sorry, Hope. She got flustered, and she didn’t know if we’d done it right, and once she gets to that level of flustered, she becomes the equivalent of a toddler on sugar. While I think it’s hilarious, she gets pretty upset over it. I put an end to the train wreck and hired your firm to handle the taxes before she went insane. If you could make a list of what we need to keep and what we don’t need to keep to prevent future meltdowns, that would be amazing.”
“I can do that. I’ll organize the papers by what is actually needed, what isn’t needed, and make any notations about anything that might be missing when I compare them to the tax documentation you have already filled out.”
Alice pointed at one of the boxes, which had a black spider sticker on it. “That one has the tax documents in it. I put it in numbered envelopes because there are that many pages.”
“That’s normal when taxes become complicated. There are often a lot of supporting forms.” I took the lid off the box with the tax documents, found the envelopes, and tried not to sigh at the six inches of hell waiting for me. Somehow, I succeeded. “While the tax code has been confirmed to break tables, I think you could turn your tax package into a lethal weapon. Someone should sue the IRS for weaponizing their documentation.”
That got both of them laughing, and by the time Jacob returned with drinks, the pair relaxed enough to give me a better feel for them and their financial situation. Helping good, funny people get through a tax hell appealed to me, something I hadn’t gotten to do at my old place of employment.
Silver linings helped me get through the rough times, of which there would be many in the upcoming days. If I could turn their tax woes into a victory for them, it would console me when my personal and professional life went from weird to miserable.
And it would. The shine of the new and interesting couldn’t last forever, especially when auditing a company with twisted morals.
It took until midnight to get the basics of the McCarthy file situated, and I put an end to the discussion out of worry for them, as both yawned and seemed barely able to keep their eyes open. A single glance at Jacob got the man to send a pair of his employees with them to make certain they got home in one piece.
I accepted his offer for the same, although the older man who drove my vehicle back to the hotel would walk back to work rather than partner up with someone else. Settling my new pets took longer than anticipated, as Edgar Allan Paw whined if his bed was too far from me, which transformed my hotel room into a maze. Lenore insisted on staying with her friend, and she allowed me to pet her.
Morning came early, with a hungry dog and a kitten both pawing at me in a demand for a walk and their breakfast. It amused me the pair had figured out I would be their provider, and I fed them first before taking them into the hotel’s miniature yard so Edgar Allan Paw could take care of his morning constitutional at his leisure rather than mine. To spare the old man from walking to work, I herded them to the car and drove them in, laughing over how my initial plan to avoid traffic and get exercise hadn’t even lasted a week.
Working without a hangover did me a world of good, and despite the oddities of my assignment, I discovered I could settle into a routine and gain back some control over my life. Over my lunches, I both amused and tortured myself with planning a wedding for Rick, narrowing the field to one old church, several potential yachts, a cruise liner willing to host a wedding if we could plan for it eight months in advance with an upfront payment for the use of the ship, and several parks and gardens suitable for wedding photography.
Some of the yachts reminded me of miniature cruise liners, and they took luxury to excess—as did their operational costs. One yacht, with a maximum capacity of over seven hundred, would cost a hundred thousand to rent for the wedding, including rehearsals, catering, and entertainment. I particularly liked that yacht, as it oozed luxury and would sail anywhere within six hours of port, resulting in