The Devil Déjà Vu is the fourth book in the Twin Destiny series. Read the full book here.
From Chapter One:
Thursday afternoon Faith had brought in extra chairs to Jeremy’s office. Faith sat behind the desk, Agnes and Felicia sat in front of the desk to one side, Bill and Brad occupied chairs on the other side. Directly opposite from Faith, they reserved a chair for Jim. When he entered the room, he looked around, and blanched.
Faith, fiddling with her pen, said pleasantly, “Take a seat, Jim, we waited for you before starting the meeting.”
Faith looked directly at Jim. “Oh, you know everybody here but Brad Ashford, a colleague at Bill’s law firm. He’ll be sitting in with us today.”
Jim turned and grunted, “Uh, yeah.”
Faith announced, “For the benefit of Jim and Brad, let me say a few words about the state of the academy and why we’re meeting today. Our head, Jeremy, is still recuperating, so Agnes, Felicia, and I are helping hold the place together until Jeremy returns. I’m overseeing the institution, and held a general meeting for all the residents to assure them that Canterbury is in good shape and will continue to operate as normal while Jeremy is away. Agnes is supervising the programs, like tutoring, and has plans to expand the educational and training activities. Felicia is in charge of the endowment and major donations and finances in general. She says our endowment is looking good, and we will continue to look for new donors.
“We need to know about the daily and monthly transactions, how the academy is doing paying its bills. That’s why we asked you to come, Jim, to give us a report on how we stand with expenses and payments.”
Jim had been twisting and turning in his seat. “Uh, gee, I wish you would have told me beforehand, and I could have brought a spread sheet and shown that we stay on top of all expenses.”
Felicia leaned forward in her chair. “Why don’t you tell us how you receive and pay bills.”
Jim shrugged. “Nothing to tell. The bills come in, I pay them right away.”
Felicia nodded. “Some bills, like for deliveries, are handed over in person, some arrive in the mail.”
“Yeah, like that.”
Felicia continued, “And usually you pay them by check.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
During this exchange, Bill and Brad sat back in their chairs, just taking in the conversation.
Agnes asked, “So all bills are paid up.”
“Sure. By the end of every week, all incoming bills are taken care of.”
Felicia nodded. “Do you go back over bills to make sure of the amounts?”
Jim frowned. “Carpenters measure twice and saw once. I confirm twice and pay once!”
Felicia chuckled. “That helps us avoid mistakes. Most of us still have erasers on our pencils in case we make mistakes.”
“I prefer not to make mistakes.”
“Yes, it’s better not to make mistakes, so you don’t have to correct them. I was looking through the records a few days ago, while you were out of the office, and came across something I’d like to ask you about. It’s an invoice from Otto’s Wholesale Meats, from six months ago, August 30. It’s for $435.16. I looked at the checkbook, and found a September 2 check for Otto’s in the amount of $535.16 which seems to pay for that invoice. Is that right?”
“Well, I’d have to double check and make sure.”
At the mention of Otto’s Wholesale Meats, Bill and Brad turned their heads toward Jim and paid close attention.
Felicia continued, “If the meat company received an overpayment of a hundred dollars, they surely would have repaid it, right?”
“Uh, if it was an overpayment, yes. I’ll have to look at that.”
“I happened to make a copy of the invoice if you need to see it.”
“I can do that back in my office.”
Felicia pulled a sheaf of papers from her oversized bag. “Well, I can save you the trouble of going back to your office. I have the invoices for this meat company for the next five months, and the corresponding checks are all written for a hundred dollars over invoice. The dollar amounts are both in numbers and spelled out. That seems to be something deliberate, not a mistake.”
Jim had a wild-eyed look, and began breathing rapidly. His voice broke as he mumbled, “Like I said, I’ll have to look over those figures.”
Jim’s squeaky words got overpowered by Bill’s baritone phrases. “Jim, you’re an accountant, and you just said you doublecheck all payments. Six straight months of hundred dollar overpayments don’t need a second look. They call for an explanation.”
Brad chimed in. “Once, a mistake. Twice, a circumstance. Three times or more, a pattern.”
Jim started to open his mouth, but didn’t say anything. Mouth agape, struggling for words, he choked up.
Faith broke the awkward silence. “Jim, you are our financial officer. We expect you to explain these discrepancies. Here and now.”
Jim glared at her. Voice trembling, he muttered, “That’s not fair. You didn’t tell me . . . that I’d have to go back six months and remember every invoice . . . .”
Felicia shook her head. “No, we’re not asking you to remember every single invoice. We’re only asking you to explain why you overpaid a hundred dollars to the same vendor six months in a row.”
Beads of sweat dotted Jim’s forehead. He cleared his throat. “Well, tell you what, I’ll go back to my office . . . like I said, and review the books, and come back tomorrow with an answer.”
Bill spoke slowly and firmly. “Jim, we all know the answer is not in your office. All you need to do is look at yourself and ask what you did these last six months.”
“It . . . it’s not that simple.”
Brad added, “Make it easy on yourself. You’re not proud of what you did. Tell us what you did. Get it off your chest.”
As tears trickled down Jim’s cheeks, Bill encouraged him. “Take your time, think about it, and then tell us what you did.”
Jim shut his eyes, brushing his sleeve across his face. “You don’t know how hard it was for us to move from Springfield to Chicago. My wife and I, the kids, too, were excited to move to the big city. We didn’t get a good price for our house in Springfield, only netted about thirty thousand from it. When we came house hunting here in the city, we didn’t have the down payment for a house, and had to settle on a crummy apartment.”
He hesitated, sniffling. Agnes chimed in. “Housing is tough in any major city. Much tighter and more expensive than Springfield.”
“My wife is so unhappy she’s talked about going back downstate, even if it means moving without me.”
Faith broke in. “A divorce?”
“She’s danced around it. Rents are high, and we can’t save much toward a down payment. I told her I’d try to scrounge up some money so we could have our own house again.”
Brad nodded. “So that’s why you began skimming money from the meat supplier.”
“Uh-huh. It seemed just a small amount out of a large budget. And I told myself, once I had the money for a down payment, I’d stop.”
Bill shook his head. “At a hundred bucks a month, you’d be decades away from that goal. You must have had your sights on larger stakes.”
“Believe me, I’ve never done anything like this before, and I was just seeing if something like this could work.”
Brad said, “So you overpaid Otto, and he gave you the hundred bucks as a kickback.”
Jim shrugged. “Apparently a lot of companies are familiar with this—‘the price of doing business.’”
Bill leaned forward and made eye contact with Jim. “You realize how serious this is, don’t you?”
Jim moaned, “Yes.”
Faith said gently, “Jim, we didn’t contact any authorities. We wanted to make this as easy as possible for you and for the academy.”
Jim began whimpering and crying.
Bill volunteered, “I imagine you kept this six hundred dollars in a separate bank account.”
Jim raised his head. “That’s right. And I figured if there ever was a problem, I could just repay the money.”
Read The Devil Déjà vu here to find out how the dilemma of Doug’s demands play out..
H. Byron Earhart 