Page 19

Carlita squinted her eyes. “Who is it?”

“Lindsay Sterling, Russell Sterling’s daughter.”

“What about the other employee identification number?” Elvira asked.

“I’m working on it.” Dernice’s fingers flew over the keys. “Just as I thought. The other identification belongs to Tracy Sterling, Russell’s youngest daughter.”

“What do they look like?” Carlita asked.

“One was a little chunky. The other, Tracy, was thin and athletic.”

“Athletic enough to scale the side of a building?”

Dernice thought about it for a minute. “Probably.”

Elvira let out a loud whistle. “This is all making sense. Tracy and Lindsay figured out their father was onto them about cooking the books and siphoning money. If I had to guess, Sterling got the report and planned to confront them.”

“Before he did, they found out about the fundraiser. They knew Russell was attending, knew it was here in Walton Square, so they decided it was the perfect opportunity to break into your business to steal whatever evidence you may have had,” Carlita said.

“Not knowing the cat was already out of the bag,” Elvira said. “Or that the ‘cat burglars’ were out of the bag seeing how they like climbing buildings, or at least one of them does.”

“Very funny.” Dernice tugged on her blouse. “I mean, it makes sense. My guess is they also targeted Savannah Swag and Colby’s Corner Store to make it appear random.”

“The big question is…how can we prove it was them?”

“You’re pretty good at collecting evidence, Carlita. I’m sure you can figure out a way.” Elvira’s voice grew muffled. “I hate to sleuth and run, but the gold mining team is heading out soon. They invited me to tag along. Print off what you need and log out of the site.”

“Now?”

“Yeah. I want to confirm you logged out.”

“Fine.” Dernice hit the print screen key. The printer behind her whirred.

Carlita snatched the paper from the tray, confirming it was the page linking the employee identification numbers to Lindsay and Tracy Sterling. “This is good and bad.”

“Good, because we’re pretty sure we know who was behind the burglaries. Bad because you can’t turn it over to the cops,” Elvira said. “What you just did could get all of us into a lot of hot water.”

“We’ll have to figure out a way to use the information to get our own proof.”

“Did you log out of the website yet?” Elvira asked.

“Hold your horses. I’m working on it,” Dernice muttered. “There. I’m out.”

“Thank you.” Elvira started to say goodbye.

Her sister stopped her. “Before you go, I want to send you a picture.”

“What kinda picture?”

“Hang on.” Dernice tracked down a picture of her and Vinnie, one Carlita had just taken, and hit the send button. “Check your messages.”

Elvira shrieked. “Vinnie is in town?”

“He is,” Carlita said. “He and Brittney showed up last night for a surprise visit.”

“Well, this sucks.”

“For you,” Dernice snorted. “He’s a hot babe. Did you notice how cozy we look?”

“Keep your hands off him,” Elvira warned.

“Too late.” Dernice pumped her fist toward the floor, yanking her arm back. She did it again, mimicking the “lawnmower dance,” a viral craze Mercedes and Autumn had recently shown Carlita. “You still have your phone in hand?”

“Of course I do,” Elvira snapped. “How do you think I’m talking to you?”

“Touchy touchy.” With a look of pure glee, Dernice tapped the top of her phone. “Eat your heart out.”

Elvira made a hissing sound. “You had your hands on my man. I’ve only been gone for a couple of days and you’re already hot after my honey.”

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Carlita said. “Vinnie isn’t your honey. He’s happily married to Brittney.”

“Well, I’m next in line if something happens, and they split up,” Elvira said. “I can’t believe he let you touch him.”

“He put his arm around me. By the way, it was his idea. The arm around me part that is.”

“This is so wrong,” Elvira grumbled. “How long is he in town?”

“He and Brittney are only here for a couple of days.” Without thinking, Carlita added, “He’s invited us to New Jersey to see his place.”

“Sweet,” Elvira hooted. “When are we going?”

“ We aren’t going anywhere. You weren’t invited.” Which wasn’t technically the truth. Almost as an afterthought, Vinnie had invited Elvira and the rest of the gang. “I mean, you were sort of invited.”

“Did Vinnie invite me or not?” Elvira demanded.

“He did, in a roundabout way, along with Dernice and Luigi. He’s going to reserve some rooms for us at the casino’s hotel.”

“Was this before or after my sister manhandled my man?”

“I didn’t manhandle your man. Please note he has his arm around me in the picture.”

“Then you must have bribed him,” Elvira said. “I’ll have to try it next time.”

