The Perfect Frame Read online

  “Harper, 20th; A. C. Holdings, 23rd; Modern Day Investments, 30th; Barnes Group, 31st, Profit-tech, 31st.”

  “All on or after the 20th of each month.”

  “Your point is?”

  “Were confirmations of sales attached?”

  “No, but there are probably reasons for that. They aren’t always immediately available. It’s not unusual for them to be sent at a later date.”

  “No, but it’s our job to find out why they weren’t in this instance. Something tells me we’ll need to with all the rest too. Did you talk to the mail room manager?”

  “He said he’d just taken over the job and I would have to talk to the assistant, Joe Davis.”

  “And did you?”

  “He’d gone home sick.”

  “Damn.”

  “Mack?”

  “I’ll talk to him when he gets back. You find out anything unusual?”

  “There are at least five days between the dates the checks were issued and when they were received.”

  “Townsend’s delivers the checks to the companies by same day messenger, don’t they?” Marc asked.

  Marc’s eyes narrowed as he glanced at his brother. “All right, Mack, what are you thinking?”

  “I’m not ready to say.”

  “When will you be?”

  “Possibly after I’ve talked with Joe Davis.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Mack prowled the confines of his office, imagining that a caged animal must feel as frustrated and angry as he did. In his case it was frustration and anger born of his own actions. Would another beautiful woman be his downfall?

  He stopped pacing and brushed his fingers through his hair. The memory of silky jet-black hair and warm caramel skin had invaded his thoughts, keeping him awake all night. God, he had to stop thinking about what it felt like to make love to Toni and concentrate on solving this case.

  And proving her innocence.

  Was he so certain that she was innocent?

  Mack stalked over to his desk and punched the com button. “Daffy, did you find out if Joe Davis has reported for work yet?”

  “If I had, you would be the first to know, boss.”

  “I’m sorry. I know I would.”

  Damn it, he had to get control of himself.

  The door to his office opened and Daffy walked in with a cup of coffee.

  “You sounded like you need this.”

  “Thanks. You’re a real lifesaver. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “Luckily for you I have no intention of letting you find out. You’d have an easier time stripping Crazy Glue off your desk than getting rid of me,” she said on her way out the door.

  Mack had just finished his coffee when Daffy returned.

  “According to Bill Watkins down in parking security, Joe Davis has arrived.”

  “I’ll be in the Townsend mail room if you need to get in touch with me.” With that he hurried out of the office.

  * * *

  Mack watched the workings of the vast mail room through the window in the door. At least forty busy people were milling around in a huge room that had evidently been created by removing walls between several smaller rooms to accommodate the company’s ever-growing mailing needs.

  He spotted Joe Davis giving orders to several messengers. Mack recognized him from his personnel picture. Joe Davis was a huge, rough-hewn man. More brawn than brains one would assume by looking at him, if you didn’t know that Joe was a college graduate with a degree in management.

  Mack shifted his attention to the manager. The man looked the part of manager, but from talking to him, Mack thought he was definitely not the aggressive type needed to run this fast-paced department. Mack frowned, wondering why Clifford hadn’t given the position to Joe Davis. Office politics, no doubt.

  The more he found out about Frank Clifford, the less he liked the man. Not that he’d liked him from the jump. He was a master manipulator and had likely manipulated Toni. Unless there was a conspiracy going on between—No, he couldn’t, he wouldn’t believe that, though so many questions remained unanswered.

  Mack activated the door buzzer. A security guard came to the glass and slid it aside.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m Mackinsey Jessup.” He produced the access pass Townsend had issued him.

  “Looks to be in order,” the guard confirmed.

  As Mack strode inside, a sea of expectant, curious eyes focused on him, and the room quieted almost immediately. He glanced at Joe Davis and gestured for him to come over. The man was reluctant, if not downright wary, instantly putting Mack on alert.

  “Yes, Mr. Jessup?” Joe answered.

  “Davis, I need confirmation from you about certain records.”

  “What records?”

  Mack handed him the list he’d compiled and studied his reaction as he examined them.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Don’t you? You have set standards of running this mail room, right?”

  “Well, yes, but—”

  “After examining the list, wouldn’t you agree that standard procedures must not have been adhered to?”

  A guilty look suffused the man’s face.

  “Now, would you like to explain why they weren’t?”

  Joe cleared his throat. “When the outgoing mail came in on those occasions, I was told to delay it.”

  “By whom?”

  “The CEO’s office.”

  “Be specific, Davis.” Mack was becoming impatient with his reluctance to answer. “Out with it, man. Was it your wife? Is she the reason for your unwillingness to tell me the truth? Are you trying to protect her?”

  “No! My wife doesn’t need protection; she’s not at fault.”

  “Then who is?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Come off it, Davis.”

  Joe looked around at the people pretending to work; in fact, they were listening intently to their conversation.

  “Your wife has already said that she didn’t find any irregularities. Did she lie to me?”

  Joe’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. He sighed. “Pat said to okay the deliveries using whatever date was on the envelopes.”

  “Did you personally seal them?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “And were the dates on the papers inside the same?”

