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“Are you hungry?” I asked.

“I’m starving,” Annie said.

While the kitchen was not always stocked with food—at least none filling enough to be considered a meal—I always kept a variety of cheeses on hand.

I stood and said, “Come with me.”

We walked to the kitchen, and I opened the refrigerator, assessing our options. Pulling out a few different blocks of cheese and some grapes, I then grabbed some nuts and crackers out of a cabinet. I looked to her for approval and was given an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

I laid the snacks out on a tray, grabbed a couple of plates, and invited her to get whatever she wanted to drink out of the refrigerator. Then we took it all to the table. It was my favorite spot in the office, given it was adjacent to a soothing, floor-to-ceiling wall fountain Giovanni had gifted me to celebrate the opening of the detective agency.

“Don’t you have anywhere to be tonight?” Annie asked.

“No, although I’m sure my dog is wondering what’s become of me, so I won’t keep you much longer. I didn’t want you to leave before you could say everything you came to say, and I don’t think you have.”

“You’re right, there’s more.”

“Why don’t we have a bite to eat, and then we’ll finish our conversation about Owen afterward?”

For the next few minutes, we chatted about lighter topics. She asked me how I got started in the business and how long I’d lived in Cambria. We talked about her life and her friendship with Noelle. She seemed to be in better spirits, and I hoped it would get her to the finish line.

I popped the last of the cheese slices into my mouth, pushing my plate to the side. “The more you’ve told me, the more I’m convinced you wouldn’t have approached Noelle about Owen unless you had evidence to back up your story.”

I crossed my arms, waiting for her response.

It took some time before she offered it.

And though I was tiring to the point my eyelids began to feel heavy, I waited, trying my best not to push.

“If I level with you, telling you what I know, what’s going to happen?” she asked.

“I don’t think you’re asking the right question.”

“What would the right question be?”

“An innocent life has been taken. What’s it worth to you?”

“It’s worth a lot. Noelle was a good friend. I’ll be honest—ever since she died, I’ve been having a hard time sleeping.”

I assumed the lack of sleep wasn’t just over Noelle’s death, but also over the fear that if Noelle died because of what Annie had told her, maybe she was next.

“Do you think your lack of sleep is because you feel guilty?” I asked.

“It’s part of it.”

“You don’t have anything to feel guilty for, Annie. You did the right thing. Maybe confessing what you haven’t yet will help. You don’t want to live the rest of your life asking yourself who murdered Noelle and why, so help me find her killer.”

“It’s all heavy ... too heavy. I want nothing more than to put it all behind me and move on.”

“I want that for you too.”

Annie placed her plate on top of mine and took a sip of water.

Wiping her mouth with a napkin, she said, “Here it is, and what I suspect you already know ... I believe Owen has been using some of the club’s money as his own personal bank account.”

“In what way?”

“Several checks have been torn out of the checkbook without the carbon copy to say who those checks were written to and why.”

“If he’s stealing company funds, it seems logical he’s been writing checks to himself and then cashing them. Would you agree?”

“I would.”

“How long do you suspect he’s been doing it?” I asked.

“Since he took over the position. It wasn’t a daily occurrence, though. I suspected once or twice a month at first. Then I think he got comfortable, assumed he was getting away with it—and that he could keep getting away with it.”

“Did the number of missing checks increase?”

“They did. Once or twice a month turned into once a week, or more. I’m not sure how much he’s taken in total. I don’t have access to the company’s bank account.”

I considered all she’d told me so far.

It was good information, the strongest lead I had in the case.

If I was going to nail someone for embezzlement, and for murder, I needed to be sure I had the right person.

“How do you know Owen stole the money and not someone else who works there?” I asked.

“For one, the longer we’ve worked together, the more accessories he seems to own, accessories he didn’t wear to work at the start. The most notable is a watch. He never wore watches to work at the start of my job, and then one day, he started wearing the same one every day. One time, I got close enough to get a good look at it.”

“Were you able to identify the brand?”

“Yes, Cartier. I looked it up online. It sells for over seven thousand dollars!”

“If Owen’s uncle is the main investor in the club, I’m assuming he has money.”

“Oh, yeah. He’s loaded. We’re talking millions.”

“Wouldn’t the rest of the family benefit from his millions?”

Annie laughed, saying, “Owen had a nickname for his uncle— The Grinch . He said his uncle believed everyone needed to find their own way. He was willing to give people in the family an opportunity to work their way up, but he believed they had to start at the bottom, proving themselves first.”

“Do you happen to know his uncle’s name?”

