Love at Thanksgiving - Part 1 Page 5

could not be eliminated outright.”

  Jack looked at her, and Stephanie got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. He took her hand tenderly, and rubbed his thumb slowly across her knuckles. He was quiet. Stephanie waited patiently, knowing she didn’t want to hear what he had to say. She could see it in his eyes as he looked at her.

  “Just tell me,” Stephanie finally said quietly, “whatever it is, I can deal with it.”

  “I don’t want to tell you. I don’t want to ruin our first date.”

  “At least tell me how many of the eight are real possibilities. Then we’ll talk about the date.”

  “Half of the eight are not in any financial distress. In fact, they have more money than they can spend. If you believe the motive for this wire transfer was getting money, these four are also eliminated. If the motive was spite or hurting the bank in some way, then these four could still be in the running, even though they have money.”

  “We both know the motive was the $500,000.” Stephanie let go of his hand, and got up to pace. “So we have four viable possibilities left. Four managers with financial problems. How do you narrow it down some more?”

  “Stephanie, please sit,” Jack looked miserable. “You narrow it down with surveillance. I had each of the four under surveillance yesterday and today, looking for anything unusual. I took pictures.”

  Stephanie sat back down. “Let me see,” she said firmly. Jack pulled a fat envelope out of the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He placed it on the table with his hand on top of it.

  “As someone who cares about you and wants to go on a real date with you tonight, I beg you not to look at these pictures until tomorrow. This can all wait until tomorrow.” Jack’s eyes pleaded with her, and he took hold of her hand again. There was no point. They both knew there would be no date until they had uncovered the culprits who had stolen the half million dollars. Jack sighed in defeat, and removed his hand. Stephanie reached for the envelope.