Page 99 of He's the One

The man’s jaw tightened. “Evidence?”

“That’s what we hope to find on here,” Col said.

“What aroused your suspicions?” The marquess pinned his gaze on Theo.

“You were asked for more money because of unforeseen problems with the roof in the East Wing,” Theo said. “Nyman wanted more stonemasons too. You paid up. But…” He glanced at Col.

“I used to be employed by Nyman. I spoke to someone who’s been working on the roof throughout the renovation and no unexpected problems arose. And hewouldhave been aware of them. Nor were any extra masons brought in. I showed an architect the quote and neither he nor I think it’s referring to here. Some of it didn’t even make sense. Sir.”

“Usedto be employed?”

Of course, he’d pick up on that.

“Is this some sort of revenge you’re plotting?”

“No, sir.”

“Why did he sack you?”

“I was working on the staircase, and when that was done, Nyman said he didn’t need me to join the team on the roof.”

“It wasn’t a matter of not having enough work for Col to do,” Theo said. “Someone had it in for him.”

Col shot Theo a warning glance.

“I saw Nyman hand Darnley an envelope,” Theo blurted. “Col saw it too. We wondered if Nyman had given him a kickback.”

The marquess sighed. “That’s not evidence of fraud. Not unless you found the envelope and it was full of money.” Then he widened his eyes. “Thatwas why you wanted to get into the safe?”

“I thought he might have put the envelope in there but the cash box was locked and by the time I had the chance to check it, there was just money in it. Over seven thousand pounds. No envelope though.”

“Anything else?”

“We looked at invoices from suppliers and found some that were suspicious,” Theo said. “One for champagne flutes that I put in storage. The quantity didn’t tally with the order. And there was a window cleaning bill from a company we don’t use. Other things too. Enough to make me want to look into everything more carefully.”

“It sounds as though there could be a logical explanation for all of that. What do you think the computer is going to tell you?”

“I don’t know,” Theo said. “But I thought if there was anything that looked wrong, it would be worth a forensic accountant or an auditor checking it out.”

“It’s finished downloading,” Col said. A few moments later, he had the hard drive in his hand and had switched off the computer.

“Have I done the right thing?” Theo whispered.

His father exhaled. “Yes. Unplug the computer. We need it moved.”

“Darnley’s not in tomorrow,” Theo said.

“Ah that’s right. He told me he was going to a wedding fayre with his wife. Fortunate for us. I’m going to speak to some people.” He held out his hand for the hard drive.

Col glanced at Theo, then handed it over.

“What about calling the police?” Theo asked.

“I don’t want Darnley to know we’re even considering the prospect of fraud, particularly if there is none.” The marquess frowned. “If he is up to something, and suspects he’s being investigated, he’ll start to cover his tracks. But I need advice on this. We’re going to have to come up with a cover story about why the computer is missing.”

“I could say I wanted some details about the last wedding we did, which isn’t on my laptop, but the computer died so it’s been taken away to be fixed. Except I’m not supposed to know his password.”

“Then how did you know it?”

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