Good Woman Blues (33 page)

“Any chance Transome gave us bad figures?
You’ve known him for a while.” Erikka did a quick mental review of
the background on Layton, Inc.

“Kent is a tough businessman and a good
friend. He’d slice into an artery before hurting that company.”
Nadine picked up the paper and read for several minutes. She gave a
hiss of disgust. “Reporters take rumors and build a story. Thank
God our legal system requires real evidence.”

“You think this might get to court?” Erikka’s
stomach did a sickening flip at the thought.

“Of course not. I just said there is nothing
in their records or ours that can be used to build a fraud case.”
Na-dine glanced at her gold watch. “Get the file and come to my
office. Might as well look it over.”

“Okay. Give me a few minutes.” Erikka tapped
the keyboard of her desktop.

“No rush. I’m going to get some coffee, go
through my mail, and make a phone call. Let’s say around nine-
thirty?” Nadine looked at ease, as though this were a normal Monday
at the office.

Erikka smiled and nodded as she studied her.
“Sure. I’ll have a second cup myself.”

Nadine allowed a brief tight smile to flicker
before she left. Erikka’s smile vanished the second Nadine was
gone. She used the time to comb through every fact she had on
Layton. Erikka went online to research the company. As she hastily
sent out queries, Erikka tried not to examine why she didn’t
believe Nadine’s reassurances.

***

Later at Hope’s place, Karin and Hope sat in
the kitchen while Erikka grilled fish sprinkled with parsley and
lemon butter. Hope sipped a frozen daiquiri. While they talked,
Erikka tried to work out her anxiety by concentrating on the meal.
She fluffed wild rice in a cooker. As she cut up slices of French
bread, she worked through her own day as they talked about
theirs.

“Girl, my day was a bitch. Some of our
sisters act like they haven’t heard of sistahood. Know what I
mean?” Hope complained.

“That new coworker is still giving you the
blues?” Karin shook her head in sympathy. “Hmmph, that’s a
shame.”

“See it? The knife is still in my damn back.”
Hope jerked a thumb over her shoulder to make the point. “She’s
determined to get ahead over my dead body.”

“You can handle up on her,” Karin
replied.

“Yeah, but it takes time away from important
stuff. Now I’ve got to stop my career climb and swat another fly.
Damn.” Hope took a long sip of her drink.

‘Try having a boss without a clue. I have
dreams of slapping common sense into that man. He screws up every
five minutes.” Karin glared as though she could see her boss. “I’m
tired of saving his behind.”

“I hate Mondays,” Hope said, and took a deep
sip of her drink.

“Me, too,” Karin declared. The doorbell rang,
and she left. Moments later she came back with Terri right be-hind
her.

Hope cocked an eyebrow at Terri. “Erikka’s
doing fine. I’m wondering if you’re okay.”

“Following doctor’s orders,” Terri replied,
with a good- natured smiled. She did seem much less twitchy than
she had a few weeks before. “I’m cool. You okay, Erikka?”

“You obviously read the paper today,” Erikka
said as she faced them all. When Terri nodded, Erikka sighed.

“What’s up?” Hope put down her drink for the
first time.

“Remember that big client I was so thrilled
about getting? They are in the news, and it’s not good news
either.”

Erikka gave them a quick summary of what she
knew and how her day had gone. What bothered her even more was the
meeting with Nadine. The other partners had shown up as well. Their
meeting took on the feel of a dress rehearsal for a press
conference, one in which they could deny complicity in whatever
Layton, Inc. had done.

“Mr. Calder said ‘Nadine had them sign that
they gave us complete records.’ Brinkhaus would break in every few
seconds with ‘We adhered to acceptable accounting practices.’ ”
Erikka grimaced at the memory.

“They mentioned your firm twice in the
article. Sugar, take my advice and get lawyered up,” Terri said.
She unbuttoned her jacket, and then sat down.

“Oh shit,” Hope muttered.

“How are the bosses acting?” Terri rubbed her
hands together.

“Like they don’t think it’s a problem. We had
this meeting. Nadine asked me a dozen questions on how I handled
the figures, how much I looked past the surface.”

“And?”

Erikka went to the stove. “Let’s eat, or this
fish is going to be like rubber.”

“Okay. I’m going to wash up.” Terri went down
the hallway.

