Uncertain what Rita meant by her comment, Lynn offered a noncommittal nod. “Um… how’s Nolan?” Knowing he was home recuperating, she tried to keep her voice steady as she asked about him.
“Oh, much better! In fact, he’s up and about, itching to find things to do. It’s so nice of you to be concerned about him.”
“I… well, I just… um… you know, wanted to ask.” The way Rita was smiling at her, she felt sure that her teenage infatuation with Nolan was no secret. I just hope she doesn’t know I tried to throw myself—most unsuccessfully—at him when I was sixteen. What was I thinking? Oh yeah… that I needed to proclaim my love for him before he left for the Navy. Of course, Nancy knew about the unfortunate incident since she was the one who convinced me it was a good idea. The heat of blush hit her face just as the front door opened, and Nancy came rushing in, her hair flying out behind her.
“Oh, my God! I’m so sorry I’m late. I couldn’t get my hair to do what I wanted, and my milk had a sour smell so I didn’t want to put it on the cereal. That meant I had to nuke some oatmeal, which I know is healthy but isn’t what I wanted. Then I hit every light on my way here.” Nancy was pulling off her coat while talking, bent to kiss her mother, then beamed her smile toward Lynn.
Laughing, she was glad for the diversion from thinking of Nolan. She stood and embraced Nancy, assuring her that she’d had a lovely chat with her mom.
Nancy bustled her into her small but neat office. Framed photographs adorned the walls and credenza. Pictures of her family, especially those of Nolan in uniform, were lovingly displayed. Whenever she was in Nancy’s apartment or workspace, she was always face-to-face with the reminder of her unrequited love.
Before she had time to travel further down that unpleasant emotional road, Nancy plopped into a chair behind her desk, opened a file, and waved Lynn into the chair opposite her. Rita walked in with a small tray containing two cups of coffee.
“Here you go, dears,” Rita said, placing the tray on the edge of Nancy’s desk before handing one to Lynn. “Cream and sugar just the way you like.”
Thanking Rita, she took an appreciative sip of the warm, sweet, milky caffeine fix. Rita hovered, and she observed Nancy shake her head slightly toward her mom. Rita slipped out of the room but left the door open. Turning back to Nancy, she waited to see why her friend asked her to come in.
Tapping the file in front of her, Nancy jumped in with her explanation. “I’m looking at Mrs. Hightower’s information.”
Her brow crinkled as she remembered the name from a few weeks ago and tilted her head slightly to the side. “Hightower? Oh, yes, that’s the one whose husband owns the wedding chapel in Gatlinburg? Or rather they both do? The one where I looked at her initial finances and she claims he has hidden assets?”
“That’s right,” Nancy nodded. “She and her husband own Cupid of The Mountains Wedding Chapel.”
In the middle of a sip, she snorted, then began to cough as her coffee went down the wrong way. Finally gaining control of herself, she shook her head. “Oh, my God, couldn’t they come up with a better name? Cupid of The Mountains? It’s hard to believe that it’s one of the most lucrative wedding businesses around!”
Grinning her response, Nancy agreed. “Yep. According to Sally Hightower, their business does very well. And when you looked at her initial financial records, you agreed that his expenditures don’t match their income. She claims that he has hidden assets and is using the business money for other activities.”
“Do you have some new information?”
Nancy leaned forward and crossed her arms on the desk. “Okay, it took me several meetings with Sally to figure out how everything worked for them, but this is what I’ve got. She’s a partner in her husband’s business, but she’s not involved in the day-to-day running. She’s a schoolteacher. They were both older when they got married, and she claims it was her husband’s insistence that she be listed as a co-owner of his business. She has no interest in the running of the wedding chapel but confesses that they’ve enjoyed a nice standard of living with the money that comes in. According to her, they’re not rolling in riches, but it’s certainly better than just her teacher’s salary.”
Lynn’s specialty was not tax accounting, and while it might have been more lucrative to work for a large accounting firm, she ran her own business. Her specialty was forensic accounting and she was also certified as a fraud examiner. She was often called in when businesses were concerned that an employee might be stealing from them or on divorce cases where one partner was concerned that the other partner was hiding assets. When Nancy first asked her to take a look at Sally’s finances, the situation had snagged her interest. A lucrative wedding chapel in the Gatlinburg area could be bringing in a lot of money. But, without all the information, she couldn’t give any definitive information.
“Sally says that she usually just signs the tax forms each year that Errol gets from their accountant. They live in a gated community, but it’s not overly exclusive. She says Errol belongs to a country club so that he can play golf but swears that they don’t live excessively.”
“And the divorce? Call it morbid curiosity, but what happened with the lovebirds?”
“Ah, the tale as old as time.”
“So, while he keeps his wife in a few jewels tucked away in a gated community, his dick’s gone wandering.”
Snorting, Nancy nodded. “She found receipts for jewelry that he had not given her. So, she got pissed and started doing some more digging. She admits that she left all the finances
