Page 32 of Just Add Mistletoe

Malcom groaned. He didn’t want to know the details about any bet, and he certainly wasn’t going to ask Bronson about it. Or Penny. He didn’t reply, but instead saved the photo to his phone, then forwarded it to Lori.

We look cozy,she replied. She didn’t ask where the photo came from, and he didn’t offer up the information. Frankly, he was tired of talking about Penny anyway.

Another text came through from Lori: Draculais showing at 8:00 p.m. Sounds perfect to me.

Malcom laughed and texted back.Really? Which version?

I’m impressed you know there are different versions. It’s 1958, with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

Excellent, what time should I pick you up? Dinner first?

7:30, and I’m planning on eating the overpriced food at the theater. Bring your credit card. Unless you want to go Dutch since this isn’t a date?

I’m paying, he wrote.

She sent a pumpkin emoji with heart eyes. He might have stared at it too long.

Malcom didn’t know what it was about Halloween week, but it seemed the universe was conspiring against him. Rick came down with the flu, so Malcom had to fill in on maintenance several times at the cabin community, two of their suppliers had delivery delays, and Brandy emailed him early the day he was supposed to go to the movies with Lori and said they should meet ASAP.

She was coming into town anyway that day, so what time worked?

Anytime,Malcom had texted.I’ll make myself available.

By the time she arrived at his trailer, he had been pacing so much, he felt like a zoo animal. He put up a sign on the door of the trailer that said, “Manager off site, call this number for emergencies,” then hoped there’d be no phone calls.

Brandy was her usual bubbly self, but Malcom immediately sensed that the news she had to deliver wouldn’t be good. Otherwise, why not talk over the phone or through email?

He invited her to sit at the single desk, and pulled over another chair so they could both look at the laptop screen, where he’d opened up the spreadsheets he’d sent to her.

Brandy grasped the mouse and moved the curser to the top of the first one. “Now, I want you to pay attention to the numbers in this column. You don’t need to memorize them, but look at the pattern. It stands out.”

Malcom gazed at the column she’d highlighted. It was the accounts receivable column, and the numbers were allincreasing in order, by ten dollars each. It was kind of odd. “Maybe those are estimates?”

“I compared this column to the invoices on file, and they all match the invoice number.” Brandy clicked to another spreadsheet and highlighted one of the columns.

Malcom didn’t need to ask her to go back to the first spreadsheet to see that the numbers were an exact replica, although the listed items varied.

“What is this?” His stomach had tightened. “What am I looking at?”

“Duplicated numbers and duplicated invoices, except the item and the date has changed.” Brandy clicked on another spreadsheet. “Two years in a row might be a coincidence, but it’s a long shot. And a third year? Here’s last year’s accounts receivable report.”

The numbers in the column were duplicates again—or triplicates, he supposed. “Is this a mistake? Lazy accounting?”

“A mistake would be very generous. And lazy accounting might happen, but this feels deliberate. The accounts receivable are the same each year, yet the expenses keep increasing, which means that your company should be operating at a loss. At least that’s what’s being reported to the Internal Revenue Service.”

Malcom rubbed at his forehead. “So this creative accounting saves us on taxes?”

“Yep.” Brandy released a breath. “I mean, it might eventually be caught, and you’ll be fined and ordered to pay back taxes. But that’s not what I’m most worried about.”

He dropped his hand. “There’s more?”

Brandy clicked over to the next spreadsheet. “This is showing payroll by month.”

He nodded. The numbers all looked normal.

“Yet . . .” She scrolled to the far right on the spreadsheet, advancing through columns Malcom hadn’t noticed before.“This column shows transfers to another account. I don’t have access to any of these accounts, so I can’t verify them. But I’m thinking once you log into the payroll account, you’ll see extra transactions that aren’t going to payroll.”

Malcom frowned and pulled up the banking app on his phone. He opened the business account and scrolled through the recent withdrawals. There were a lot of them because of all the employees in the company. It would take him forever to compare the withdrawals to payroll.

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