Coming a little late to the party? You can catch up from the beginning by clicking here: Chapter One
Once Adam had left, Cassie and Jet went back to the trade tickets with a renewed sense of urgency. It was too much to hope that the investigation was just a coincidence and nothing to do with what had been happening to them.
Finally, Jet nudged Cassie and slid a ticket towards her. She read quickly. It was a trade to buy some shares for five thousand pounds, and she recognised her bank account as the one the money was being sent to.
Her initial sense of fear soon gave way to anger. It was one of Lucy’s trades. So much for the sisterhood. She desperately wanted to scream and rage but Guy was still working quietly nearby.
She started to stand up, but Jet grabbed her sleeve and pulled her back down. She put three more tickets in front of her, all done by Lucy.
“Have a look at these,” she said, carefully. “I think this is what helped Adam make the match.”
Cassie looked but could see nothing suspicious about those trades, they all looked perfectly normal. She even recognised two of the bank accounts as ones she’d input regularly over the last few months.
Then Jet pointed to the number seven in each of the three trades. Again, they looked perfectly normal to Cassie.
“See here, on this one?” Jet asked, pointing to the ticket with Cassie’s details.
Then she saw it. The ticket for Cassie’s money had two sevens, both had a small line crossing the downstroke, like they did in Europe. The other three trades didn’t have that. Whoever wrote the ticket had forged it to make it look like one of Lucy’s trades.
Cassie started to speak but stopped. She had to think carefully. Dave and Nick were the obvious suspects, but it could also be Guy. After all someone had to have input the ticket and whoever it was wouldn’t want her to see it.
Jet suddenly scooped all the tickets together as Brian walked into the area.
“Afternoon everyone,” he said. “Merry Christmas and all that.”
“Merry Christmas,” they dutifully chimed back.
“Thank you, thank you. Er… I gather you’ve heard the news.”
He walked over to Jet’s desk and casually picked up her stapler.
“Harper Jones are in having a little look through our books.”
He opened the stapler out and took a look into the staple store. He ran his finger across the row and then closed it back up.
“Purely routine,” he continued. “Just a random check. Nothing to worry about.”
He looked round at them. “It happens now and again. Just co-operate as you do with the auditors. We’ve nothing to hide here.”
He replaced the stapler on the desk and looked round at them all.
“Good, good,” he said. “Carry on. And, er, merry Christmas.” He turned and left.
“Well, that’s a relief,” said Guy, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’ll sleep so much better tonight.”
When they arrived the following morning, they found Guy staring morosely at an empty cupboard.
“They called me in early,” he said. “Asked me why I kept the cupboard locked and then took everything.”
“What did you tell them?” asked Jet, gently.
“That it’s what I always have done. If you let just anyone have access whenever they want, things get put back in the wrong place.”
Cassie felt a small pang of guilt. The’d stuffed the trade tickets back into the folder yesterday without any attempt to put them in order.
“How about I pop down and get us all a nice coffee?” she asked, surprising herself.
Guy looked at her as if debating how to respond. “No, thank you,” he finally said. “I think I’ll go. I’d like a little time away.”
Cassie watched him leave and then went to her desk. She paused and checked the presents in the Secret Santa box one last time. She sighed. Still nine. Today was shaping up to be the worst Christmas Eve ever. She’d lose her job and possibly even be arrested by the end of the day.
“Wait,” said Jet. “Here.” She took a package out of her bag and put it into the box.
“Oh Jet,” said Cassie with relief. “I can’t let you do that. Wait, have you been replacing the lost presents all this time?”
“No, not at all. I took this one out yesterday just before we left. I have a little theory and I wanted to test it out.”
“What theory?”
“Oh, it can wait. Let’s see if it works first.”
Read on by clicking here: Chapter Twenty-Three