I gave a low whistle of appreciation.
“That’s great. Bunny! The Boss’ll be real proud of you when he hears.”
That actually made her blush a little.
“I didn’t do it all by myself, you know. I wouldn’t have been able to prove anything if you hadn’t been feeding me duplicate records on the side.”
“A mere trifling,” I sez expansively. “I for one am goin’ to make sure the Boss knows just what a gem he has workin’ for him so’s you get your just esteem in his eyes.”
“Thanks, Guido,” she sez, layin’ a hand on my arm. “I try to impress him, but sometimes I think …”
She breaks off and looks away, and it occurs to me that she is about to commence leakin’ at the eyes. In an effort to avert this occurrence which will undoubtedly embarrass us both, I wrench the conversation back to our original topic.
“So what are they goin’ to do with this bum now that you caught him?”
“Nothing.”
“Say what?”
“No, that’s not right. He’s going to get a promotion.”
“Get outta here!”
She turns back, and I can see she’s now got an impish grin on, which is a welcome change.
“Really. It turns out he’s the owner’s brother-in-law. The owner is so impressed with the smarts it took to set up this scam that he’s giving the little creep a higher position in the organization. I guess he wants him stealing for the company instead of from it.”
It takes me several moments to realize that my normally agile mouth is stuck in the open position.
“So where does that leave us?” I manage at last.
“With a successful investigation under our belts along with a fat bonus for resolving the thing so fast. I’ve got a hunch, though, that part of that bonus is gag money to ensure we don’t spread it around that the owner was being flimflammed by his own brother-in-law.”