around her. His mouth on hers. So when he leaned down to kiss her, Allie gave him everything she had in the kiss. And it wasn’t nearly enough. Allie wondered briefly if it would ever be enough coming from this man.
Chapter 4
The books that Tru handed over to Allie were still sitting on the desk where she’d put them. Not wanting to dress the girl down on doing what she told her to do, Tru let out a long breath and went to find her. Allie wanted to help, but this was the second time she’d come here to talk to her, and she was gone. Finding her in the dining room, she watched her for a couple of seconds before she realized what she was doing. Allie turned and looked at her.
“I’m sorry.” Tru nodded, looking at the artwork that was now on the dining room table. “I read the books. I know you didn’t think I was doing it—Rogen told me—but I did. When she handed me this file on the last robbery, I needed a visual to make it work in my head.”
“It’s the bakery.” Allie showed her what she’d been using for each item that had been listed on the inventory sheet. “The pepper shaker, what is that representing?”
“The robber. I know he went there in the middle of the night, he said, because he’d seen the safe earlier in the day and the combo when it had been opened. But it just doesn’t work out as he is saying it went down.” There were paper towel walls around the office. The door had been made from another paper towel. Tru had seen the drawing of the place, but this, even to her, was much more visible. “See? The door to the office opens to the back of the shop. The only way he could have seen it was if he’d been coming from the rear.”
“I didn’t realize the door was at that angle. Where did you see this?” Allie showed her how the store’s map was wrong according to the report that the manager had verbally given her. “We’ll have to go and see which way it is. I mean, this was given to me, and I’ve not been able to get around to looking over the paperwork.”
“I did. I went there before I started playing with this. You can see the office is there, but there isn’t a window—again, something he mentioned too.” Tru was very impressed. She also wondered if Allie had any idea how brilliantly she was doing this. “I tried even making him come into the rear of the shop, but there isn’t a window to break to get in. Besides, the walk-in is most of the back of the shop anyway. Too many layers, I’d think, to just pop through.”
Tru asked Rogen and Anna to come into the dining room. They’d been working in the house the last few days so that the babies could see them. Tru had Allie explain what she’d come up with.
“So you’re thinking he had help from someone on the inside rather than just coming in and breaking the glass to get to the safe.” Allie looked embarrassed when Anna spoke to her, and she asked her what she thought then. “You have an idea of how this happened. We can read your mind, but I’d rather you just tell us what you came up with. Come on, Allie. We’re all working together here. Get your shit together.”
“There was no robbery.” That wasn’t what any of them expected. “There was money taken, but not by anyone but the store manager. If you’ll remember from the file, it said that she was getting sick of this happening to her. So, I hope you don’t mind, but I looked back over the records of the place. The newspaper put it on the front page every time it happened. It’s usually before a holiday that the place is taken.”
Allie handed her notes to her, and she glanced at them before handing them off to Rogen. When Allie started to take the model apart, Rogen stopped her. After going over each of the scenarios again, they all agreed that it had to be an inside job.
“I’m going to get you a 3-D printer. And a bunch of blocks.” Tru walked around the table and could see other items Allie had used as parts of the shop. “Also, I’d think you could use some little furniture. A car or