That Man of Mine (Whispering Bay Romance 3)

Mimi counted to ten. “Pardon the chief. He’s in angry husband mode. But I wouldn’t be as worried about him as I’d be about me, because right now I’m in very angry mayor mode.”

Zeke looked at Mimi as if he was impressed.

“We think Wentworth stole the money,” Zeke told them. “I have the feeling he doesn’t have the stellar reputation you all sold us on when he got hired, Bruce. Care to tell me what you think about that theory?”

Bruce paled. “He…no. He isn’t a thief!”

Bettina glared at her husband. “Bruce, what have you done now?”

“Why are you on her side?” Bruce pointed to Mimi. “You don’t even like her!”

“I swear to you, my husband is innocent of any wrongdoing,” Bettina pleaded. “He might be…a little enthusiastic, but he would never do anything to jeopardize this town.”

“I’m waiting for a call from Brian Watts,” Mimi said. “He’s the city attorney for Old Explorer’s Bay. I have a feeling he’s going to have some pretty interesting things to say about Doug.”

Bruce’s forehead immediately went wet. Poor Bruce. It must be hard to be a politician and suffer from flop sweat.

“Okay…maybe Wentworth did some creative financing when he was at Old Explorer’s Bay, but he got the city out of the red, didn’t he?”

“Is that why you and Larry and the rest of the former city council hired him?” Mimi persisted. “Because of his ability to do creative financing?”

“That…and, well…” He shook his head. “You’re trying to trick me. I know my rights! I want

you both to leave this instant.”

Bettina looked at Bruce like she’d never seen him before. “Oh, Bruce. You need help, honey.” She turned to Mimi. “I swear, he isn’t himself. Ever since he lost that damn election to you last November all he can talk about is how he’s going to show you up. How the whole town will be begging for him to come back. It’s a…disease. Like depression or being bi-polar. He can’t be held responsible for his actions.”

“The hell he can’t,” Zeke said.

“I’m not bi-polar!” Bruce said.

“So you knew Wentworth was less than credible,” Mimi said, “But you still hired him anyway? To make me look bad?”

“If you do a good enough job as mayor, then whatever Wentworth does or doesn’t do, won’t reflect badly on you,” Bruce said in an attempt to defend himself.

“Yeah, but you stacked the odds against her,” Zeke countered.

Bruce couldn’t deny it. “So big deal. But like I said, Wentworth isn’t a thief. That money was stolen because you didn’t provide adequate security for the festival and I stand by that.”

“Oh, shut up, Bruce!” Bettina said. “I’m sick and tired of hearing you tear Mimi down. So maybe she doesn’t have the best fashion sense, and yes, she’s a bit of an amateur when it comes to committee work, but she did get Billy Brenton to play at the festival. Give her credit for that, at least.”

“Um, thanks. I think,” Mimi said.

There was a knock on the door. “What now?” Bettina muttered. She flung it open to find Rusty, along with Mike and a couple of other uniformed officers standing at her doorstep.

“Chief,” Rusty said in his best police voice. “We went to Wentworth’s house. Rapped on the door a couple of times and found him running out the back, so we knocked him down. But don’t worry, we didn’t use too much police force. No, siree. He went down faster than the number one pin on a strike.”

“And?” Zeke urged.

“And he started yelling about his rights and how he hadn’t done anything wrong, so we asked if we could search his place, and guess what? He said yes! No one ever says yes.”

“And did you find anything incriminating?” Zeke asked.

“Not at first, but then I thought to myself: If I had twenty thousand dollars in small bills, where would I hide it? And guess what? We must think alike because it was exactly where I’d put it.”

Mimi could practically see Zeke’s brain cells exploding. She had to give him credit. He was a lot more patient than she thought. “And that would be…” he prompted.

“In the microwave! Talk about hot money,” Rusty laughed.