Jack stayed in his office for the rest of the day to answer any questions Rose might have and to run interference in case anyone came to his office. With the door closed, however, no one dared to enter without his permission. He was bored and had nearly fallen asleep when he heard Rose’s sharp intake of breath. He was on his feet and at her side in seconds.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Get Damien. I want him to check as well” was the only response Rose would give.
Jack didn’t bother to call Damien but rushed to his office and returned with him in less than a minute.
Damien grabbed a chair next to Rose. “What is it?”
Rose handed him several sheets of paper. “Look here.” She pointed. “And then here.” She grabbed another sheet.
“Son of a bitch,” Damien swore. “How did I miss this?”
Rose placed a hand on his arm. “This was before your time here.” She patted his arm again before withdrawing her hand.
Jack sat across from the two and listened but had no clue what in the world was going on. “Can someone please explain to me what’s going on?” He ran his hands through his hair in agitation.
Rose and Damien ignored him and continued to whisper while handing papers back and forth to each other. Jack actually started to feel his head beginning to explode and steam flow out of his ears. Was his face as red as it felt?
Finally, after starting to count to a hundred several times, he gave up. “What’s going on?” he exploded.
Rose jumped in her chair while Damien nearly fell out of his. They had completely forgotten he was there. “Jack,” Rose breathed out and placed a hand over her heart. “You scared the pants off me, young man,” she chided.
Jack hung his head in shame. He should know better than to startle his elderly friend who was doing him a favor after all. “Sorry, Rose.” He looked up. “I’m going a bit crazy not knowing what’s going on.”
Rose nodded to Damien. “Okay,” he said and spread his hands over the documents laying before them. “It looks like some of the suppliers doubled and tripled their prices.”
Jack nodded, but he was still confused. “But then we would have noticed a fall in profits before, wouldn’t we? Even if turnover was still going strong?”
Rose nodded. “Yes. It looks like Eric wasn’t looking at the P&L statement before cutting your dividend checks.”
Jack allowed the rusty wheels in his head to slowly turn the information around in his head. “Do you think Eric was being lazy or was this on purpose?”
Rose looked to Damien, who shrugged. “I don’t know Eric that well, but he’s pretty chaotic. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t even notice.”
“Crap.” Rose cleared her throat at Jack’s profanity. “Sorry. So what do we do now?”
Chapter 21
No hanky-panky!
As soon as Rose updated Betty about her day at Fabulous, Darling, Betty mustered the troops for a meeting at Izzy’s house. By the time Jack arrived, the entire gray-haired grandma squad was present and accounted for. Izzy sat on Noel’s lap at the kitchen table stuffing her face with pie while the ladies rushed around doing whatever elderly women did when a kitchen was in the immediate vicinity.
Jack sat next to Izzy and tried to steal her plate, but she growled at him. “Did you just growl at me?” Another growl. “I take that as a yes.” He gave her pie back. She grunted and went back to stuffing her face. Jack raised an eyebrow at Noel, who smiled indulgently at his wife.
“She’s over the nauseousness and on to the eat-anything-that-has-cinnamon-in-it phase,” Noel explained.
“Better you than me,” Jack mumbled and was rewarded a punch to his arm from Izzy in return. “Hey!”
The pie was finished and Izzy closed her eyes snuggling into Noel’s arms. “Hi Jack,” she murmured half-asleep.
“When she’s not eating, she’s sleeping,” Noel commented as he stroked her hair.
Jack’s snarky response was thwarted as Betty decided it was time to get things started. “So,” her loud voice boomed. “Rose says you learned some interesting things today.”
Jack looked at Rose. “Um, I think Rose can better explain.”
Rose cleared her throat. “We don’t know that it’s anything yet, but it’s suspicious.”
Like one of Pavlov’s dogs, Noel’s head whipped up at the word suspicious. “What’s going on?”
“I went through the supplier invoices and several of the suppliers have doubled or tripled their prices over the past few months,” Rose explained.
