Chapter Sixteen #2
Done with pleasantries, he opened the folder he’d brought and cleared his throat. He’d thought about this before the meeting; he wasn’t going to tell Otis that it was Britt who’d found the damning evidence against him. The last thing Chad would knowingly do was put a target on her back.
“I know you’re busy, and I need to get back and help my brothers with the guesthouse, but I wanted to talk to you about some inconsistencies we found at the shop ...”
Thirty minutes later, Chad was getting back into his truck—and he had no doubt whatsoever that Britt’s concerns had merit.
Otis had done his best to explain away the things she’d found, but he’d been visibly stressed throughout the meeting and had talked in circles more than he’d actually answered Chad’s questions.
When asked about the missing inventory, he’d blamed that on Walt not accurately writing down what they had on hand for Britt to put into the new inventory system.
When asked about the number of invoices in the system, he’d acted like he didn’t know what Chad was talking about, and sure enough, he’d produced evidence of twenty-seven invoices in the system—fifteen more than Britt had noted just the day before.
On the surface, everything he said seemed aboveboard, if a little shady—especially putting the blame on Walt—but it was his body language that stood out the most to Chad.
As soon as Chad started asking questions, Otis began sweating and wouldn’t look him in the eyes.
He also fumbled his words constantly, when Chad had never known him to be anything but well spoken and concise.
Everything about their awkward meeting screamed that something was wrong.
And Chad didn’t know enough about what to look for in the money trails to figure out what that something was.
He needed to talk to his brothers and see if any of them had a contact who could take a deep dive into Lobster Cove’s financials.
They needed an independent audit of everything .
And that could take a while ... because they’d possibly have to go back twenty years.
This sucked, and Chad hated it. But he wasn’t going to let it go. No one fucked with his family. Even if that person had been best friends with his father.
Otis Calvert peered out the tiny window in his office and watched as Chad pulled out of the parking area. He dropped the curtain and wiped his brow with a handkerchief before he sat down and took out his cell phone.
This wasn’t good. Not at all.
And it was all that bitch’s fault! She’d barely been there a month, and everything was going to shit. He knew she was going to be trouble the second he’d met her. Just knew it.
She had no business poking around in his files. And he had no doubt it was her ... no doubt she was the one who’d gone running to Chad with what she’d found.
The problem was—she wasn’t wrong.
He’d been skimming money from Lobster Cove for years, using his friendship with Austin Young to his advantage.
Turned out, he was a skilled accountant but bad with investments ... and unfortunately, most of his clients had dumped him years ago, unhappy with the way he’d managed their money. But since Austin and Evelyn Young were such close friends, they’d always trusted him. Never questioned anything .
Being in charge of the money for all the businesses on their property had made it easy to create fake invoices and pay himself, making up for his loss of income. And every year when tax time came around, he simply told them they owed more than they did and pocketed the difference.
Lobster Cove was easy pickins, and he hadn’t expected anything to interfere with that for years to come. Not even Evelyn’s sons, who were too busy and too trusting to question Otis.
Until that outsider bitch started sticking her nose where it didn’t belong.
There was only one solution—he needed a distraction. Something to take the heat off himself while he did what he could to cover his tracks. He’d gotten too confident over the years, too lax, and now that Chad was suspicious, he needed to clean up the books.
For a moment, Otis felt bad about what he was about to do, but tough times called for tough measures.
“Come on, come on,” he muttered. “Answer.”
As if his son could hear him, he picked up.
“What do you want, Dad? I’m busy.”
Otis’s lip curled. His son was a lazy son of a bitch.
He only worked at Lobster Cove Auto Body because Otis needed him on the books legitimately so he could pay him .
.. way more than he actually earned, of course.
Camden was paid a full-time salary for part-time work every month, thanks to Otis and his creative accounting.
That particular fraud wasn’t on Chad’s radar yet, but if he dug into payroll, it would only be a matter of time.
“I need you to do something for me. If you don’t, the money train stops.”
“What are you talking about?” Camden asked.
“They’re suspicious. And if I lose my job, you lose your job.”
“Fuck,” Camden swore.
Otis nodded. “Right.”
“What do you need me to do?”
After Otis explained his idea, as he expected, his son didn’t have any protests.
He’d do what he was told because if he didn’t, they’d both lose the house they lived in, and Camden would have to find a real job—which Otis knew his son didn’t want to do.
He enjoyed hanging out with his deadbeat friends and smoking weed too much.
His entire lifestyle relied on his old man paying him under the table for work he didn’t actually do.
“It needs to happen today,” Otis warned.
“Today?” Camden whined.
“Yes. The sooner the better.”
He sighed. “Fine. I’ll go find Evelyn and tell her that I saw some oil under her car or something. Tell her that I need to take a look at it.”
“Perfect. Don’t fuck this up, Camden.”
“I won’t ! Damn, Dad, ease up.”
But Otis couldn’t. If this failed, he had no doubt things would go bad for him in a huge way. He’d never be able to pay back the amount he’d taken over the years. He’d be thrown in jail, and that would be the end of him.
“I expect to get a call later today, confirming this worked.”
“You will. Later.”
Otis hung up and stared into space for a long moment. He wanted to immediately start manipulating the computer system, deleting and manipulating files, but if he did that, it would be even more obvious that something was up.
No, the only thing he could do was stay the course and pray Camden didn’t screw up. That attention would be turned from him to ... more important matters.