I breathed in quickly and felt a sharp pang in my ribs. “Robert? That can’t be true. That’s not like him at all.”
“How much do you really know him, Kayla?”
“What do you mean? He’s an old friend. He threw an engagement party for me and Daniel, for goodness’ sake.” I leaned in and lowered my voice. “He’s paying for my bodyguard. I trust him completely.” Well, maybe not completely, but he had my back and I had his.
“Don’t get me wrong. He can be very caring, and he’s always been generous with his friends and employees. That’s why I stayed as long as I did.”
What kind of shady stuff are you talking about?”
Lillian glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention to us. “You’ve heard of Ponzi schemes, right? Clients are promised a large profit with little risk. The focus is on attracting new clients and using that income to pay original investors. Those investors think the income is coming from real investments when in reality, it’s coming from new clients. It’s fraud, plain and simple, and if the flow of new clients dries up, so does the money.”
My heart dropped to my stomach, and I couldn’t believe what she was saying. “Daniel worked closely with Robert, and he wouldn’t have been involved in something like that. He had too much integrity.” Tears sprung to my eyes, and I hastily wiped them away, feeling protective of Daniel’s reputation.
“I know,” she said, taking my hand and squeezing it. “Daniel was one of the best. To his credit, I think he caught on to what Robert was doing.”
“Do you have proof of this? Or do you just suspect?”
“I have proof. Years ago, one of Robert’s clients, Greg Bishop, came to the office in a huff. He was so antsy and foul-tempered, I thought we were going to have to call the police. He demanded to speak to Robert and said something about not trusting him. The numbers were too good to be true. Something like that. Anyway, Robert wasn’t there, so I directed him to Daniel.”
“Daniel never mentioned him.”
“Well, he spoke to Mr. Bishop in his office, and I remember him pacing back and forth after the man left. I asked if he was okay and he said everything was fine, but I could tell he was bothered by something. The day before he died, he had Mr. Bishop’s file…seemed preoccupied with it. He and Robert had an argument. I was in the file room and heard them down the hall.”
“All right, but that’s not proof of a Ponzi scheme.”
“At the time, I just chalked it up to a disagreement. Clearly, Daniel wasn’t happy with how Robert handled Mr. Bishop’s funds, but I never suspected anything shady.”
“Go on.”
“Robert has always been a good boss. He treated me well. Gave me raises every year. Let me take time off when my mother had cancer. I didn’t want to believe—”
“Lillian, please, just tell me what proof you have.”
She sighed. “A month ago, Robert had a birthday, and I wanted to surprise him. Robert and I are the only ones who have access to all the keys, so I purchased a balloon bouquet and got to work extra early. I used the key to his office and planned on tying the balloons to his chair so he’d see it first thing.”
“Okay…”
“Kayla, I’m not the type to snoop. You know me. But a file with Greg Bishop’s name was sitting on his desk in plain view. All these years I’ve thought of that incident and it never sat well with me, so I did something I shouldn’t have. I peeked.” She winced.
“And?”
“I’m no expert, but the numbers didn’t add up. I had a bad feeling, so I looked through Robert’s file cabinet and found the bookkeeping for the past three years. After that, I made a copy of the ledger as well as Mr. Bishop’s file and then put everything back before Robert got to work. I took all of it to my car before anyone else arrived, and I ended up giving Robert the balloons in the lobby rather than leaving it in his office. That way he wouldn’t know I’d been in there.”
I frowned. “I can’t believe you did that. Robert trusted you—”
“And his clients trust him...but they shouldn’t.”
“This has to be a big misunderstanding. You aren’t a financial planner. Maybe you jumped to conclusions.”
“I understand why you want to believe that, but I’m telling you, those numbers didn’t add up.”
“Did you bring the bookkeeping and that file with you?”
“No, of course not. I kept them in a safe place in case Robert ever comes after me.”
I jerked my head back. “That’s crazy. Why would he come after you?”
She shrugged. “He was looking at me suspiciously that day. It could have just been paranoia, but you never know. He might have had a camera in his office.”
“If you truly believe he did something wrong, why didn’t you go to the police?”
Lillian bit down on her bottom lip, guilt deepening the crease on her forehead. “I don’t want to get involved. The last thing I need is the police asking me to testify against my former boss. That’s not my idea of a happy retirement.”
“Are you sure you aren’t blowing this out of proportion? Please don’t take this the wrong way, but all of this feels farfetched. I can’t fathom Robert doing that. You’ll have to bring me that file if you want me to believe you.”
Lillian stood and pushed in her chair. “Look, I didn’t bring the file with me, but
