“Are you seriously sleeping with him?”
“What the—”
“I know he was at Warrior Homes this weekend, and all over you. Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
Miranda faced him. “I wasn’t concerned about you finding out because I wasn’t hiding anything. Whatever issues you have are between you and Jack. They don’t have anything to do with me, and I want to keep it that way.”
“He’s out to get me,” Alex insisted. “He’s been out to get me since we were kids. You’re just his latest weapon. Friends don’t side with a friend’s enemy.”
“I don’t appreciate your insinuation that he’s using me,” she said, growing angry. “As far as I can tell, you’re hurting yourself. Whatever you’re doing that could hurt Pinnacle or get you in trouble, end it. Now.”
The elevator neared her destination, and Miranda slowed the car to a stop at the twenty-seventh floor.
She pushed the cage door open, but before she could step out, Alex grabbed her arm. “It won’t take long for him to show his colors. Why won’t you listen to me?”
The aggressive move shocked her and snapped her nerves. She jerked away from him and planted a hard shove against his shoulder, pushing him against the side of the cage so hard, it shook.
“You damn well know better than to touch me like that.” She stayed right there, in his face. “Don’t you dare fucking cross that line with me again, Alex.” She stepped back, holding his angry gaze. “Get your shit together before it’s too late.”
“This is no fucking fairy tale, Miranda. And he’s definitely no Prince Charming.”
“Good.” She stepped out onto the floor. “Because I’m no fucking damsel, and I sure as shit don’t need any white knight.”
24
Jack cradled a cup of coffee between both hands at a café near his hotel as Klein slid into the booth across from him. Jack had fallen asleep after Miranda left for work and the investigator’s call had woken him. He hadn’t slept past eight a.m. in years. Now, at almost eleven, Jack grinned into his coffee. If he hadn’t already believed they were an amazing fit, watching her at Warrior Homes and with her family afterward had confirmed it. She might not know it yet, but they would be together. She’d come around when she saw they could make this thing work long-distance.
Klein settled in and laid a pile of file folders on the Formica tabletop. “You were right on target. It looks like Alex has been selling off building supplies to contractors outside Pinnacle, everything from nails to lumber. And not a dime has gone back into Pinnacle bank accounts.”
A spear of angry vindication traveled through Jack, and he slapped the table hard. “I knew it.”
“It seems the company had an RFID tracking system in place some time ago,” Klein said, “and the larger pieces of equipment and tools are still tracked by GPS, but the supply system seems to have fallen apart about a year ago.”
“Damn. Talk about a crime of opportunity. The minute my dad’s back was turned, he and Bruce attacked.”
“To get solid evidence, I put in a temporary RFID system of my own, tagging supplies as they came on site, then tracking their use and the inventory over the past two weeks. I followed the GPS coordinates of those supplies and contacted the companies currently in possession of them. They confirmed Alex made the sales and are willing to testify against him to avoid being charged with possession of stolen merchandise.”
Klein laid a folder in front of Jack, half an inch thick with purchase orders. “These are all the supplies I believe Alex sold off over the last year, since your mother passed and the RFID system was cut off.”
Jack couldn’t bring himself to open the folder. This was going to be a nightmare to sort out. “Do you have any idea of the monetary value of what’s been stolen?”
“From the time the RFID system tanked, I’ve estimated the total to be around two hundred thousand, which will get him a felony class B theft charge and between eight and thirty years in prison.”
“If he’d just put as much effort into managing the project as he did stealing, he would have made that much in bonuses. He’s always been a greedy bastard.”
“You and Jen need to go through this with a fine-tooth comb,” Klein said, “then have Tully double-check your numbers. To make the case as strong as possible, we only want to nail him for what we absolutely know and can prove he sold off. Once he knows he’s screwed, he’ll start implicating himself in all sorts of other shit. I’ve seen it a thousand times. We may also come up with evidence that other employees were involved. This was a big scam to handle on his own. Which brings me to one situation that doesn’t fit the pattern. As far as I can tell, this theft was perpetrated recently by an employee. But the employee has been close to Alex for a while, and she may be able to corroborate Alex’s scheme.”
“Someone else in purchasing?” Jack asked. “A project coordinator?”
“No.” Klein opened the folder, and Jack found himself staring at a headshot of Miranda taken for her work badge. “The welding forewoman.”
Shock stung his gut. Confusion instantly clouded his head. He couldn’t connect Miranda with what they were talking about. She was so far removed from this fiasco, he couldn’t even put them in the same sphere of thought. “I don’t understand.”
“Miranda Wright,” Klein said. “She’s been with Pinnacle six years. This is the only theft I can connect her to, but it’s a big one. About fifty thousand dollars’ worth of welding wire.”
Jack shook his head. “That can’t be right.”
Klein slid Miranda’s photo aside to expose another purchase order, this one with Miranda’s signature on it. “This is the order for the wire and oth