“You grab the green beans and bread.” Erikka
pointed to Hope. “Karin, get the rice.”

“Sure,” Hope replied. For once she made no
smart remark.

“I’ll follow orders, but you have to talk to
Terri about this.” Karin crossed her arms.

“I know you’re not seriously suggesting she
hire Terri. That woman is two steps from the fun house,” Hope
whispered fiercely, looking over her shoulder.

“She’s making a lot of sense tonight. And
Erikka didn’t answer her last question.” Karin switched her hard
stare from Hope to Erikka.

“Chill. Let’s talk over dinner.” Erikka got
busy stacking dinner plates on a tray with silverware.

“Can’t stay too long. Gotta get back to the
office. One of my cases goes to trial Thursday, and my client is in
deep poo-poo.” Terri took off her jacket and draped it on a
chair.

“You’re going to trial?” Hope did not have to
roll her eyes. Her tone dripped skepticism.

“Last year I won two million dollars in civil
judgments and got acquittals for three white-collar defendants.”
Terri stood with her legs apart. She looked every bit the tough
defense attorney.

“Any more questions, Hope?” Erikka smirked at
her friend.

“Yeah, how do you do it? I mean with your,
uh, issues. I don’t see how you made it through law school.” Hope
was not one to back down.

“When I’m flying high I can stay up for days
at a time. I speed-read. In short, I was the perfect law student.”
Terri nodded sharply, causing her strawberry blond ponytail to
bounce.

“You go, girl. I’m on board,” Karin replied,
and snapped her fingers twice in the air. She looked at Hope with a
smirk.

“Damn. Who knew bipolar disorder could be a
good thing,” Hope wisecracked.

“Erikka, be honest. Do you have anything to
worry about?” Terri sat down at the dinner table.

“I did what any accountant would do under the
circumstances. Nadine wanted me to help them trim the fat, and I
did. I showed them alternatives based on the profit and loss
statements. I also showed them ways to present earnings in the most
favorable light to possible investors. But I didn’t tell them to
lie. If they did, then that’s on them.” Erikka tried to calm her
nervous stomach. “Let’s eat.”

Terri shook her head slowly. “Girl, you—”

“I don’t need an attorney. Whatever Layton
did has nothing to do with me. Eat your vegetables or no chocolate
fudge swirl cheesecake,” she said with a grin to lighten the
mood.

“You’ve got all three of my numbers.
Something changes, call me. My last word,” Terri added quickly when
Erikka shot a glance at her.

“I’m going to be okay,” Erikka insisted,
ignoring the way her three friends exchanged meaningful
glances.

“Men,” Hope said immediately, around a
mouthful of bread.

“Oh God, no,” Terri wailed. She took a small
bite of fish and washed it down with cola.

“Dumped again I take it.” Hope looked at
her.

“Hope, that’s awful. What is wrong with you?”
Karin slapped her arm.

“Hey, she’s not alone. Ouch.” Hope hit her
back. “A little compassion for me, too. I finally find a guy who
knows the true meaning of foreplay. Heaven, right?”

‘Totally,” Erikka said, with a grin.

“Let’s clone him,” Terri put in.

“Wrong. Turns out Damon is fast on his
feet'.' Hope tried for humor, but her glassy eyes gave it away.

“Jerk.” Terri gave her a look of
sympathy.

“When?” Erikka asked.

“Over lunch today. Things got too intense too
fast he said. Maybe I shouldn’t have spent that weekend with him.”
Hope pushed green beans around on her plate.

“I say he was looking for an excuse. He did
you a favor, honey. Better now than at the wedding,” Terri said,
with a grunt for punctuation.

“You got a different way of looking at
things,” Hope said. “Twisted. I like that.”

“Thanks.” Terri grinned. They tapped their
glasses together in a toast and laughed.

Karin laughed with them then looked at
Erikka. “How goes it with Mr. Right?”

“Our romantic dinner turned into the Saturday
Night Smackdown. His brother came over, and they had a fight.”
Erikka shook her head.

“As in fists-flying fight?” Terri’s eyes
sparkled with interest.

“Vince was drunk, which didn’t help. A
reminder of what alcohol does to your good sense.” Erikka shot Hope
a look just as she drained the last of her daiquiri.

“I’m cool. Never had good sense according to
my mother,” Hope retorted.

