“Nitht to meet you too, Mith Toni.” His little hand falls to his side and he immediately starts scanning the space under the table, looking for Felix. I take hold of his shoulders to keep him from dropping onto all fours.
Toni turns, goes back to her chair, and resumes her seat.
May speaks up. “You’ve met Lucky and Ozzie, of course.”
I nod. “Yep. Great to see all of you again.” I finally allow my gaze to be drawn over to Ozzie. My face heats up once more as I wait for his judgment to be cast.
He nods at me, no signs of judgment anywhere. “Thanks for coming. You’re really helping us out of a bind.”
It always feels good to be needed. I wonder if Ozzie knows that well enough to use it to his advantage. He seems very cool and relaxed, but I think he’s a hell of a lot wilier than he appears. I won’t hold it against him if he’s purposely buttering me up, though. I like butter.
“Well, I don’t know for sure if I can help you, but I’m willing to give it a shot.”
Lucky pulls out the empty chair next to him. “Why don’t you have a seat here, and I’ll show you what we’re looking at.”
I take Sammy by the hand and bring him around the table with me.
“But I want to go with Auntie May,” he whines.
May follows behind us and I stop, waiting for her to catch up. I’m about to tell her she doesn’t need to play babysitter, but she takes Sammy by the hand without hesitation and starts to lead him away. “How about we go meet Sahara?”
“Ith that the big doggie?” Sammy asks, sounding excited about the prospect.
I’m trying not to panic over the idea that Ozzie’s dog could have Sammy as a snack between meals.
“Yes, that’s right. You already met her once, didn’t you?”
Sammy nods. “She’th big. Mommy thayth we can’t have a big dog, ’cuth big dogth have big poopth and she doethn’t wanna pick them up.”
Everyone chuckles under their breath.
My face goes a little pink, but I know they’re not laughing at my son. His little speech impediment makes him sound like he’s cracking a joke when he’s just saying whatever he needs to say. I don’t hold it against people who find humor in it.
I’ve been told he’ll grow out of it, but that if he hasn’t by the time he starts school, he’ll have speech therapy through the system. Regardless, I don’t pressure him because it’s part of who he is, and I think it makes him special.
May leads Sammy away into an area of the warehouse I’ve not yet seen, and I sit down at the table. Where I was working before, the environment was really casual. Meetings were held sometimes in a circle made of beanbag chairs. It feels nice to be sitting in a room full of grown-ups who actually act like grown-ups. With all the muscles around me, I can almost imagine I’m hanging out with the Super Friends, circa 1973.
Everyone takes a seat as Ozzie speaks. “First of all, I assume that May has spoken to you a little bit about the situation, but just to make sure we have all our bases covered, I’d like to start by having you sign an NDA.” He nods at Lucky and one is presented to me.
“Absolutely.” I scan it to be sure I’m not signing over a kidney or anything, then use the pen Lucky gives me to put my signature on the paper. It looks like nearly every other one I’ve seen. Confidentiality has been pretty much standard procedure in every job I’ve had since college.
“Good. Now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about the case. This one concerns a marine accessories retail chain called Blue Marine. Maybe you’ve heard of it?”
I shrug. “I’m not really into fishing.”
“It doesn’t matter. You don’t need to know about the marine business to know something’s not kosher with this particular outfit. We’ve been hired by one of the owners of the business, who is also the major shareholder of the corporation. The other shareholders are not aware of our involvement.”
I nod, letting him know I get it. So far, so good.
“There’re some irregularities in the accounting, and Lucky, who is our financial expert, has been going through the books. He’s also made a site visit to verify some of the things he found. I’m going to let him