Noel wrinkled his brow and turned to Jack. “Wyatt handles suppliers doesn’t he?” Jack nodded. “Did he say anything about the price increases?” Jack shook his head. “It seems like it would be something he’d mention when the dividend checks fell through the floor.”
Jack sighed. “You’d think so, but Wyatt isn’t that business orientated. It could be he didn’t realize that an increase in costs would result in a decrease in profits.”
Noel snorted. “Seriously? If he doesn’t realize that, he has no business owning half the store.”
“Wow! That was nasty,” Jack mumbled. He knew that Noel didn’t like Wyatt but, of course, Noel and Wyatt hadn’t met under the most auspicious of circumstances. Plus, Izzy had probably filled Noel in on Wyatt’s green-eyed monster tendencies, something no man appreciates.
Betty clapped her hands to gain everyone’s attention. “What do we do now?”
It was Jack’s turn to answer. “I’m going to talk to Wyatt about the suppliers. I find it hard to believe that so many of them raised their prices by that much all at the same time.” He shrugged. “I know Wyatt has a hard time finding suppliers he approves of, but I don’t think he’d put up with this kind of pricing increase.”
Martha’s shoulders collapsed. “So there’s nothing for us to do? No recon missions?” She sounded rather heartbroken.
Noel’s face turned red and Jack quickly answered before he started yet another lecture about interfering with police investigations or some other hogwash. “Not right now but we’ll keep you updated.”
“I do have other news,” Rose chimed in and Jack stared at her with wide eyes. She wouldn’t, would she?
The entire posse turned their attention on Rose. “I know why Jack wasn’t interested in Tommy or Brad even though they were both scrumptious.”
Jack gasped. “You promised! You said you’d keep Betty off my back!”
Rose shook her head. “What do you think I’m doing?”
“Telling tales!”
Izzy didn’t miss a beat. “It’s Damien, isn’t it?” She turned to Rose. “Has he slept with him already?”
Rose crossed her arms and glared at Jack. “No, he hasn’t and he won’t until this investigation is finished. Right, Jack?”
Jack huffed. “I agreed to ‘no hanky-panky’ because I thought you weren’t going to tell everyone!”
Izzy leaned toward Rose. “You got him to agree to no hanky-panky? You’re good. I’d bow down to you, but I get a pass because I’m pregnant.”
Rose patted Izzy’s arms. “Don’t worry my dear. You’ll learn.”
There were lots of things Izzy wasn’t looking forward to as a mother starting off with sleepless nights all the way through to teenage angst. She couldn’t deny, however, that learning to guilt trip grown men with a bat of her eyelashes was a skill she’d do nearly anything to learn. She giggled in anticipatory glee.
Rose was saved from further ire from Jack when the doorbell rang. Izzy looked at Noel. “Who’s that?”
Rosemary cleared her throat. “That’s my granddaughter. I hope you don’t mind. She’s staying with me, but I haven’t had a chance to have a key made for her. She was out job hunting tonight.” She rose to get the door but Noel stopped her with a glare. He lifted Izzy off him, sat her gently on her chair, and then went to answer the door.
Noel returned with a short, blonde woman in tow. “I’m sorry,” her voice nearly a whisper
. “I’m just looking for my grandma.”
“I’m right here, Delilah,” Rosemary yelled out. The young woman stumbled and her face turned even paler when she heard the bellow.
“I can wait in the car, Grandma,” another barely-there whisper.
“You’ll do no such thing,” Betty answered. Large, brown eyes widened and stared at the woman. “Come.” Betty didn’t seem to notice the terror she was causing. “Take a seat and have a piece of pie.”
“There’s more pie?” Izzy perked up.
Noel chuckled. He grabbed a chair for Delilah and gently pushed her into it before heading back to his wife.
“How did the job search go?” Rosemary asked. Delilah’s face colored and she cleared her throat, but Jack jumped in before she gave herself a heart attack trying to answer. He leaned forward and gave her his heartbreaking smile. “I’m Jack.” He reached out to shake her hand.
Delilah blinked at him and then slowly reached out to grab his hand. “Delilah,” her voice was soft but above a whisper.