“I don’t know, Erikka. Maybe your aunt was
right about you being careful with him. I mean he came close to
hitting his own brother.” Karin wore a prim disapproving
expression.

“I’m behind. There’s something about this guy
that makes him dangerous?” Terri looked at Karin for details.

“Murder,” Hope said, before Karin could
answer.

“He pleaded to negligent injury,” Erikka said
defensively. “Back in the day Gabriel got into a fight with a
friend. The dude died from head injuries later.”

“Emotions run high in a small town,” Terri
said, with a nod. “Either nobody liked the victim, or the defendant
had money and influence.”

“From what Erikka says, the Cormiers have
both,” Hope put in.

“Gabriel made some serious mistakes. We can
all relate,” Erikka said pointedly as she looked around.

“You’re right, Erikka. I’m all about not
judging a person by his past.” Karin gave her a smile of
support.

“Okay. Love conquers all.” Hope ate the rest
of her fish.

They all finished dinner. Their conversation
went from men to current events in New Orleans. Erikka enjoyed
being with her friends more than ever. She needed their chatter to
drown out her thoughts about work. Later, as she loaded the
dishwasher, Terri left the other two in the living room to join her
in the kitchen.

“Good food. Thanks for inviting me.” Terri
put covered plastic bowls of leftovers in the refrigerator to
help.

Erikka suppressed a smile. Terri usually
dropped obvious hints about dinner. How could she refuse? Even Hope
seemed to accept that Terri had adopted them as her buddies.

“No problem,” Erikka said.

“Are you really cool with this Layton, Inc.
situation?” Terri cut and wrapped up a piece of cheesecake in foil
without asking.

“Yes. No. I don’t know.” Erikka leaned
against the counter and crossed her arms. “I helped them write off
a lot of expenses. Made their earnings look a bit brighter.” “Isn’t
that illegal these days?” Terri licked a crumb of cheesecake from
one finger. “Those Enron accountants helped them sweeten their
annual reports.”

“No. They were legitimate expenses. None of
the financial reports they gave me looked overtly suspect,” Erikka
said. Though she hadn’t closely examined those expenses either.
“Hell, I sound like my boss now.”

“Don’t knock it, sugar. Those are exactly the
kinds of statements I would advise a client to make when asked,”
Terri replied with a wink.

“It’s true,” Erikka protested. “If that CEO
Transome stole from the company, he didn’t have help from me.”

“Excellent. You’re going to do fine under
questioning.” Terri wiped her hands and turned to Erikka.

“You talk like there will be a trial or
something.” Erikka’s stomach started doing flips again. She frowned
at Terri.

“With recent corporate scandals the heat is
on.” Terri lifted a shoulder as though apologizing for bearing bad
news.

“So?” Erikka had a good idea where this was
going. She still hoped for a different answer.

“Our esteemed DA is elected, you know. He’ll
get a photo op and see if any state laws were broken. But the feds
will be looking over his shoulder.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong, so I’m not going
to worry.”

Erikka hung the dish towel on a polished
steel rack. She wanted to believe she had no reason to worry. Her
insides wouldn’t listen. Terri gave her a hug and left. Karin
followed her out.

“Sure you’re okay?” Hope eyed her before
heading to her bedroom.

“Yeah. Good night, girl. You look half-asleep
already.” Erikka waved her off to bed.

Hope yawned. “Night.”

When Hope’s bedroom door bumped shut, Erikka
went to the office. Hope’s computer hummed since she never shut it
down. In seconds the high-speed connection brought up a
subscription data service. Erikka entered her password and looked
up more facts on Layton, Inc.

***

At six o’clock Darlene still sat in her
office at the center. Even her devoted secretary had finally gone
home. Darlene rubbed her eyes again. She blinked hoping to get rid
of the feeling of sand under her eyelids. The figures on the
spreadsheet seemed to bounce around like hip-hop dancers. No matter
which way she sliced it the center was in big trouble financially.
Darlene knew how the money had been stolen, but that didn’t fill
the center’s bank account. At another meeting of the board she’d
had to finally explain that checks had been stolen and that she had
reported the theft to the Sheriff. Maybe she was wrong and it
wasn’t an inside job. A stranger could have walked in the office
and stolen a sheet of checks. Who was she kidding? She tipped her
chair back. The rickety spring mechanism squealed as the chair
bumped the wall.