“I thought you had to go,” Carlita reminded her.

“I do. I’m walking and talking. In fact, I’m almost there.” Elvira started to sound winded. “The air up here is a little dense.”

“We don’t need you passing out,” Carlita said. “Thanks for giving us access to your dark web.”

“No problem. Keep me posted. If Sterling’s daughters are behind the break-in, I want them to pay for the damages.”

“We don’t…” Carlita started to say they had no proof. It was too late. Elvira had already disconnected.

“She’s all wound up now,” Dernice snickered. “I would’ve loved to have seen the look on her face when she saw the picture of Vinnie and me.”

“Me too.” Carlita’s eyes were drawn to the printout. They had what she considered proof, yet they couldn’t use it. Somehow, they would have to figure out a way to link the sisters to the burglaries. “I’m still curious about what the sisters look like.”

“Social media. They’re young. A hundred bucks says they have profiles.”

“You’re probably right. Do you mind taking a look?”

“Already on it.” Dernice tapped the keys, pulling up a popular social media site. She typed “Lindsay Sterling, Savannah, Georgia” in the search bar. A profile popped up. At the top of the page was a photo of a blonde, a little on the fluffy side with a friendly smile, standing next to another woman with similar features, but thinner.

“Bingo.”

“This is Lindsay and Tracy Sterling?”

“Yep.”

Carlita adjusted her reading glasses and leaned in, studying their faces. They didn’t look like thieves…or burglars. Not that it mattered what they looked like. Looks could be deceiving. Sometimes the most innocent faces masked the evilest intentions. “You said you met them when you were working undercover. What did you think?”

“They were super friendly and the one was very helpful in training me.”

Carlita pivoted, curiously eyeing Dernice. “At the risk of not minding my own business, what were they training you to do?”

Her eyes slid to the side. “It’s kind of embarrassing.”

The way Dernice said it piqued Carlita’s interest even more. “An office position?”

“Sort of…kinda.”

“Finance?”

“No.”

“The service department?”

“Nope.”

Carlita snapped her fingers. “I know. A car saleswoman.”

“No, although it would have been sweet. I could’ve made a few extra bucks.”

“I give up. I can’t think of another office position.”

“Okay. Fine. It wasn’t an office position. It was car detailing. They had me working out back cleaning vehicles customers traded in.”

“It sounds like a dirty job.”

“It was. I made Elvira pay me extra for doing her dirty work…literally.”

“And the Sterling sisters showed you how to detail the vehicles? I figured they would hold office positions.”

“They did. Now that I think about it, I believe Lindsay works in finance.”

“Which would be the perfect position to help herself to her father’s money. What about Tracy?”

“She was more of a girl Friday, a Jill of all trades,” Dernice explained. “As I said, Tracy helped train me.”

“And you somehow managed to get office info while working in another department?” Carlita asked.

Dernice tapped the side of her forehead. “I have my ways, which is why Elvira pays me the big bucks.”

“Elvira pays you well?”

“It was a joke.” Dernice flexed her fingers. “Let’s check out Tracy’s online profile.”

A photo of Tracy Sterling appeared. She wore a black skirted leotard with a fitted tank top. There was no doubt the woman was on the thin side and agile, but was she agile enough to scale the side of a building?

“She looks like she could definitely be a cat burglar. Let’s look at the surveillance again.” Dernice turned on a second computer monitor and pulled up the recordings from the night of the break-in.

She hit the pause button when burglar one and two appeared. Sliding the computer monitors closer together, the women compared the body sizes, confirming it could have been the Sterling sisters.

“I think we’re closing in on the culprits,” Carlita finally said. “They tick all the boxes.”

“One of them is athletic, while the other is a little larger.” Dernice patted her abdomen. “Although there’s nothing wrong with fluffy. In fact, I love being fluffy. Food is meant to be enjoyed.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Carlita drummed her fingers on the desk, her eyes flitting from the still frame to the photo of Tracy Sterling. “How do we prove it’s them?”

“We can’t roll in there demanding they confess to burglarizing our businesses,” Dernice said. “We need concrete proof. If not, Russell Sterling strikes me as the type of man who wouldn’t hesitate to sue us for slander.”

“Based on his reaction earlier, I believe you may be right.”

A commotion near the entrance caught Carlita’s attention. As the visitors drew closer, her heart plummeted. “What are they doing here?”

“More good news?” Dernice cleared her throat. “Hopefully, they haven’t been monitoring our internet searches.”