  “No, sir. They were dated two days earlier.”

  “Approved by?”

  “Toni Carlton.”

  Not only did Toni have the authority to approve and change the confirmation of sale dates, but also the dates when they left the company, regardless of the date on the contents of the package. This bit of information seemed to imply one thing: That Toni could be guilty of manipulation, if not outright theft.

  He was sure now that Pat Davis knew more than she had revealed to him. Did the woman know for a certainty that Toni had ‘cooked the books,’ so to speak? Or was Pat herself involved with Clifford?

  He had to talk to Pat Davis and Toni again, ASAP.

  Toni had told him about mistakes in the dates but said she hadn’t been the one to make them. He didn’t know what to believe now. He took the elevator up to the seventh floor.

  * * *

  “Mrs. Davis, I need to have a word with you.”

  Pat’s head jerked up. “Mack, I mean Mr. Jessup. I didn’t hear you come in.”

  Mack thought she looked a little unsure. He asked, “Is Frank Clifford in?”

  “No, he’s away for the day on business.”

  “Then we can go into his office and talk.”

  Mack followed Pat. Once inside, he asked her to sit down. When she’d done as he’d suggested, he began. “I’ve been in the mail room talking to your husband. And I uncovered certain facts. I’m sure you know what I’m referring to.”

  “Mr. Jessup, Mack. I can explain.”

  “I’m all ears.”

  “When Mr. Clifford promoted me to executive secretary, I was given s
pecific duties, one of which was to help the PAs. You know, to make the job easier for the whole department.”

  “Are you now, or have you ever been, intimately involved with him?”

  “No! I swear it.” she said quickly.

  Much too quickly, Mack observed. He sensed that she was holding something back, what exactly, he wasn’t sure. “What is the status of the relationship between you two?”

  “One of employer and employee.”

  He shot her a skeptical look. “He never tried to come on to you?”

  She lowered her head. “One time when…”

  “When what?”

  “When Joe was up for mail room manager.”

  “Come on, Pat. I want to know the truth.”

  “I refused to cooperate and—”

  “He made sure your husband didn’t get the promotion, right?” Mack now began to understand her reluctance. That bastard Clifford, he swore under his breath. “Then what?”

  “Nothing. He acted as if the incident had never happened.”

  “Did he want you to do anything else, like help him frame Toni Carlton?”

  Her eyes sparked. “I resent that remark. Toni and I are friends. I’d never agree to do anything like that,” she said in an affronted voice.

  “What did you do?”

  “Continued to assist Toni in doing her job, the same as always.”

  “Not quite.”

  A puzzled look came into her eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “You knew it wasn’t policy to delay outgoing documents, including the confirmation of sale documents, yet you did it anyway.”

  “Toni was very busy during that time, and I figured she had forgotten, that’s all. I’m sure of one thing: She’s not a thief!”

  “All right, Mrs. Davis. You can go back to your work.”

  As Mack followed her out, Hank Warren appeared in the outer doorway. A sarcastic grin spread across his face.

  “If it isn’t the enterprising Mr. Jessup.”

  “Warren,” Mack gritted out.

  “Our lovely Ms. Carlton isn’t here, as you no doubt already know.”

  “Look, Warren—”

  “Come to give us all the second degree? Or is it the third or fourth? I’ve lost count.”

  “Step into Clifford’s office,” Mack urged.

  Hank glanced at Pat before preceding Mack inside.

  Once they were inside Mack indicated the chair he wanted Hank to take. “All right, Warren, on the list of accounts Toni Carlton is responsible for, I found that several were originally assigned to you. Why were you taken off those accounts, and why were they given to Ms. Carlton?”

  Hank worked his mouth into a smirk. “You’ll have to ask the great man himself.”

  “He didn’t give you a reason for his decision?”

  “He’s the boss, Jessup, he doesn’t have to.” Hank cleared his throat and smiled, refusing to say any more.

  Mack was getting a little bit tired of the evasions he’d come up against in this company. “You may as well tell me, Warren.”

  “And if I don’t, will you break my arm?”

  Mack noticed the way the man’s eyes narrowed when he looked at him. Mack smiled knowingly. Warren must have realized that he was pushing his luck.

  “If you must know, he said those particular clients preferred to deal with a woman. But it was a lie. He was just trying to keep his affair with Toni intact.”

  Mack laughed. “You sound like a jealous colleague or a jilted lover. Which is it?”

  Hank quirked his mouth. “Now, you don’t really expect me to answer that, do you?”

  * * *

  Toni hurried into the outer office. “Any calls or messages for me, Pat?”

  “Ah, no, but—”

  Hank and Mack walked out of the CEO’s office.

  “Mack!”

  “You’re just in time to be, ah, interrogated. Right, Jessup?” Hank drawled, flashing Mack a vicious sneer.

  “I have questions that need answers,” Mack said to Toni.

  “I’m sure she’ll be more than glad to give them to you. And anything else you might want.” With that parting shot Hank disappeared into his cubicle.

  “What’s with that guy?” Mack asked once they were inside the office. “Have a seat.”

