Jack sat back. “I don’t know. I really don’t. I understand that you can’t really know someone after only two weeks, but I just can’t imagine her doing this. Yet I can’t deny there is fifty grand in wire sitting on the Warrior Homes building site with no authority to be there. And why would Alex implicate her if it weren’t true? They’re friends.”
Jen pushed the swing with her foot. “I guess you never really know someone. Look at Bruce. After thirty years of working with Dad, no one expected him to do what he’s done.”
“I can’t figure her out. She volunteers for a good cause, yet she’s stolen in the past. She has a spotless record at Pinnacle but didn’t tell me she worked there. She’s friendly and warm, but if you get too close, she pushes you away.”
“That’s a lot of black-and-white thinking,” Jen said. “No one is all good or all bad. Maybe there’s just more gray in Miranda than you realized. She’s had a rough life. Sometimes people who’ve struggled in the ways she has don’t see things the same way we would. Don’t do the things that we would. Her mother certainly didn’t set her up for success.”
Jen sat back and took a sip of her beer. Staring out at the street, she said, “Unfortunately, I don’t think there is any sure way to know. You’ll have to see what she says.”
27
Miranda pulled down the tailgate of her truck and sat on the edge. Spur’s parking lot was mostly empty but for the cars of the prep cooks and opening bartender.
She was anxious to hear what Jack had to say about the arrest, but something about his choice of meeting place didn’t sit right with her. He should have made dinner plans or asked her to his hotel. The bar’s parking lot was just…odd. As if he would base where they went next off this conversation.
His car pulled into the lot, and her heart jumped. Excitement stirred in her belly, and she couldn’t hold back the automatic smile. But as he parked beside her truck, she saw his face, and his expression wiped her smile clean away.
She decided not to greet him the way she wanted to, with a hug and a kiss. She stayed on her tailgate as he got out of his car. He was tense, shoulders stiff, spine straight. No swagger whatsoever. Nope, this was not good news.
Miranda pressed her hands to the tailgate and curved her fingers over the edge.
He stopped beside her and lifted one hip to the tailgate. “Hi.”
There was pain in his voice. Miranda braced herself. “Are you okay?”
“This is…stressful.”
When he didn’t go on, she asked, “Was Alex in on the embezzlement with Bruce?”
Jack shrugged. “Not that we’ve been able to connect. Maybe when we find Bruce, we’ll know for sure.”
“Then why was he arrested?”
Jack took a deep breath and met her gaze, but his was shuttered. He seemed very far away emotionally. “He was stealing. Over-ordering, then selling off the excess for cash.”
Her air left her on a sharp exhale. “Shit.”
Jack nodded, his gaze on the ground.
“What’s going to happen to them?” she asked.
“He’s going to prison.”
“What?”
“Tennessee has strong theft laws.”
“Are you’re sure he was stealing? It’s not some screwup in the books? It’s not something his father did?”
“Our accountant and I noticed a discrepancy in the supply charges for this project. While our investigator was tracking Bruce, we had him look into it. He found that the RFID system used to track supplies fell apart about a year ago, when all the turmoil was happening with my family. The investigator replaced it with one of his own a few weeks back, tracked supplies leaving the site to other construction companies, and got confirmation that Alex sold them supplies, then pocketed the money.”
Her stomach dropped. “Jesus.”
His jaw jumped with stress, and she could tell there was more. “Miranda, the investigator also found several spools of welding wire missing.” A chill slid down the center of her body. A bunch of brain cells clicked together in the background, creating an ugly feeling in the
pit of her stomach. “They were tracked to the Warrior Homes site.”
“What?”