“Have you met everyone else here?” Jack asked holding onto her hand and squeezing.
She nodded. “Well, I know all of Grandma’s friends.”
“But you haven’t met Izzy and Noel then?” Jack pointed to the couple cuddling together on the chair to the other side of her. She shook her head.
Noel reached forward and grasped her other hand. “I’m Noel, Izzy’s husband.” He indicated Izzy with a tilt of his head. “Her grandma was part of this posse.”
“I remember Anna. This was her house wasn’t it?” Noel nodded. “I heard about her murder. I’m so sorry.” It didn’t seem possible, but her voice had gotten even softer.
“Thank you,” Izzy responded. “You don’t live around here, do you?”
Delilah’s face turned a delightful shade of pink. “I just moved back.”
“About time too,” Rosemary grunted from the other side of the table.
“Welcome home,” Izzy said, ignoring Rosemary’s outburst for now. “So you were out job hunting?” Delilah nodded. “How’d it go?”
Delilah shrugged. “Not so great. I forgot how small this town is.”
“What do you do?” Jack joined the conversation.
“I have a degree in English literature, but I haven’t worked much since college,” she admitted.
“Not much to do in this small town with a degree in English lit,” Jack commented.
Delilah nodded. “Yeah. I want to start an editing business online, but I need a real job for now.”
Jack looked her up and down and then finally nodded as he came to a decision. “Come to the store tomorrow. I’ll see what I can do.”
She startled. “What? What store?” She shook her head. “No, I can’t take advantage.”
Jack leaned forward and grabbed her arm. “No promises, darling but your grandma’s a friend so I won’t take no for an answer.”
Wide puppy dog eyes stared at Jack and then turned to Rosemary, who nodded in agreement. “Okay.”
Jack stood. “Now that that’s settled, I’m out.”
“But nothing’s settled. We have no plan of action,” Betty grunted.
Jack shrugged. “I need to talk to Wyatt. Nothing more we can do until I’ve spoken with him.” He looked to Rose, who nodded in agreement. Jack leaned down and kissed Izzy good-bye. He waved to the ladies and then took off for the front door. He didn’t quite make it though.
“And no hanky-panky!”
Chapter 22
Don’t know if I want to go there
Jack was anxious to discuss the supplier issue with Wyatt, but he was off on one of his buying extravaganzas until the following week. Wyatt called the jaunts purchasing trips, but that was far too mild a term. They were excuses for Wyatt to spend a shitload of money that wasn’t his. Nothing more. Nothing less. His unflattering thoughts of Wyatt were interrupted by Danny peeking into his office.
“There’s someone here to see you,” Danny said and then opened the door wide to reveal Delilah. Danny had to literally push the poor girl into the office. She stood there staring at the floor, wringing her hands.
“I know you said to stop by,” she began in a voice barely loud enough for human hearing. “I thought you were just being polite, but my grandma made me come. I’m really sorry.”
Jack chuckled and stood from his desk to approach her. He grabbed her hands and squeezed. Her face turned bright red and he laughed. “You are a shy thing, aren’t you?”
She shrugged. “I always say the wrong things. It’s better if I keep my mouth shut.”
Startled by her words, Jack dropped her hands to grasp her chin and tilted her head up so she was forced to look in his eyes. “Who told you that?” he asked gently.
Delilah managed to avoid his gaze and shrugged. Jack shook his head and released her chin. “Okay then.” He stood back from her. “What kind of experience do you have? Have you ever worked in a clothing store before?”
“I worked at Macy’s during college.”
“Alrighty then.” He took off for the office door. “Follow me.” He led her through the back office hallways and back into the showroom. He found Danny and presented Delilah as a new employee.
Danny graced her with a dazzling smile. Delilah blushed before whispering, “You can call me Dee or Deedee.” Jack laughed at Danny’s ability to get the concession from Delilah or Dee as she would now be known.
Jack left them to it but was called back into the store an hour later. He really wanted to help out Rosemary’s granddaughter, but if she was getting into trouble after only an hour of work, there wasn’t much he could do for her.
