Page 11 of Five Midnight Moment
Dwayne shook his head. “They’d probably be smeared since you’ve been on it today.”
“I used my laptop today, not my computer. And every night, I wipe down the screen, keyboard and mouse.”
He recalled her being on her laptop when he’d been in her office earlier. He walked over to his desk and hit the intercom. “Mrs. Roberts, can you please ask Shawna to come to my office?”
“Sure can.”
He shared a look with Dwight, then turned toward Valencia. She looked ten times angrier than she had this morning. Not good. Dwayne thought about asking her to leave, but knew what her response would be, so he didn’t bother.
“I’ll call the police,” Dwight said, taking out his phone.
Two minutes later, Mrs. Roberts escorted Shawna into the office.
Shawna smiled. “Well, this is an honor, Mr. Albright,” she said, entering. “I’ve never been called to the bos—” Her eyes widened and she gasped when she noticed Dwight across the room. “Who is…what’s going on?”
Dwayne’s gaze dropped to her wrist. She had on the same multi-colored crystal bracelet from the photo. He sighed inwardly. “That’s what I’d like to know. Would you like to tell me why you stole a hundred and fifty thousand dollars from one of our client’s accounts and used Ms. Townsend’s computer to do it?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said, looking from one person to another.
Dwight held up the photo. “This says differently.”
“That’s not me!”
“Lying bi—” The rest of Valencia’s words were drown out as she crossed the space in a flash, punched Shawna in the face, knocking her on her butt. The woman lost a shoe in the process and her wig ended up slightly crooked. Pointing a finger in Shawna’s face, Valencia said, “The next time you try to impersonate somebody, don’t forget to take off thatloud ass bracelet!”
Dwayne and Dwight stood in stunned silence, then Dwayne gently pulled Valencia back. “Let’s try this again, Ms. Baker. Better yet, you can explain it to the police.”
“No! I’ll tell you everything and I can get the money back.” Shawna scrambled off the floor, not bothering to fix her wig or retrieve her shoe and started singing like Jill Scott. She threw her cousin—the woman Dwayne had fired for harassment—under the bus and backed it over her, tearfully confessing how she’d paid Shawna to ruin him. The woman had been essentially blackballed and unable to find another job in her field, and was still angry because Dwayne had rejected her advances. Shawna also gave up the account information where the stolen money was supposed to be deposited. Fortunately, because of the immediate alert from the security system and Valencia’s quick work, when they accessed the account, the money was still there and could be returned to its rightful owner .
Dwayne didn’t have one ounce of sympathy and turned her over to the police, who said they’d be picking up Shawna’s cousin for questioning, as well. A detective and a couple other officers stayed around to question them further and to collect any evidence from Valencia’s office.
After all the commotion died down, he sat in his office with Dwight and Valencia as she worked to redeposit the money into Mr. Smith’s account. His woman was something else. Not only had she solved the case in record time, she’d delivered a punch that would’ve made Muhammed Ali proud. She’d done it in a skirt and heels and not one strand of her shoulder-length hair was out of place.
Dwight stood. “I’ll leave you two alone. Ms. Townsend, nice work.”
“Thanks,” Valencia said.
As soon as the door closed, Dwayne pulled her out of her seat and held her close. “Thank you.”
“I’m glad she was so stupid. It made it easier. I guess I’m going to be fired for knocking her out.”
“Hardly. It was justified and you saved Mr. Smith and the firm from a big loss. It’s been a long day and it’s almost seven. Why don’t you go on home?” They’d had to endure almost two hours of questions from detective.
“Are you coming over tonight?”
“You’d better believe it. Midnight.”
“I’ll be waiting.” She seemed to war with herself for a few seconds, then came up on tiptoe and gave him a quick kiss. “See you at midnight.”
He smiled. She was definitely the one for him.
* * *
After a long bath and a glass of wine, Valencia finally felt her calm return. She couldn’t believe a woman would be so upset about Dwayne saying no that she tried to ruin his entire career and get Valencia thrown in jail. Then again, if word got out, it could have affected everyone’s job. She shook her head to push the rising anger down and went to refill her glass. The day had been so crazy, she’d forgotten about not having a car until she’d gotten ready to leave. By the time she made it home, the auto shops near her had all closed, which meant another Uber ride in the morning. She probably could have asked Dwayne to bring her home, but Valencia needed a few minutes to herself. She prided herself on being relatively even-tempered. Even when she’d issued the set-down to Ingram, she had done it with class and without raising her voice once. Today, however, a side she never knew existed surfaced and exploded in a matter of minutes.
Back in the living room, she sat on the sofa, reclined and tossed the car manual on the end table. Hopefully, it would turn out to be nothing more than a dead battery. She still couldn’t believe Dwayne had a twin. She’d studied them both and they were identical in every way. It took her a little while to find something to distinguish the brothers from each other, but she finally figured out how to tell them apart—their eyes. While both had the same shape and coloring, Dwayne’s held a playful light that Dwight’s lacked. His, on the other hand, had been shuttered and she saw what looked like sadness in their dark depths. She couldn’t help but wonder what happened.
Valencia sipped her wine as her mind drifted to Dwayne’s words.I’m done with the secrecy.Truthfully, so was she. Today, she’d kissed him in his office and it had been one of the boldest things she’d ever done. Unless she counted that punch to Shawna’s jaw. She flexed her hand. It was still a little sore, but knocking her out felt so good. Needing to talk to someone other than Dwayne, she grabbed her phone and called Leah.
