Here Comes Trouble (32 page)

How could both of them been so careless and stupid?

Telling herself not to freak out didn’t work. Tears of helplessness gathered beneath her eyelids. Her trembling, clammy fingers swiped away the first of the moisture just as it slipped over her cheeks. Crying had become a nasty habit of hers over the past few months. When had she become such an emotional person?

Okay, maybe she was jumping to conclusions. Maybe Chase had used a condom and she simply couldn’t remember. The only way to know for sure was to take a pregnancy test.

She made a mad dash for the drug store, and grabbed the first pregnancy kit her eyes came in contact with. Back in her bathroom, three pink plus signs confirmed her suspicion.

Seventeen

“Thank you so much for giving me another chance.” A single tear rolled over Becky Lynn’s puffy lower eyelid. A week and a half had passed since the girl had left work with her tail between her legs. True, what she’d done was wrong and Chase had a feeling being fired was a big enough lesson learned. However, when the cash drawer had shown up twenty-five dollars short last night, he realized his hunt for the thief was far from over. Besides, Lacy was right. Becky Lynn was one of his best waitresses. The last week of August was always a difficult time to find extra help since all the college students in town had returned to school. Chase figured since he hadn’t clued his father in on what happened with Becky Lynn, no harm had been done.

“Here,” he handed her a tissue off his desk. “I don’t think your customers will be inclined to tip an emotional waitress.”

Her hitch-filled sniffle reminded him of a small child. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I promise I won’t let this affect my job. And I think I’m over my morning sickness so this shouldn’t be a problem anymore.”

He uncrossed his arms and straightened from the corner of his desk. “Even if it is, tell me and I’ll do whatever I can to help you.” He tipped her chin up to meet his gaze. “All right?”

She closed her red, puffy eyes and nodded. “Thank you.”

“You’d better go clock in.”

The girl walked, with her long ponytail swinging and her shoulders held back, out his office door. Anita walked in a moment later.

“You did the right thing,” she announced after closing the door behind her.

“I think so too.” Becky Lynn had left a small pile of wadded up tissues on his desk. Chase grabbed them and tossed them in the garbage can. “She just needed to be scared straight.”

Anita nodded and pursed her thin, lined lips. “I agree; she’s a good kid. Now that we have that situation settled, we need to go over what happened yesterday.” His assistant manager pulled a folded piece of paper out of the back pocket of her crisp, black slacks. “I took a look at yesterday’s schedule and wrote down everyone who worked.”

Just what he did not want to do. The only two upsides to this was the absence of his father and that Lacy had the day off yesterday. Not that he ever believed she had anything to do with the thefts. But her absence made him breathe a little easier. And the only bad thing to admitting fault to the Becky Lynn situation was also admitting he still had a stealing problem on his hands.

“Okay, let’s have it,” he said as he lowered himself to the leather chair behind his desk.

Anita sat down and crossed one skinny leg over the other. “Well, the obvious ones are you, me, Henry and Phil. The rest of the kitchen staff yesterday was, Suzanne, Bryn and Eric. The wait staff, including lunch, was Robert, Chelsea, Diane, Lenny, Mathew and Christina. Then we have the hostess, Claire and the dishwasher slash busboys Andrew, Nate and Darryl, all of whom were in the general area of the cash drawer.” Anita folded the paper back up. “Except for Claire because she remained in the front of the house all night.”

“So, we’re able to eliminate one whole person.” Chase pinched the bridge of his nose in order to dull the onset of a headache.

“Actually,” Anita chimed in. “I think we can safely eliminate anyone who wasn’t here yesterday. Including Becky Lynn.”

The woman did have a point. See, this was why Anita was so damn good. The two of them had always made a dynamite team.

