees.” Link stood. “Be ready in a few minutes. You pick the place.”
He touched her cheek, very lightly, and then turned and jogged up the stairs. Marcy let out a wail and started after him. Annie grabbed her.
“Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get you changed, too. Then Link and Nan and Marcy will all go out to dinner.”
She lifted the baby, holding her close for a moment. Link didn’t fool her. He’d suggested this dinner out as a way of keeping her mind off what tomorrow would bring.
Chapter Fifteen
“We’ll just take a few minutes to talk before we go over to the courthouse,” Chet said as he waved them toward the chairs in his office the next morning.
Annie held Marcy on her lap, her arms close around the child as if she never intended to let go. Link knew how she felt. He’d had trouble saying good-night to Marcy the night before, trouble squashing the fear that that might be the last time he’d do it.
“Tell us honestly.” Annie’s face was pale. “What are our chances?”
Chet folded his hands together on his desk. “Ho
nestly? It’s hard to say. I think they’re very good, but custody is never a sure thing.” He glanced at Link. “I’ll tell you one thing—your chances would have been a lot worse if Frank had won control of the company yesterday. That whisper of financial irresponsibility would have dogged you. Even if you eventually could have straightened it out, it might have been too late.”
“Frank timed it well.” With an effort, Link kept his voice even. “If not for Annie, I would have lost.”
A glow brightened Annie’s cheeks at his words.
“It’s a shame you can’t prove Frank manipulated the records. I’d have enjoyed bringing that up at the hearing.” Chet turned his pen over and over on the desk blotter. “As it is, we’re relying on the social worker’s report, coupled with the fact that the judge gave you initial custody.” He looked searchingly at Annie. “Mrs. Bradshaw didn’t give you any hint as to her recommendation?”
Annie shook her head, and the helplessness in her eyes wrung Link’s heart. If he could find anything that would help her…
Frank’s offer to him. Maybe Chet could see a way to bring that in.
“There is one other thing.” He glanced at Annie. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to worry you. But Frank came out to the site on Monday. He made me an offer.”
“What kind of offer?” Chet leaned forward, his pen poised over a legal pad.
“He offered to make a trade with us. We could forget both the board meeting and the custody hearing. They’d give us custody of Marcy if I gave him control of the company.”
He heard Annie’s indrawn, strangled breath, but he focused on Chet’s face. “Can we use it?”
Chet frowned. “I don’t suppose anyone else heard him say it.”
“No.” Frank hadn’t been dumb enough to risk that. “The men probably saw us talking, but no one was close enough to hear what was said.”
“Too bad. It’s just the sort of thing we need, but without any corroboration, we don’t dare bring it up.” Chet stood, glancing at his watch. “Let me just check on something with my secretary, and then we’ll be ready to go.”
