Heart's Desire Ch 28

Chapter 28

EPOV

“Sookie, that’s been driving you crazy hasn’t it? So where do you know him from?” I smirked shaking my head, glad she had finally made the connection. Fewer things are more annoying than not being able to put a name with a face or not being able to recall where or how you know someone. Episodes like that can be fatal in business transactions so I could relate to her relief.

“Well, I don’t know him, but I’ve seen his name.” She said as she began to step out of the tub.

I could tell she was too preoccupied to continue our peaceful soak together so I crawled out of the tub behind her and began toweling her off.

“You’ve seen his name where?”

“With the charity stuff.” She said as she walked over to the dresser and pulled out a tank top and shorts to put on.

“Are you sure?” I remembered Debbie saying they had changed the procedures some but I couldn’t imagine why he would be involved in the process. “Are you sure you just didn’t run across his name on some other company related paperwork?”

John had been with the organization for about 4 years and was responsible for finding and researching companies for possible takeover or those that could benefit from our help with restructuring. He had never been my favorite person, his approach was open and aggressive which while on occasion I found to be somewhat over the top yet I still preferred it to the sneaky, stealth maneuvers that some companies employed. Aside from Pam and myself, he was probably the busiest man in the company and definitely one of the best compensated which aided his not so secret desire to move as high and as fast as possible up the socioeconomic ladder.

“Maybe, but I don’t think so.”

It was amusing how fixated she had become on the subject, she was like a little pit bull getting a hold of something and nothing was going to make her let it go.

“Well, it’s nothing to worry about; we’ll take a look tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, do you want to go to the office to work or just work from here again?”

I knew soon I wouldn’t be able to get away with working from home quite as much, but for now most of my responsibilities could still be handled remotely and although Sookie had agreed to stay I still enjoyed the privacy being at home provided.

“It’s up to you; whatever you want to do is fine with me.”

“Well, how about we stay here tomorrow and maybe plan to go in to the office Tuesday or Wednesday?”

“That’s fine.” She shrugged as we headed out to the kitchen to put something together for dinner.

The rest of the evening was thankfully quiet, a stark contrast to the last couple of days. It had been a long time since my house had seen that type of activity and while I really enjoyed getting to know Sookie’s friends, this little bit of down time was all it took for my body to remind me that I was still recovering from my injuries.

I awoke the next morning a few minutes before my alarm was set to go off. Without looking I reached over to find Sookie but my hand was met with a pillow instead…a very cold pillow. I looked over to the bathroom only to see the door open and the light off.

As I made my way down the hall I could hear the faint tapping of Sookie’s tiny finger nails on her laptop in the library.

“Sookie what the hell?” I mumbled as I rubbed my eyes that had still not adjusted to the morning light.

“Oh shit…Eric you scared me half to death.” She said obviously startled by my interruption.

“What are you doing in here already this morning?”

“Eric I’m sorry, you know that whole John Quinn thing has been driving me crazy and now I know why.”

“Well, I’m sure whatever it is it can wait until after breakfast. Come on Love; let’s go get dressed while Mrs. Hadley whips something up for us.” I said nuzzling her neck.

Through the entire meal, I could see that Sookie was still distracted with whatever discovery she had made earlier this morning as I was having a hard time keeping her engaged in any sort of conversation.

“Sookie, why don’t you just go ahead and tell me what has got you so worked up about John Quinn this morning.” I said taking another sip of coffee.

“No Eric, I don’t want to tell you, I’d rather show you. I want to make sure that I’m seeing what I think I’m seeing.” She said cryptically.

“OK, come on; show me what you’ve found.” I thought I had managed not to sound condescending but the raised eyebrow informed me otherwise.

“I’m sorry Love, you’ve just been so damn funny about this. Seriously…show me what you’ve discovered.”

“OK, first let me explain all the data I’ve pulled together.” She said as she entered the library.

Since Sookie began working on her database, she had given me the “Cliff’s notes” version of her work, but I had yet to take the time to sit down and see everything that she had pulled together. Apparently I had grossly underestimated the little pit bull.

“I’ve pulled all the charities together with all of their pertinent information as well as additional information such as percentage of administrative cost, board members, who we send the money too and such. But I have also been looking at their percentage of administrative costs to help determine who is making the best use of the money. Which ones may be close to a breakthrough where a little more help from us could be the final push that sends them over as well as how appropriately those who receive funds from us previously were using them.”

I sat there mesmerized by then amount of data she had pulled together. I had no idea. And it didn’t escape my notice that she said “us” when she referred to the company and I had to work hard to suppress the grin.

“So where does John Quinn fit into all of this?”

“Well let me first say, I am not accusing anyone of anything. I am just bringing the information to your attention. OK?” I nodded my head.

“OK, let’s see what happens when I search the database for ‘John Quinn’.” She said as she typed the name in the search field.