He need not have worried.
Jack opened the door to the store and nearly laughed at the scene in front of him. Dee was on her knees surrounded by boxes of shoes splayed over the floor. Tommy was in front of her helping to gather the women’s shoes as quickly as he could while still managing to keep his eyes glued to Dee. His mouth hung open in surprise and just the tiniest bit of drool was dripping from the side of his wide-open mouth. Dee was blushing profusely while sneaking glances at Tommy.
Jack didn’t want to interrupt, but he couldn’t resist the opportunity to cause trouble. “Hey darling,” he cooed at Tommy. “Did you come to see me?”
Tommy nearly fell on his ass. “Hey man!” he shouted as his face turned a bright shade of red, nearly purple in its hue.
Dee stared at the interaction between the two men, her eyebrows nearly reaching her hairline as she tried to figure out their relationship. “Thanks for your help, sir, but I can handle it from here.” She bowed her head as she spoke.
“The name’s Tommy,” he said gruffly and continued to help her pick up the boxes and the stripper heels scattered across the floor.
Jack leaned against the door and stuffed his hands in his pockets. A courtship between Rosemary’s daughter and a supposedly gay church member? This was going to be so much fun!
When Dee finally had all the boxes filled with the corresponding shoes, Tommy got up from the floor. He towered over Dee who had also stood. She bowed her head and seemed to shrink even more. Tommy raised an eyebrow at her shrinking form but didn’t say anything. He turned to Jack, but Jack just shrugged.
“I need to talk to Jack,” Tommy finally spoke. “Will you be here when I get back?”
Dee nodded and then ran away, boxes teetering precariously from her arms.
Tommy finally turned to Jack. They greeted each other in a one-armed man-hug before Jack led Tommy to his office. He closed the door behind them when they entered and he stood staring at the man-hunk before him. It was really a shame Tommy didn’t play for Jack’s team.
“What’s up man?” Jack finally asked after having his fill of checking out Tommy.
Tommy ran his hands through his hair. “Your ladies are driving me crazy again. I thought they would leave me alone after our date, but they started up again last night. Calling and driving me nuts.”
“Crap.
I’m sorry,” Jack said and took a seat at the conference table. Tommy sat across from him.
“What happened? I thought we had a deal.”
Jack cleared his throat and there was a slight tinge of pink on his cheeks. “Um…”
“Spit it out, man.”
“They figured out that I have the hots for one of my employees.”
Tommy raised an eyebrow and leaned back. “You’re banging one of your workers?”
Jack shook his head. “Nope. I’m not allowed any hanky-panky until certain things are sorted.” Although he liked Tommy, he didn’t want news about the problems with the store getting out. In a small town, the news would spread like wildfire. They had enough problems without the store’s turnover suffering as well.
Tommy snorted. “Hanky-panky?”
Jack sighed. “Their words, not mine.”
Tommy ran a hand through his hair again. “Shit. Now they’re going to set me up with every gay man within a 50-mile radius.”
Jack leaned back against his chair and smiled. “Or,” he said. “You could tell them you’re not gay and go out with Dee.”
“Dee?”
“The woman in the store.” Jack leaned forward and whispered. “And Rosemary’s granddaughter.”
“Aw shit. Don’t know if I want to go there.”
Jack shrugged. “I don’t blame you but if you treat her right…” Jack’s voice trailed off as he shrugged again.
“Yeah right,” Tommy grunted. “You don’t do women so you might not understand this, but there be crazy bitches. And you don’t know which ones are the crazy bitches until it’s too late.”
Jack took a deep breath. He might not know about crazy bitches, but he sure knew enough about exes going off the reservation. He stood. “Your loss man.” Tommy shook his head but didn’t respond.
Chapter 23
No sense poking the bear
Jack strummed his fingers along his desk as he waited for Wyatt. He refused to believe that Wyatt was deliberately sabotaging their profits but could he inadvertently be the cause of their problems? And how in the hell was Jack going to deal with that?
The Gray-Haired Knitting Detective Series: (Books 1 - 3) Page 24
