Page 66 of Saving Bonnie

“I’m okay now,” she says with a grateful smile.

“The money came from the person who took it,” I reply, choosing my words with care.

“He texted a few days ago…” She looks at me through her lashes.

“He’s alive and unharmed,” I say dryly. “If that’s your concern.”

She tangles her fingers with mine. “He said someone emptied his account.” She pauses. “So, how could the money come from the person who took it?”

I press my lips together while Dante makes contact. A view of Kassy’s office comes up on the screen. “This is Kassy, our resident hacker.”

“Morning.” She waves as everyone returns the greeting.

“She’s the one who’s been keeping an eye on you when I’m not there.” Bunny’s face turns a deep red.

“Oh.” Kassy’s eyebrows go up to her beanie. “No worries. I switched cameras. And I put a big stickie on the corner.” She shows us a notepad. “Princess isn’t even old enough for PG13.”

Bonnie sucks in a breath, putting her hand on her face as she ducks. Meanwhile, Iris is laughing quietly, folding her legs under her in the overstuffed chair.

“That’s her cat,” I explain. Princess Fuzzy Butt jumps into Kassy’s lap right on cue.

“Thank God,” she mumbles.

“By the way, I got with Cord,” Kassy says, addressing me.

Bunny gasps, turning to me with eyes full of concern. “I forgot all about him.”

After all his crap, it’s satisfying to hear her confession.

“He totally gets it,” Kassy continues. “Well, um, once I explained...what...was happening.” She stumbles through the words. “No hard feelings.” She shakes her head adamantly. “He felt bad enough that he was around the corner, stuck in traffic when Bonnie was taken.”

“What?” Iris straightens in her seat.

We bring her up to speed on what happened.

“All this time you were after Conrado?” Bunny asks. “That’s what brought you to the café?”

“Well, actually we were after Olga, his mother,” I explain. “But she never came in.”

Bunny’s taken aback. “Olga came in.” She rolls her lips as she concentrates. “In fact, it was about a week ago.”

I scowl at Kassy. We’ll be discussing this. I warned her about relying on a machine.

“What? No way.” The cat scatters with a loud complaint. “I was using facial recognition and watching the monitor. There’s no way she got past both of us.” Face twisted in annoyance, she turns to the keyboard.

“She came to pick up an order, sometime midmorning,” she says to Kassy.

Kassy forwards through the footage, mumbling under her breath.

“I couldn’t find anything for her,” Bunny continues. “She claimed she texted my cousin and left empty-handed.”

“So Erica was involved?” Iris asks.

“Both Sergio and Erica.”

Iris gasps.

“When I caught Sergio stealing, I fired him. Then I found out Erica didn’t make the deposits and fired her, too.”