We sat there for a couple of moments waiting while the system did its search and sure enough four different charities popped up that were linked to his name.

“I don’t understand, what does this mean.” I asked, still not grasping what she was trying to show me.

“Eric, with the exception of the “Grant a Dream Foundation”, each one of these charities received a million dollars on their respective year. “Grant a Dream Foundation” has an application in for this year’s dispersements.”

“Sookie, I’m still not making the connection.” I interrupted, trying to hide my growing impatience.

“Let me finish.” She scolded. “When I did my background search on these companies, each one of them have the same names listed as their leadership committee, all local addresses and all four of them have John Quinn listed as the treasurer.”

“Sookie, while the name Quinn is not as popular as Smith or something, I’m sure there is more than one John Quinn out there.”

“And I don’t doubt that. It’s possible that this is all one big coincidence, but that’s not everything.” She continued. “Each one of these companies, except of course “Grant a Dream Foundation”, folded the year following receipt of your donation. And just for the record, none of the other charities have folded.”

She paused for a moment, and I could tell there was something else she wanted to add.

“What are you not saying Sookie?”

“Well, I’m not really sure exactly how to say this without sounding petty.”

“Just spit it out.”

“OK, you remember the other day when we were in your office and Debbie Pelt was so eager to take all this off my hands?” She motioned to the computer screen.

I nodded.

“Remember she said that she had been taking care of a lot of this for Pam?”

Again I nodded.

“Well, the three that folded, the ones that have Quinn listed as the treasurer, were all approved by her.”

I was a little surprised by her implications.

“Sookie, I appreciate the fact that you are not a fan of Debbie’s, I’m not either, you know that. But just because she approved those applications and the organization subsequently folded, doesn’t mean she’s involved in anything shady.”

“Eric, these were the ONLY ones she approved.” She paused before continuing her explanation. “Look, I’m not trying to accuse anyone of anything, honestly. Hell I don’t know Quinn from Adam’s house cat, but I can’t help but feel something is not right here.”

I had to agree that it did look a little too suspicious just to be coincidence. John and Debbie had both come to work for Northman Inc. at about the same time and I knew Debbie spent a lot of time down on John’s floor, but did I believe they were capable of something like this? Maybe.

I stared at the information on the screen; Sookie had painstakingly taken me back through all of the data she had gathered and shown me exactly where it had originated from. We checked and double checked all of the information she had pulled together and I had to admit there was enough evidence to be more than a little suspicious. Now the question was what to do with the information that I had.

“So now what?” Sookie asked somewhat timidly. I could tell she was not relishing her role as being the possible bearer of bad news.

“I don’t really know. I’m trying to determine the best way to handle this; I mean I have a team of forensic accountants we use to snoop out things like this when we approach another company but John’s ties to them are too tight. I think I’m going to place a call to my attorney and see what he has to say.”

“Forensic accountants?” Sookie asked.

“Yeah…they are the kind of folks you call in when you suspect fraud or embezzlement of some kind. They sort of follow the money and recreate the trail.”

I made a quick call to my lawyer; he was in court but called me back just a few minutes after I left my message. I relayed the information to him, exactly how Sookie discovered it and all the details she had uncovered and he agreed that it warranted further investigation. He said he would get me the name of another accounting firm that specialized in investigating this sort of thing as soon as he got back to his office and I could contact them to set up a meeting.

I hung up the phone and glanced over at Sookie who was still looking despondent.

“What’s the matter Love?”

“Eric…I just feel so bad about all this?”

“Why do you feel bad?” I asked incredulously.

“I don’t know. I guess if it’s true…if they really did do something wrong…then I feel bad that they did that to your company. And if it’s not true then I feel bad for making you jump through all these hoops for nothing.”

I pulled her over to me and wrapped my arms around her.

“First of all, you are not making me do anything. We, my attorney and I, both think you’re right this does warrant a closer look. Second of all, if you could link all this together, then someone else could as well and we want to make sure that any of our business dealings, even our charitable giving is above reproach so if nothing else the investigation will insure that. Look, I don’t want you feeling bad about this, I’m so damn proud of you right now, I could bust and I know this is going to sound bad but this is all the more reason why you should be working for me rather than back at the restaurant.” I felt her stiffen at my last sentence and I knew it had not gone over well.

“Sookie, I’m not trying to insult you or belittle your work as a waitress, please know that,” I could only hope she could hear the sincerity of my words, “but you are capable of so much more. I mean just look at what you have done with just this process alone. You have taken a simple request of reviewing some applications and turned it in to a true selection process with the data to back up any decision made. Do you understand how impressive that is?”

She seemed to be considering my words as she kept her eyes down studying the hem of her tank top when finally she sighed.

