Advent '23 - Chapter Thirteen - Cassie
An unexpected windfall
Coming a little late to the party? You can catch up from the beginning by clicking here: Chapter One
Cassie was in a terrible mood. She had hardly slept a wink all night and had only just dropped off when the alarm woke her up again. She was late into the office and had bitten Guy’s head off when he moved his mug a little to the left after she’d set it down on his desk. So what if it wasn’t exactly centred on his coaster? She’d wiped off the drips on the bottom, hadn’t she?
She’d also been ignoring Jet’s increasing unsubtle attempts to engage her in conversation. She could see the concern in her friend’s eyes, but she wasn’t ready to talk just yet.
She knew she had to say something, though. She couldn’t simply ignore the five thousand pounds that had suddenly appeared in her current account.
“Cassie, I realise something’s bothering you, but we need to talk. It’s important.”
She looked up in surprise. Jet was standing in front of her desk, staring down at her while chewing her bottom lip.
She stood up. Clearly the moment had come. “Let’s go to the kitchen,” she said.
Once they arrived and had ascertained that they were alone, Jet spoke.
“Have you received some money unexpectedly?” she asked.
“Yes,” said Cassie in surprise. “How did you know?”
“I got an email saying you’d been paid what you asked for and I should convince you to stop there. That what you are doing is wrong and they want no further part in it.”
Cassie just stood with her mouth open.
“It was from an anonymous account.”
Again, she had no words. This was insane.
“Cassie, this looks really bad. How much was it?”
“Five thousand pounds,” said Cassie, faintly.
“Five thousand… Oh my gosh.”
Jet sat down abruptly.
“I didn’t know what to do when I saw it. I’ve been awake the whole night thinking about it.” The words came tumbling out now. “I can’t send it back. I can’t see anything to tell me where it came from. There’s no name or anything. I can’t keep it, obviously, but I just don’t know what to do with it. If I send it anywhere it’ll look like I’ve spent it.”
She could hear the mounting hysteria in her voice but was powerless to stop it.
“It’s ok, we’ll sort this out somehow,” said Jet. “Have you called your bank? They should be able to trace where it came from and send it back.”
Cassie sat down and put her head in her hands. “I daren’t. When I started this job, I moved my current account here. They give you a subsidised mortgage after you’ve worked a year but only if you bank with them.”
Jet nodded. “And if it’s related to what’s going on here – which it must be…”
“They could end up tracing it to one of the department’s bank accounts,” finished Cassie. “It’ll look like I stole it!”
“Don’t worry. We’ll sort this out, I promise.”
“But how?”
Jet stood and started pacing back and forwards. “If it has come from here, there must be some trail,” she said. “We just need to check all the accounts and see if we can find it. Then we go on from there.”
Cassie brightened and sat up straighter. “You’re right. It’ll show up as an unreconciled item. We just need to look at the reports from yesterday.”
“They’ll be in Adam’s office,” said Jet thoughtfully.
“Then we should go ask him,” said Cassie, getting to her feet.
“Ask what? Can we look at your reports to see if a large sum of money has been paid into Cassie’s bank account?”
“Oh, maybe not. I know. We need a distraction then you can go in and search.”
She almost laughed at the look on her friend’s face. “You’re good at that,” she encouraged.
Rather disconcertingly, Jet smiled. “Well we’d better hope you’re good at making a distraction then.”
Continue reading by clicking here: Chapter Fourteen