Chase dug the heels of his hands into his weary eyes. He hadn’t even stepped foot on the floor yet and he was already waist deep in shit. The first hour he’d poured over yesterday’s numbers thinking maybe, just maybe, he’d made a mistake when counting the drawer. Then he’d dealt with Becky Lynn and her never-ending, grateful tears. To top all that off, his father was supposed to make an appearance during dinner service tonight to take care of some paperwork. Keeping the Becky Lynn incident from his old man had been easy enough. But Chase couldn’t morally keep this mess from his father. Martin would have to know the restaurant was still having problems. And Chase would get no less than this shit hitting the fan when the time came.

U.S.S. Martin left quite a wake.

“I’ve got to get my story together before my dad comes in. All right,” he said as he leaned his elbows on the desktop. “Who’s coming in today that was here yesterday?”

Anita tugged on her pearl earring. “Aside from Henry and Phil…Suzanne’s got the day off so Bryn and Eric will be here. Chelsea and Matthew are working lunch and Diane and Lenny will be here for dinner service. Claire is coming in tonight too and I think Darryl will be here as well.”

Chase picked up the silver personalized pen his father had given him for his birthday last year, and tapped it on the desk. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Tell each of them, including Bryn, Eric and Phil, that I need to speak to them when their shifts end. But not together. I want to talk to each of them separately so they’ll have to wait outside my office.”

“All right. But Chase…” Anita pursed her lips again, a habit of hers when anxiety took over. “I really think you should talk to Henry too. I know you don’t want to think he’s the one behind this but he’s the only one who has a key to the cash.” She lifted her narrow shoulders. “He’s the most logical solution.”

Didn’t he know it? Henry certainly made for an easy target but the fact wasn’t any easier to swallow. Henry had been a loyal employee of McDermott’s since Chase was in high school. And, as Lacy brought up, why would Henry start stealing now after all this time?

“Maybe you should let your father deal with him,” Anita concluded when Chase didn’t respond to her statements.

Chase shook his head. “No. I don’t want my father thinking I can’t handle this.” Lord, Martin McDermott thinking his son was incompetent at his job was the last thing he needed. Chase had worked his ass to the bone for the past eight years trying to prove he could single-handedly run this restaurant successfully. And he’d done a damn good job, if he did say so himself.

His watch read nine-fifteen. “Is Henry still in his office?”

When Anita shook her head, a strand of black hair slipped in front of her ear. “He’s in the kitchen prepping.”

 
“Do me a favor and tell him I need to talk to him.”

Anita slipped from his office without a word.

Anxiety had his muscles humming and vibrating like springed coils. To exorcise the tension from his over-worked body, Chase bounded from the chair and stalked from one side of his office to the other. One thing that Henry had in his favor, and would most likely be his key defense, was the amount of time the chef spent in the kitchen. Rarely was Henry on the floor as he didn’t have any need to be. In fact, Chase couldn’t remember the last time he’d spotted Henry some place other than the kitchen or his office. So how would he have time to sneak out of the kitchen and take money out of the cash drawer without someone spotting him? The wait staff spent much more time around the cash drawer than anyone on staff. Any number of the people who’d worked yesterday would have had a much better opportunity to slip twenty-five bucks into their pockets. They often had to make change for those diners who paid cash for their meals.

Like Anita said, Chase needed to speak with Henry if only to eliminate him as a suspect.

Chase plowed a hand through his hair and walked back to his desk.

What if the unthinkable happened and something had snapped inside Henry, forcing the man to steal from a place that had employed him for fifteen plus years? How could Chase bring himself to let the man go? Henry was someone his father and Carol considered a family friend. He was also an absolute genius in the kitchen. His New York strip practically melted in a person’s mouth.

Henry was just as much an integral part of McDermott’s success as Martin McDermott himself. The man was practically indispensable.

“Anita said you needed to speak with me.”

Chase’s head whipped around at the sound of Henry’s voice. The chef’s crisp white uniform was already stained with various shades of orange and red.

“Have a seat, Henry.”

