idea of how bad it will be on the accounting front so they can be prepared for any and all fallout. When you review the invoices, keep in mind there has been garnering of favor among some invoicing employees and insiders at the various associated adult entertainment firms. I’ll be emailing you with a complete list of all known companies dealing with adult entertainment. I’ll warn you. There’s a lot of them.”
“There are?”
“Sex sells really well.”
“Someone should probably tell our client that while sex sells, they shouldn’t be selling it without the proper permits and legal coverage.”
“Or buying it.”
I bit my lower lip so I wouldn’t laugh.
“Go on, Hope. Laugh. I’ve been doing it all day. Every time I think this couldn’t possibly get worse, it does.”
“Instead of Debbie showing Dallas a good time, we have Meltrew taking over Manhattan, and it only goes downhill from there.”
My boss snorted. “That’s one way to put it. While I have you here, I did get ahold of Mr. McCarthy, and he’ll be free as early as six tonight along with his wife, but there’s a catch.”
“What catch?”
“Unbeknownst to him this morning, his wife got a new pet, and she needs to bring it with her. It will stay in a container unless you want to say hi, but she’d need a place to plug in a heater for it, as it doesn’t like getting too cold.”
“What sort of pet is it? A snake? A lizard of some sort?”
My boss sighed. “It’s a spider.”
I frowned. “A spider?”
“It’s a very big spider.”
I could handle a spider if it was in a container. If it escaped or jumped at me, that’d be another story. “If it’s in a box or something, I don’t care. I’ll try to make sure Edgar Allan Paw and Lenore don’t bother it.”
“That leads me to the next issue.”
Uh oh. “Haven’t we had enough issues for one day?”
“I made the mistake of telling Jacob about the spider.”
While I had only met my new landlord once, I could guess how the rest of my night would work out, and it involved another hangover. “Jacob wants to meet the spider, doesn’t he? Garret, he’s not a reasonable man when it comes to pets. I figured this out last night while listening to the various perks he offers pet owners.”
“He offered to let you use his office for the meeting, and he wants to meet your new dog and cat, too. Just smack him if he tries to adopt them.”
Well, it wasn’t far from my hotel, which would make everything convenient for me. “Okay. I don’t have a problem with that. Parking won’t be fun around there, but it can work. I’ll try not to smack him, but I might growl menacingly.”
“I have a difficult time imagining you being menacing, Hope. Jacob will let you and the McCarthys into the parking garage for the meeting, and he’ll give you access to the clubhouse or the guest area on the lobby level if you want to get in some pool, too.”
Even if he got me drunk and hung over again, I decided I loved my new landlord. “I’m game if they are.”
“I’ll let them know, and I’ll bring over instructions on what to tell the security guards when you enter the parking garage. Thanks for being game to take on so much at once, Hope. I think this is going to make the next few weeks hard on you, so if there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”
I pointed at my new dog, who kept a close eye on my boss. “I did not have a dog yesterday. I have a dog today. As far as I’m concerned, everything is worth it. Thank you for bringing him in. I do appreciate it, and I think he’s going to be perfect.”
“And when he passes away, I’ll talk to my sister about a younger puppy that’ll match well with Lenore. She’s a sucker for the old ones, and she didn’t want to see him stay in the shelter any longer. A few months is a long time for an old man like him.”
“Oh. Adoption forms. Aren’t there adoption forms I should fill out? Isn’t the shelter expecting them back?” I hesitated. “I really don’t want to give them back or even take them anywhere near the shelter to handle the paperwork.”
“There is, but it’ll be easy. My sister will fill out the papers, you’ll make sure they’re right, and you’ll sign. The shelter is