  Toni sat down in the chair he indicated. “To say he dislikes me would be a gross understatement.”

  “He’s obviously a jerk. Forget about Warren. He’s not the reason I want to talk to you.” Mack walked behind the desk and sat in his chair, then slid some papers across the desk.

  “What are these?” Toni glanced at them. “Why they’re copies of confirmation documents on several of my accounts.” She lowered her gaze to the dates. “This can’t be right.”

  “According to the mail room it is.”

  “But that would mean—”

  “They’re either not copies of the originals or—”

  “I lied to you about the mistakes I’d found.” Toni gritted her teeth. The initials looked like hers, but she hadn’t put them there. Her boss must have. Damn him!

  “I didn’t sign these, Mack.”

  He got up from his chair and walked over to the file cabinet and leaned his back against it. This could all be a part of Clifford’s scheme to frame Toni or…

  “Well, do you believe me?”

  “Toni, I…”

  She left her chair and started for the door.

  “Toni, wait.”

  “For what? To hear you condemn me as a liar or worse, a thief?”

  “I wasn’t going to do that.”

  “What were you going to say?”

  Mack was at a temporary loss for words. Toni stormed out of the office.

  He wanted to go after her and explain.

  And then what? Tell her things looked bad for her, that in fact they couldn’t get much worse?

  Why wouldn’t they if, as he suspected, Clifford was behind it? Toni had already told him what the man planned to do. But was it an attempt at cover up? It wouldn’t be the first time he’d been the victim of silken lies from a woman he cared about. But Toni was different.

  Can you be sure of that, Jessup?

  * * *

  Toni sat at her desk wondering what Mack really thought after seeing those papers. She was pretending an interest in her work when she heard the door to the CEO’s office open. Mack looked as if he wanted to say something more when he glanced her way. Instead, he left the office without a word.

  Frank Clifford’s prediction of doom was becoming more of a reality with each passing day. Toni was scared. Was she completely trapped? Would Mack be the one to send her to jail? Those papers were forgeries, but the copies of the originals were supposed to be in the company vault. She looked at her watch. The automatic timer was set to open the vault at two o’clock. It was almost that time now.

  With briefcase in hand, Toni left the office in a rush and rode the elevator to the floor where the Townsend vault was located. Milton Jameson, the security officer, smiled at her, checked the dates on her access card, and waved her through to the inner door.

  Toni shoved her plastic key in the slot. Once inside, she walked over to the accounts section and took out the ones she remembered seeing in the files Mack had shown her.

  Her legs nearly buckled. The stocks had all sold at different percentages than what was quoted on the papers Mack had shown her. Toni felt chilled to the bone.

  “May I see those?”

  Toni jumped at the sound of that all-too-familiar voice. She handed Mack the documents and waited for him to say something.

  He frowned. He was beginning to have his own suspicions about who was framing who and why. And that didn’t necessarily mean Frank Clifford was the one doing the framing. “I’ll have to show these to Townsend.”

  “I know.” Toni lowered her gaze to the floor.

  “But not right away.”

  She lifted her face, her eyes narrowing in confusion. “Why not?�
��

  “These don’t really prove anything. It’s nothing more than circumstantial evidence. You’re not the only one who has access to these documents.”

  Toni blinked back tears of relief. Mack wasn’t convinced of her guilt.

  “Hank Warren could very well have produced the forgeries and not Clifford.”

  Toni recalled the day Hank had stalked out of the office on his forced vacation. Maybe he wasn’t in on this with their boss. He could have done it for his own reasons. From the way he looked at her sometimes, he certainly seemed to hate her enough to pull something like this, or something even worse.

  Mack saw the fear in Toni’s eyes and his insides tightened. How dangerous a threat was Hank Warren to Toni? “You’re coming to live at my house for a while.”

  “But, Mack—”

  “I don’t like the way things are shaping up. It’s the only way I can protect you. Since the vault will be closing soon, we’d better take these and get out of here.”

  Toni wondered as they rode down in the elevator if Mack was really trying to protect her by insisting that she come to his house. Or was it his way of keeping a closer eye on a suspected thief? If that was the case, it was an extreme measure to take. She shook her head. She had to stop thinking like that. If Mack was anything, he was honest and caring.

  As Mack watched Toni get off on her floor, he wondered if he was doing the right thing. He had to ask himself why he wanted her with him. Did he really fear for her safety or was it an excuse to keep her with him?

  His feelings for Toni were putting him in danger of completely losing his objectivity, not to mention risking his and his company’s professional reputation. But what could he do? He was falling in love with the chief suspect.

  CHAPTER NINE

  While Mack waited, Toni packed enough clothes for a one-week stay. She didn’t think she’d be at Mack’s any longer than that. She wasn’t sure she agreed with the reason he gave for the move. True, Hank was despicable, but was he a physical threat? Somehow she didn’t think resorting to violence was his style. His mouth was his weapon. But Frank Clifford was another matter entirely. She knew from personal experience that he could be violent. He’d said that he wouldn’t have to physically harm her now, but should she believe him?

  “You may have to come back for more later,” Mack remarked.