Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton Read Free Book Online Page B

“Well, now, I’m going to have to be honest with you. Our bookkeeper
     has come across some discrepancies in the accounts. It looks like Lucy Ackerman has
     just walked off with half a million dollars entrusted to us.”
    “How’d she manage that?”
    I was picturing Lucy Ackerman, free of those truck-busting kids, lying on a beach
     in Rio, slurping some kind of rum drink out of a coconut.
    Mr. Sotherland looked pained. “In the most straightforward manner imaginable,” he
     said. “It looks like she opened a new bank account at a branch in Montebello and deposited
     ten checks that should have gone into other accounts. Last Friday, she withdrew over
     five hundred thousand dollars in cash, claiming we were closing out a big real estate
     deal. We found the passbook in her bottom drawer.” He tossed the booklet across the
     desk to me and I picked it up. The word VOID had been punched into the pages in a series of holes. A quick glance showed ten deposits
     at intervals dating back over the past three months and a zero balance as of last
     Friday’s date.
    “Didn’t anybody else double-check this stuff?”
    “We’d just undergone our annual audit in June. Everything was fine. We trusted this
     woman implicitly and had every reason to.”
    “You discovered the loss this morning?”
    “Yes, ma’am, but I’ll admit I was suspicious Friday night when Robert Ackerman called
     me at home. It was completely unlike that woman to disappear without a word. She’s
     worked here eight years and she’s been punctual and conscientious since the day she
     walked in.”
    “Well, punctual at any rate,” I said. “Have you notified the police?”
    “I was just about to do that. I’ll have to alert the Department of Corporations, too.
     God, I can’t believe she did this to us. I’ll be fired. They’ll probably shut this
     entire office down.”
    “Would you mind if I had a quick look around?”
    “To what end?”
    “There’s always a chance we can figure out where she went. If we move fast enough,
     maybe we can catch her before she gets away with it.”
    “Well, I doubt that,” he said. “The last anybody saw her was Friday afternoon. That’s
     two full days. She could be anywhere by now.”
    “Mr. Sotherland, her husband has already authorized three hundred dollars’ worth of
     my time. Why not take advantage of it?”
    He stared at me. “Won’t the police object?”
    “Probably. But I don’t intend to get in anybody’s way, and whatever I find out, I’ll
     turn over to them. They may not be able to get a fraud detective out here until late
     morning, anyway. If I get a line on her, it’ll make you look good to the company
and
to the cops.”
    He gave a sigh of resignation and waved his hand. “Hell, I don’t care. Do what you
     want.”
    When I left his office, he was putting the call through to the police department.

    I SAT BRIEFLY at Lucy’s desk, which was neat and well organized. Her drawers contained the usual
     office supplies, no personal items at all. There was a calendar on her desktop, one
     of those loose-leaf affairs with a page for each day. I checked back through the past
     couple of months. The only personal notation was for an appointment at the Women’s
     Health Center August 2 and a second visit last Friday afternoon. It must have been
     a busy day for Lucy, what with a doctor’s appointment and ripping off her company
     for half a million bucks. I made a note of the address she’d penciled in at the time
     of her first visit. The other two women in the office were keeping an eye on me, I
     noticed, though both pretended to be occupied with paperwork.
    When I finished my search, I got up and crossed the room to Mrs. Merriman’s desk.
     “Is there any way I can make a copy of the passbook for that account Mrs. Ackerman
     opened?”
    “Well, yes, if Mr. Sotherland approves,” she said.
    “I’m also wondering where she kept her coat and purse during the day.”
    “In