and gestured to the open door at the end. “That’s her office. It’s pretty crowded in there right now, but everyone will clear out so you can talk to William.”
Straightening her back, Jennifer stepped into the office. “Miss Kensingvale from Cercson Investment Group is here about the audit.”
I followed the marketer into the office to find chaos. Twenty people, including a pair of amused cops, crammed into a space ten might be able to fit without sitting on each other. I pegged the only woman in the room to be Miss Meltrew, an elderly woman likely ready to retire at any day.
She looked me over, and she licked her lips. “My, aren’t you a pretty one? You’re going to make this a memorable arrest. How’d a sweetheart like you get suckered into something like this?”
Okay. I could handle the situation without becoming offended, annoyed, or laughing. “Thank you, Miss Meltrew. My business here is a private matter.”
“Of course it is, sweetheart. You wouldn’t make a very good auditing accountant if you sang like a canary to the person you’re auditing. Don’t you worry yourselves at all, my pretties. She’ll tell you what I told you; your work is pristine, my work is pristine, and you’re all as smart as you are handsome.”
I allowed myself to glance over the men crammed into the room, and I couldn’t fault the woman’s taste in men; while some were dark and others weren’t, they all brought some form of physical beauty to the table. One took bodybuilding to a rather extreme level, while others could easily play the part of an elf in some movie with little work from the makeup artist.
A few of them would give Rick a run for his money in the looks department.
They probably made a fortune as prostitutes, and I wouldn’t blame any woman for wanting to cut one of them a check.
Hell, if I could afford a misdemeanor, I’d consider cutting one a check. On second thought, I wouldn’t. I’d just think about it.
Assuming I had the time for a man, I wouldn’t share him, and I expected loyalty in return. Players or prostitutes wouldn’t work for me.
The grinning cops would be my next obstacle, and with the amount of work piling up on my day, the faster I got them out of the space I needed to work in, the better off I’d be. “Officers, I need to speak with a gentleman named William. Do you require his presence?”
The two, seasoned if I judged them by their age and worn appearances, exchanged looks. At a subtle nod from the darker haired one, the other replied, “Not at all. If you’ll come with us ma’am, we’ll handle the rest of this at the station.”
“You should cuff me.”
Somehow, I kept from laughing. I concentrated on my breathing, counting to ten while wondering what had made the woman snap so hard she wanted to take on the entire NYPD.
“Please come with us, ma’am.”
“I see you’re going to play coy. We can talk about it in your car,” the old lady announced before striding for the door. I stepped to the side to give her plenty of space and stay out of her reach. Some types of crazy I didn’t need in my life, and hers counted. If I could have a fraction of her crazy, in the form of a dedicated, hot man, I’d accept, but until the day I snapped in earnest, I’d keep my nose clean and my hands off the local prostitutes.
New York sure did have some nice prostitutes, though. Damn.
I waited for the cops to leave with Miss Meltrew before turning to the gathering of men, all of whom watched me with open curiosity. “Well, then. Which one of you gentlemen is William?”
The bodybuilder dressed in his rather tight suit smiled and raised his hand. “I’m William, ma’am.”
Jennifer escaped while she could, and after a moment of thought, I closed the door behind her. “I was told you’d be the best person to talk to about the audit, and I was asked to speak with you alone first. Is this all of you?”
I wondered how they’d interpret my question.
William chuckled. “If by all of us, you mean Lana’s hires, we are. She warned us this would happen when there were changes in HR and an HR audit.”
Ah-ha. That explained a lot. “That exposed your lack of the proper certifications to work as accountants.”
“That’s right, but we didn’t do much of the accounting work. Lana did it