“Thank you for saying that and I know you are not trying to hurt my feelings. I guess the reason I’ve always been so defensive about being a waitress is because otherwise I would feel guilty about not making something more of myself.”

“Sookie there is nothing for you to feel guilty about; you did what you had to do with the choices you were given, you should be proud of that. I’m not trying to pressure you into anything; I just want you to understand you have options now and I don’t care what you choose to do as long as you are happy…and of course here with me.” I added with a sheepish grin.

“So you don’t care what I choose?” I could hear a little amusement in her voice.

“Nope.”

“Suppose I want to sit around all day do my nails?”

“That’s fine.” I knew she was joking, that girl could no sooner sit around all day than I could swim the English Channel.

“And eat bon bons?”

“Just let Mrs. Hadley know which are your favorite brand and she’ll get them for you.” She laughed at my quick response. “I just want you happy…period. If that comes from you working…fine, if it comes from you going back to school…fine, if it comes from you being barefoot and pregnant…fine, as long as you’re happy.”

I confess that last suggestion slipped out of my mouth before I realized I had even thought it. I guess the time we had spent yesterday with little Nava had brought the idea of children in a more prominent part of my brain, but this was not how I would have brought the subject up if I had just thought before I spoke.

Sookie pulled away and turned to look at me.

“Eric are you saying you want to have children with me?” She sounded surprised and I wasn’t sure just how that made me feel.

“Of course.” I responded as if there was no other possible answer to her question.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and crushed her lips to mine and I couldn’t help but feel her kiss was not one of passion or need but rather one of gratitude and I was reminded again just how fragile my little pit bull was. She pulled away and looked questioningly up at me.

“Are you sure?”

“Sookie, when I said I loved you that was it for me. I’m all in. I want a life with you and everything that goes with it. I know what I want; I’m just waiting for you to get caught up.”

“Oh Eric, thank you…thank you for loving me. I never knew someone could be this happy and I certainly never expected it to be me.”

“Sookie, loving you is the easiest thing I have ever done and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life doing it.”

We sat there for awhile holding each other before finally deciding it was time to get started with work.

“Sookie how would you feel about us going to the office today instead of staying home? I know I suggested staying here today but in light of what you’ve found, I think I would like to go to the office and just to see if we can pick up on anything.”

“That’s fine, I just find something more appropriate to wear. I really need to bring more of my clothes from home, I didn’t really pack with the office in mind when I packed to come here.” She said somewhat absentmindedly mumbling to herself while looking through her clothes in the closet.

“You know Sook…we can send for your stuff or go pick up your things whenever you want or if you want to wait til the weekend we can…but I wouldn’t mind a trip to the mall this evening if you want. I’m sure the walking would be good for me and we could get you a few things to hold you over. Besides we need to celebrate your new job don’t you think?”

She tried but she couldn’t hide her excitement and apparently I had found one of her soft spots…shopping. Who knew?

A short time later we were in the car on the way to the office.

“I think I’m going to get Selah to start working on cleaning out Pam’s office, at least the business related items. If I trusted Debbie I would have her do it but I didn’t trust her before and I certainly don’t want to risk anything now, so I think I’ll have Selah take care of it. I know I need to, but I don’t think I’m ready to handle her personal items, so I will probably just have them carefully boxed up and stored for now. And then we can convert that office to yours.”

“MINE?” Sookie almost yelled.

“Yes, yours. You’re going to need some place to work from and I like the idea of you being close to me.”

“Eric, I can’t take that office. That would cause all kinds of hard feelings with your employees.” She said shaking her head.

“Nonsense. I own the damn company, and I say who goes where. Look, you really didn’t tour the rest of the building, but I assure you the other executive’s offices are just as nice as those on my floor. They may be a tad smaller but really the only other difference is that they are not as high up. Besides, that office was Pam’s and I don’t want anyone else in there.”

Sookie had decided not to argue any more about the office, but I knew her well enough to doubt the discussion was over.

We finally got to the building and we went straight to my office to check in with Selah and put Sookie’s laptop in my office. For obvious reasons we had decided not put her data on the shared drive, we had copied the files to my computer at home but for now we would just have to carry her laptop back and forth between the office and home when she needed to work.

“Come on, let’s go down to Pam’s office and see what all needs to be done before I talk to Selah about it.” I said as we made our way down to the other end of the hall.

Just before we reached the end of the hall, I could hear a female voice coming from the office and as we got closer I recognized the voice as Debbie’s. I touched Sookie’s arm and motioned for her to wait as I held my finger to my lips to let her know not to speak.

“You’re just paranoid, you need to stop worrying. Everything is going to be fine.” I heard her tell the other person in hushed tones.

“I hope you’re right, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I need to get back downstairs; I’ll see you at home tonight.”

I recognized the voice immediately and just a couple of seconds the owner rounded the corner where instantly his face turned to one of shock.

“Hello John.”

TBC