Instead Derek snapped at her. “Do not call Barsky yourself. Leland and I will handle that.”
“I had no intention of calling him,” she said with a snap of her own. She wasn’t an idiot.
“Good.” He didn’t apologize this time. “I would prefer that you not be involved in this any further.”
“You do remember that I’m the one who found this problem, and that my clients are the ones with the discrepancies, right?”
“But there’s no need for the people at BalanceTrakR to know that.”
“It’s just a small software glitch. Seriously, I’d be devastated if I knew that my software system was shortchanging my clients, even for tiny amounts of money. I’d want to straighten it out right away.”
“Your faith in your fellow accountants is admirable but naive,” he said. “Alice, please listen to me. I’ve experienced some ugly confrontations with people who don’t like having their mistakes pointed out. I don’t want you involved for your own good.”
His plea seemed to come from the heart, so she simmered down. “I know you think they’ll smear my reputation, but what about KRG’s?”
“We have the resources to handle a little smearing.”
Her insides melted and her anger evaporated in a plume of steam. When he said that he sounded just like a sexy duke.
Derek found Leland in the room nicknamed “Mission Control” because of the number of computer screens arrayed on desktops and walls.
Leland ignored him for a few seconds as he stared at a screen covered with letters, numbers, and symbols that Derek could not decipher. The artificial light from the monitor gave the computer wizard’s tousled hair a bluish tint. The other man hit a few keys before swiveling his chair around to face his partner. “I know,” Leland said. “You’re pissed that your bookkeeper went off on her own little fact-finding mission because of something I said, so you came to warn me off doing it again.”
“You said that the program came from Eastern Europe or Russia,” Derek pointed out as he crossed his arms and glared down at Leland. “You know the kind of people who write that code. Nasty, unscrupulous people who wouldn’t hesitate to destroy Alice’s reputation if she got in the way of their profits.”
“She was questioning an employee at a second-rate hotel chain in suburban New Jersey. He’s not involved with the Russians. And sit down, for God’s sake. Your intimidation tactics won’t work on me.”
“You don’t know that he isn’t involved,” Derek said, continuing to stand.
Leland tilted his chair back. “I’d say that the odds are against it,” he said, his drawl as thick as molasses. He used his accent when he wanted to defuse a confrontation but Derek was on to his tricks.
“You don’t play odds when you’re dealing with criminals.”
“They’re not necessarily criminals. They’re just not big on quality control.”
Derek grabbed a rolling chair and sat. “You’ll be getting an email from Alice about the interview with the manager. That’s the end of her involvement in this investigation.”
Leland raised his eyebrows. “Is Alice okay with being cut out? She was the one who found the problem, after all.”
“Yeah, she reminded me of that.” Derek rubbed his forehead.
“Hey, Killion, I’ve got this,” Leland said, the lean angles of his face softening. “Your plate is overflowing right now. KRG needs your mind on Argon. After all, those numbers are just slightly larger than BalanceTrakR’s issue.”
But the size of the numbers didn’t matter to Derek. That was just a matter of some extra commas. Strangely enough, the BalanceTrakR problem was more of a challenge.
Leland continued, holding up his hand to ward off Derek’s objections. “I promise to keep your bookkeeper out of it.”
“As you pointed out, it may not be so easy to do that,” Derek said. Although Leland’s southern drawl often disarmed people in a way Derek couldn’t imitate. Maybe his partner would succeed in keeping Alice away from trouble where Derek met with resistance. He frowned, not liking the thought of Leland manipulating Alice, even for her own good.
But Leland was right about Argon. Derek owed his full attention to their new client and he wasn’t giving it to them. His team had gathered and analyzed the data he’d asked for. Now he needed to synthesize the solutions and present them to Argon. He knew the drill. He’d done it many times before. And maybe that was the issue.
Alice’s problem might be small, but it was a novel challenge. It took him down into the trenches like the old days.
And then there was Alice herself. He rubbed his forehead again. He’d never had a problem focusing on what was important before. What the hell was wrong with him?
When he’d been engaged to Courtney, he’d been able to keep his mind on his job. That had been her biggest complaint about their relationship.
“Why are you so concerned about Alice?” Leland asked in an unnerving echo of Derek’s thoughts. “You don’t have the same qualms about our own consultants.”
“They’re trained and experienced, and they have KRG at their backs. Alice is a single-practice bookkeeper who doesn’t understand how ruthless business can be.”
“You’ve said that she’s very intelligent.”
“Of course she is,” Derek said, irritated by his own inability to separate personal from professional. “But she also believes that if we inform BalanceTrakR about their software glitch, they will thank us profusely and fix it immediately.”
“Naive, indeed.” Leland steepled his fingers. He was the only person Derek knew who didn’t look affected when he did that. “Now I see why you worry about her.”
What worried Derek even more was that he wanted to keep Alice’s crazy beliefs intact. Because when he viewed the world through her eyes, it looked like a better place.
Chapter 6
Alice pulled out her credit card to pay for her Monday lunch of takeout at the Sushi Shack. Sylvester and Audley would be thrilled by the sashimi she’d included for them. When she added a small tip and handwrote the total on the bill, she frowned down at the slip of paper.
This was the one paper trail she hadn’t checked—the actual credit card receipts from her clients. She hadn’t considered it before because one of the nifty features of BalanceTrakR was that it had an automated integration with the major credit card companies. It didn’t seem possible that there would be any problem with that interface, especially such a small, sporadic one.
Maybe she needed to take a closer look.
The only client she could be sure would still have the paper receipts was Natalie’s Mane Attraction because it was the most recent to have the problem. Alice had asked Natalie to retain every bit of hard copy for the month, just in case.
She winced when she thought of how many little pieces of paper she’d have to organize and compare with the automated system to see if there was some flaw.
The beauty salon was closed on Monday, so Alice dialed Natalie’s cell phone. “Hey, I need to get all your charge slips from last month. If I bring you some sushi, will you meet me at the salon?”