The other man closed the door with a soft click and lowered himself to a chair facing Chase’s desk. The russet-colored Fu Manchu that graced Henry’s full upper lip looked like it had been recently snipped to perfection. The hair on his head was a different story. The darker brown strands curled over the top of Henry’s ears like he hadn’t bothered to comb his hair after showering.

“I read over the specials earlier and they sound good.”
Why the hell are you stalling? Just get this over with.

Both Henry’s thick brows pulled together. “You told me that already. That’s why I went ahead with prep work.”

Chase ran the tip of his index finger along the edge of his desk. “You’re right, I did.”
Now you’re not even thinking before speaking
. “Okay, here’s the thing,” he plunged in before having second thoughts. “Someone’s been stealing from the restaurant, including the cash drawer. Every once in a while, money comes up short at the end of the night. You, Anita and I are the only ones who have access to the drawer.”

Silence stretched between the two men. “And?” Henry asked. Deep lines of tension speared across his forehead. “Are you asking if I’m the one who’s been taking money?”

“I’m just trying to get to the bottom of this.” Chase leaned back in his chair.

Henry’s whiskey-colored eyes turned hard. Then the frown on his face broke into a grin. “I have to be honest with you Chase, I’m pretty shocked you’d even consider me a suspect. Your father pays me way too much money for me to resort to stealing.”

Wasn’t that the truth? Henry’s paychecks were only a fraction smaller than what Chase earned. Chase lifted his hand off the desk. “I know that. But you have to understand where I’m coming from. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t consider everyone.”

“Have you talked to Anita? She has just as much access to the cash as I do. And when was the last time you saw me in the front of the house?” Over the course of the past minute Henry had scooted his average frame to the edge of his seat, as though ready to pounce on Chase should any accusations be tossed about.

“Actually, I have considered Anita. The problem with that is she’s been absent on days when money has gone missing.” Chase lifted one shoulder. “I’ve had to eliminate her.”

The features on Henry’s face relaxed as he leaned back in his seat. “I’m the only one who’s here every day.”

Chase dropped his gaze to the desk. “That’s a fact I can’t ignore.”

The chair Henry had been sitting in tumbled to the floor when the man shot to his feet. The action took Chase so off guard, his heart just about beat a hole through his ribcage. “How about the fact that I’ve been a loyal employee here for longer than you? Or the fact that your father is one of my best friends?” Henry’s complexion turned from a milky white to fire-engine red. A bluish-purple vein bulged beneath the skin of the man’s sweaty forehead. He planted tightly balled fists on the surface of Chase’s desk. “I can’t believe you’d accuse me of stealing.”

Chase didn’t like to be looked down on by anyone. He slowly pushed to his feet. “Technically, I haven’t accused you of anything. I’m trying to do my job by exploring every avenue. I wanted to eliminate you as a suspect so I could breathe little easier.”

The muscles in Henry’s jaw bunched beneath long sideburns.

Chase pulled in a deep breath and told himself not to react to Henry’s unusual temper. “Do you think I wanted to consider you were the one stealing? That’s the last thing I wanted.”

Rapid air flowed in and out of Henry’s flared nostrils. Then he straightened and ran his thumb over his facial hair. “I apologize for that. You know me well enough to know I don’t ever lose my cool like that.”

“I know.”

“I just…” The chef turned from the desk and walked to the opposite wall. “This place is like my home.” He turned back to Chase. “Martin is like a brother to me. After what he went through when your mother died, and struggling to get this place off the ground--” Henry’s words broke off when he shook his head. “I have way too much respect for your father to ever steal from him. For a brief second, I thought maybe you actually believed I was a thief.”

Chase walked around his desk and placed a hand on Henry’s tense shoulder. “I never really believed that. But I have to be fair and talk to everyone.”

“I understand. And, again, I’m sorry for losing my temper like that.” He clapped a hand on Chase’s back. “You’re a good GM, Chase.”

“Thanks.”