He rubbed his lower lip thoughtfully. “I wonder how much my lunch buddy has insured this shipment for?”
“Probably not much, if at all,” Guido supplied. “To do so would necessitate the fillin’ out of documents declarin’ the contents of said shipment, and any insurance type knowledgeable enough to give him full value would also know the discrepancy between the shipment count and what was originally printed. You see. Boss, the trouble with runnin’ a fraud is that it requires runnin’ additional frauds to cover for it, and eventually someone is bound to catch on.”
Skeeve wasn’t even listening by the time Guido finished his oration. He was busy rubbing the spot between my ears, a strange smile on his face.
“Well, I guess nobody wins all the time.”
“What was that. Boss?”
My pet turned to face them.
“I said that M.Y.T.H. Inc. fumbled the ball this time. Sorry, Nunzio, but this one is going into the records as a botched assignment. I can only assure you that it will not be reflected on your next performance review.”
“I don’t get it,” Nunzio frowned. “What went wrong?”
“Why, the fire of course. You know, the fire that destroyed the entire shipment due to our inattentiveness and neglect? Terribly careless of us, wasn’t it?”
“Fire? What fire?”
Skeeve stepped to one side and bowed to me, sweeping one hand toward the cases.
“Gleep? I believe this is your specialty?”
I waffled briefly between using a #4 or a #6, then said “to heck with it” and cut loose with a #9. It was a bit show-offy, I’ll admit, but with Guide and Nunzio watching, not to mention my pet, it was pointless to spare the firepower.