Just Bob (Assassins Inc. #1)(28)

“No.” I shook my head as I glanced at Sinclair. “This is Mr. Staudemeyer. He’s married to my supervisor at Bixby and Kent.”

“Oh?” Sinclair glanced at the man in question. “I guess that explains a few things.”

What? I’d really like to know.

“Why are you all fired up to terminate Bob?” Sinclair asked. “What’d he ever do to you? Give your wife a paper cut?”

I winced when one of the men with Mr. Staudemeyer walked over and punched Sinclair in the stomach. That had to hurt. Sinclair simply had no resistance. He just grunted before swinging around in a circle.

“Hey, knock it off,” I shouted. “What type of people are you? You can’t beat up a guy in a wheelchair.”

It was just wrong.

“You can stop this, Mr. Mills,” Mr. Staudemeyer said. “You can stop all of this.”

“How?”

Mr. Staudemeyer waved his hand and the two men with him walked out of the room, shutting the door behind them. That left just Mr. Staudemeyer, Sinclair, and me in the room.

“Tell me what you know of the Tellmark account,” Mr. Staudemeyer directed.

“Tellmark?” I frowned as I went through a list of the accounts I worked on in my head. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite figure out from where. “That’s not one of my accounts.”

“Mrs. Staudemeyer told me you are the only one who worked on that account.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know why she told you that, but it’s wrong. I didn’t work on that account.”

Even as I said the words, I started to remember where I had heard that name before. “I was supposed to work on that account, though. The file had been put into my dropbox, but I wasn’t done with my other accounts and couldn’t get to it right away. Before I could work on it, Mrs. Staudemeyer came by and took it back.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“It’s the truth. Just ask her.”

Mr. Staudemeyer sighed deeply. “I’m afraid that is not possible. Unfortunately, Mrs. Staudemeyer died in a tragic accident yesterday.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

Mr. Staudemeyer—Councilman James, whatever—cocked his head to one side, a curious look raising his thick eyebrows. “You really are, aren’t you? After everything, after I took a contract out on your life, attacked you, and took you hostage, you really are sorry my wife was killed, aren’t you?”

I tried to shrug, but that just pulled a groan from lips when my muscles pulled too far. “I am. No one should have to lose their spouse, no matter what they have done.” I narrowed my eyes at the man. “Not even you.”

“She actually wasn’t my wife,” the man said in the same friendly voice he used when he came by work. It was almost as if we were just old friends talking instead of a madman and a side of beef. “She merely worked for me. We used the marriage ruse so I could freely move about the accounting firm.”

I felt gobsmacked. I had bought the whole show, hook, line, and sucker.

“Well, she belonged to someone, so I’m still sorry.”

“Why is this account so important to you?” Sinclair asked, reminding me that he was in the room.

“I suppose it won’t hurt to tell you,” Mr. Staudemeyer said.

Oh, goody. The evil villain was going to spill the beans on his plans for world domination.

I almost rolled my eyes.

“You won’t be leaving this room, so you won’t be able to tell anyone.”

Okay, not so good.

“Running this organization is not easy. It takes a lot of money to keep all the panthers healthy and happy. The fights over territory and shifter rights are constant. It takes money to keep things going the way I want, money in the hands of politicians and business CEO’s. Those in power like that power, but to keep it, they need money. They need it from us if we want things to continue the way they are.”

“Shifter rights?” Sinclair asked. “We already have rights. We’ve had rights for over fifty years.”

“True.” Mr. Staudemeyer started to slowly move about the room. “But the threat of those rights being taken away always looms close. There are those that want us locked away from humans or even exterminated. Only by having the right people working in our favor do we keep that from happening.”

“So, bribery then?” I asked.

“I call it incentive,” Mr. Staudemeyer replied.

Wasn’t that kind of the same thing?

“And that incentive takes a lot of money,” the man continued. “The Tellmark account was where I kept money allotted to keeping our race free.”

Sinclair’s gasp surprised me. “You’ve been skimming off the top,” he said. “All those contracts were worth more than were paid out, weren’t they?”

Mr. Staudemeyer didn’t say anything.

Sinclair’s eyes widened as a sharp bark of laughter shot from between his lips. “You’ve been stealing from everyone working for you. That’s why it was so important for you to eliminate Bob, in case he saw the account and told someone what he knew.”

“That would be unethical to discuss an account with anyone,” I said, “and could cost me my job.”