Page 33 of Exposed

“Oh my, you are too sweet.” Mary accepted the gift, tugged at the white satin ribbon, and took the lid off. Inside was a velveteen box nestled in white paper.

“I KNOW WHAT IT IS!” her father said, but her mother backhanded him in the arm. Everyone in the crowd came closer, craning their necks to see.

“HOLD IT UP, MARE!”

“I will!” Mary opened the box to find a small gold locket shaped like a heart, then held it up so the crowd could see it, to oohs and ahhs. “Thank you so much! This is so pretty!”

“It opens.”

“Really?” Mary opened the locket to find a small picture of Rachel on one side and a little lock of her hair on the other. “Oh Simon, this is too much.” Mary almost burst into tears, but she kept it under control.

Anthony didn’t do as well, his eyes welling up. “Thanks, Simon,” he said.

“You’re welcome.” Simon cleared his throat. “I know how much she means to you.”

“Aw, thank you.” Mary hugged him.

“We just want you to know how much we appreciate you doing what you’re doing. You’re helping save her life.” Simonmanaged a smile. “Here’s how I look at it. I’m doing everything I can do, and you’re doing everything you can do, too. The rest is in God’s hands.”

“I agree, thank you so much for this.” Mary closed up the jewelry case, put it back in the box, and put everything in her purse, including the pretty ribbon. She swore to herself that she’d give the case everything that she had.

She couldn’t lose.

CHAPTER TEN

Bennie faced Todd across the table. “I’m going to give this to you straight. It’s really important that I understand exactly what happened in any conversations you had with Simon Pensiera about his daughter’s medical expenses.”

“I told you, we didn’t have any.” Todd gestured at the closed door behind Bennie. “Why did you throw the others out?”

“Because you and I need to speak more frankly, not in front of your boss or anybody else.”

Todd pursed his lips. “You think I’m lying.”

“I need to know if you’re lying.”

“I’m not. I told you the truth. There’s two sides to every story. You made up your mind before you even came in here.”

Bennie had to admit to herself that it struck a chord, but only because the contemporaneous notes were such strong evidence. “You never once mentioned the daughter’s expenses?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Not even in passing? By way of commiserating? No words to the effect of, ‘well, these medical bills are something, Simon’?”

“Nothing like that.” Todd’s tone remained firm.

“But you must have talked about her illness or her treatments.”

“No, not that I recall.”

“How is that so?” Bennie wasn’t buying. “You’re supposedly friends, and his daughter is very ill? You don’t ever once ask him how she is?”

“Okay, whatever. Once or twice I probably said, ‘I hope Rach gets better.’ It went without saying. I didn’t bring it up because I don’t want him to get upset at work. You don’t need that in your face all the time, I wouldn’t like it. I felt sorry for him.”

Bennie wasn’t buying. “Todd, you need to come clean with me. If you were trying to save the company some money, there’s no shame in that. You were between a rock and a hard place, feeling sorry for Simon but knowing that you were responsible for your bottom line.”

“I never said anything like that to him.”

“Did you everthinkanything like that?” Bennie watched him carefully for signs to see if he was lying, but so far, she wasn’t sure. “I mean, you knew that the company was paying those medical expenses out of pocket, since they were under the cap. In accounting, do those losses or expenses come out of your department?”