Broken Trust by Shannon Baker Read Free Book Online

paws.
    “I’m not up for more murder , old boy .”
    He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh of contentment.
    “On the other hand, since you’re the only one I talk to these days, maybe I ought to hang around just for human contact.”
    He wasn’t going to give her any advice; that much was plain.
    A light knock on her doorjamb startled her.
    Fay stood in the doorway, her eyes wide in her round face. Her voice crackled softly. “So what happened? I heard Petal say Darla was killed.”
    Nora leaned back on her work surface. “I don’t know.”
    Another head appeared over Fay’s shoulder. The hairy guy working on air quality. Thomas. Score one for Nora remembering his name. “Did you get any details?”
    Fay turned to him with her creaky voice. “I’ll bet it was Mark.”
    Thomas shook his head. “Naw. He hired her. I think he liked her because he could control her.”
    Fay shook her head. “I can’t believe she’s dead. And that she was shot .”
    Thomas nodded. “Yeah. Right here.” He scrutinized Nora’s office and shuddered as if Darla had been shot in the room.
    “Maybe it was Sylvia. She hated Darla. She hates everyone.” Fay nodded at Thomas for confirmation.
    “Freaky.” Without any warning, they both wandered away.
    Freaky, indeed.
    Nora surveyed the paper orgy strewn across the work space . A journey of a thousand miles begins with … filing. She shuffled the pages into unruly stacks.
    Interspersed among the spreadsheets, invoices, and financial statements, Nora came across pages from a yellow legal pad. Like a child’s scribbling on a blackboard as punishment, each page was filled with one line over and over. One page repeated, “I am smart” on all twenty-eight lines. Another said, “I will succeed.” “I am beautiful.” “I can do it.” “I am rich.” Nora’s throat constricted with sympathy when she found the last one: “They DO like me.” Over and over.
    Nora picked up the picture of Darla and studied it. If Darla were thin or fat, cheerful or dour, the out er wear concealed it all. One thing Nora knew for sure: Darla was not happy.
    Nora replaced the photo and trudged along with the paperwork.
    Well past lunch time, Mark stuck his head in her office. “Wow. You’ve made some headway.” Snort . “Darla wasn’t very organized.”
    He spoke casually, as if Darla, someone he’d worked with every day, hadn’t just been found dead on a mountain. What a jerk.
    Nora had slogged through much of the accounting fall-out on the desk. The documents consisted mostly of payroll spreadsheets and copies of paychecks, invoices—both paid and pending, financial reports, and Post-it notes.
    She’d found the reason for all the scribbled pages. Several self-help books occupied the closet shelf, and a dog-eared self-esteem manual declared success through written affirmations. Darla was struggling to change.
    Nora picked up a pile of handwritten accounting worksheets. “I think Darla tracked grants and restricted donations by hand and allocated them monthly, then backed the totals out of the general fund.”
    He blanked.
    “You can do it this way but it’s a lot of work , and there is a lag . S o if checks were written early in the month, the actual fund allocation won’t show up for a few weeks in the project budget.” He obviously had no idea what she was talking about . Which gave her leeway to set up her own, more efficient system. “How’s Petal?”
    He waved his hand. “She’s overly dramatic. I’m sorry you had to see one of her episodes on your first day.”
    Her friend and coworker was murdered . Nora knew what it felt like when someone close to you is murdered. You can’t get overly dramatic about that.
    Mark’s face reddened. He must have read Nora’s expression. “It’s terrible, of course. Unexpected and upsetting.”
    He stayed at the office door gazing at Nora. Not awkward at all.
    To fill the void, Nora chatted. “I’ll check to make sure all these