That Reckless Night

Miranda watched him go and her heart ached for him. Sometimes life was a coldhearted bitch who didn’t play by any rules but her own and it plain sucked to land on the losing end.

When did either one of the players get to reset and start over?

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

MIRANDA AND JEREMIAH pulled a late night as they pored over the financial records of both Big Game Trophy and Vivid Adventures. None of the other outfits were big enough to warrant a deeper look, and thus they were stuck focusing on the two rival companies.

“Are you sure you can stay?” Jeremiah asked, as he passed her a slice of pepperoni pizza and a soda. “I could probably do this myself.”

“Mamu is watching Talen for me so I’m good to stay. Besides, it would take you until tomorrow morning to sift through both financial records and I’d rather just do it together so we can get it done.”

Jeremiah nodded, and after shoveling two pieces of pizza down his gullet, he dived into the dizzying number of Excel spreadsheets that detailed every penny spent by either operation.

It was about an hour later that Miranda made a startling realization. “Rhett Fowler is going broke,” she said with a catch in her voice. “His reserve is practically gone.” She looked to Jeremiah, stricken. “This is why he didn’t want us to see his financials.... It wasn’t because he was doing anything he shouldn’t. He’s embarrassed. Here—” she handed him the paperwork “—take a look.”

Jeremiah studied the spreadsheet and balances. “It appears he’s living way beyond his means. He’s got more going out than he has coming in.”

“And no big deposits, either. If he’s running a poaching operation, he sucks at it because he’s drowning in debt.”

“This gives him motive,” Jeremiah warned. “He could have offshore accounts to hide the money.”

“I don’t believe that. You can see where his money is going. For ridiculous purchases.” Miranda had an idea who was authorizing credit-card purchases for Louis Vuitton handbags and Gucci shoes. “That Swiss miss is sucking up all his cash.”

“The price of a young wife,” Jeremiah said. “He has to know that he’s overextended.”

“Oh, Rhett...you dumb ox,” Miranda muttered, irritated at Rhett for being so stupid with his money and thinking with a different part of his anatomy. “He’s not guilty of anything but being led around by his—”

“That may be true,” Jeremiah interjected with a frown. “But we still need to talk to him about our findings.”

“He’s going to be mortified.”

“They say the lessons that stick with us are the ones that embarrass us or cost us money. Maybe he’ll use it as a learning experience.”

Miranda cut Jeremiah a short look. “Yeah, that’ll happen,” she said derisively, then sighed. “All right...I want to take another look at his employee list and make sure no one is siphoning from his accounts.”

They spent another hour combing through names and cross-referencing them through the federal database to ensure no one was working under an assumed name, and when Miranda did a double take on one particular name, she had to check again to make sure her eyes weren’t simply crossing from fatigue. “Can you hand me the list from Vivid?”

Jeremiah fished out the employee list from Vivid Adventures and Miranda scanned it, looking for one name in particular. “Hmm, that’s odd,” she said under her breath when she’d found what she was looking for. She looked up and found Jeremiah waiting. “Vivid and Big Game share an employee.”

Jeremiah frowned. “Is that normal?”

“Between friendly companies, yes. But between two companies whose owners can barely stand one another? No.”

“Who is it?”

“Mack James and James Mack.”

Jeremiah scanned the paperwork again and compared. “Someone is using an alias at one of the businesses. Who is he?”

“Helicopter pilot. I remember Rhett saying he needed a new pilot because his former pilot, someone who had worked for him for years, had relocated to Oregon. I guess this guy is the replacement pilot,” she added.

Miranda stared at Jeremiah. “We need to schedule a meeting.”

“Who should we call first?”

“Both. I want them both in the room when they hear they are employing the same guy. I’m betting there’s bound to be some fireworks.”

“Sounds good to me.” Jeremiah cracked a large yawn. “Thank God. I’m exhausted. Can we go home now?”