Quadruple Duty

“You were crying last night when I showed up.”

He said it casually as he bit into a sandwich, staring off into the distance. I forced a laugh. “Well, there was a man breaking into my house, so—”

“No. Even before that.”

I had to think for a moment. So much had happened in such a short period of time, the events of yesterday seemed so long ago.

“Oh. That.” All at once I was embarrassed. Then the anger came back, and I realized I had no reason to be ashamed. “Let’s just say I had a falling out with my business parter.”

Ex business partner, the little voice in my head reminded me bitterly.

“Ah, yes,” said Briggs, still chewing. “Dawn.”

My brow furrowed. I turned to look at him.

“You know about Dawn?”

“I know about everything,” Briggs shrugged.

I was instantly skeptical. “Oh yeah?”

“Sure,” he said, matter-of-factly. “Dawn Fitzpatrick, Two Trees estates. Been your partner almost five years now.” He sighed and cocked his head. “Been stealing from your business too, for just about that long.”

A chill shot through me. My mouth dropped open.

“W—What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Dawn skimming from your shared bank account. Putting in false requisitions and taking cash. Stealing client consultations outright, and signing them on privately, without you knowing.”

I felt totally blown away. Like an atomic bomb had gone off in the distance, and I was just standing there waiting for the shockwave.

“Oh, and she redirected most of the business’s traffic to her own private website.” He leaned back on his arms. “A cute little php script one of her friends cooked up. Selective forwarding, based on—”

“HOLY SHIT!”

Briggs stopped talking. He took a deep breath and sighed.

“She stole all my stuff last night, too!” I cried. “Took everything I had — cleared out the entire warehouse!”

He looked out at the lake for a moment and nodded. “Sounds about right. Last month she opened twin storage units over in Woodbay. I’ll bet it’s all there right now.”

I wanted to scream. I did scream.

“HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ALL THIS?”

Briggs let out a long, slow sigh. “Sammara, I already told you. I know about everything.”

As stunning as his statement was, the revelations about Dawn were even more shocking. It all made sense now. The strange way business had dropped off. The way she always seemed busy, even when there wasn’t any work to do.

Those two new folders on her desk that day…

“I can’t believe it,” I breathed. “I thought… I thought we were—”

“Friends?”

I nodded.

“No, not friends,” he said. “Dawn covets you, Sammara.”