“It’s a name you can’t forget—Alexander Beaumont.”

A fitting name, indeed.

I reached for a pen, scribbling the name in my notebook.

“Aside from Owen wearing flashy jewelry, is there any other proof you have that he was stealing company money?” I asked.

“I caught him once ... well, that is to say, I walked in on him when he was tearing one of the checks out of the book— a blank check . There’s no doubt I’d caught him off guard. He thought I was at lunch, because I’d told him as much. My plan was to circle back to say I’d forgotten my purse, see if anything nefarious was going on, and it worked.”

“What did Owen do when he saw you?”

“He made a strange comment about how he’d torn the check out to reimburse one of our clients who’d canceled their membership and complained they were still being charged dues. I knew of no such client, and even if what he said were true, it would have been my job to sort it out, not his.”

“My guess is Owen didn’t know what else to say in the moment, so he told you the first thing that sprung to mind. How did you respond?”

“I offered to handle the client myself so he didn’t have to bother with it. He gave me a firm no, and I didn’t press it any further. Ever since, Owen has been far more careful.”

As expected.

“Any embezzler, even one who isn’t smart, knows enough to not leave an evidence trail,” I said. “You said there were missing checks, but unless he’s a complete imbecile, and maybe he is, I imagine he would have gone to great lengths to cover his tracks after you caught him red-handed with a blank check.”

She nodded. “You’re right. I believe he’s hidden or destroyed any evidence about what he’s been doing.”

“How do you know?”

“I haven’t seen the checkbook for a while, or the book containing the company bank statements. Can’t find them anywhere in the office, and believe me, I’ve looked.”

“When you went to Noelle about what you thought was happening, I’m guessing she tried to get you to do the right thing and report him.”

“She did. She encouraged me to talk to Clark about my suspicions. I said no. It’s like I said before, I don’t know him well enough to know how aligned he is with Owen’s uncle. For all I knew, he could have fired me and covered it all up.”

There was some sense to her statement. If Alexander found out his nephew was stealing money, Owen might not have been the only person in his crosshairs.”

“What was Noelle’s relationship with Clark?” I asked.

“They seemed friendly. I always thought he was nicer to her than he was to most people. I’m sure it’s because he knew the family she married into had money. He’s a suck-up when it comes to people with deep pockets.”

“When you refused to talk to Clark, how did Noelle respond?”

“She was polite but adamant that Owen should have to come clean about what he’d done.”

“Did Noelle suggest an alternative way to handle the situation—besides bringing the uncle into it?”

Annie tapped a finger to the table, thinking. “Noelle knew I was worried about my job. And though I didn’t think Owen should get away with it, I didn’t want to be the whistleblower. Noelle said she understood the predicament I was in. She suggested I keep going to work, act like it was business as usual, and to do what I could to stay under the radar.”

As I assessed the story Annie had just told me, it made sense ... in some ways.

In others, it didn’t.

Why would Noelle, being as angry as Annie said she was about Owen’s misdeeds, drop it just because Annie was frightened over keeping her job?

It seemed to me there was something else going on with Noelle.

But what?

The facts as I knew them:

Annie had seen blank company checks ripped out of the checkbook. She’d seen Owen wearing an expensive watch, one he hadn’t worn before. The company books containing bank statements and so forth had disappeared.

Facts aside, it wasn’t enough to go from speculation to accusation.

“I’m confused about Noelle’s demeanor,” I said. “If she was so upset over Owen’s actions, why would she tell you to lie low?”

“It’s a fair question. She was suggesting I take no action. She wanted me to leave it to her to sort out. She felt certain she could expose Owen without involving me in the process.”

“What was her plan?”

“I don’t know, and at the time, Noelle didn’t know, either. She was going to take some time to think about it. She told me not to worry, even though it’s all I’ve done ever since.”

It was clear to me now why Noelle had discussed the matter with Zoey. She wanted to get a second opinion about what she should do.

“Do you know if Noelle ever confronted Owen or told anyone else what she knew?” I asked.

“I have no idea. When we discussed the matter, she said we shouldn’t speak of it again, to protect me and my position, and we didn’t.”

Based on my interviews with those who knew Noelle, it seemed she’d gone to the grave leaving many of the reasons for her life’s choices unexplained. I wished I could talk to her about the letter she’d written Gabe. I wish I knew whether she’d hired a private investigator to find the missing woman who’d fled the women’s center. And then there was the matter of Owen. Had she questioned him about his potential thievery?

And if so, had she been murdered because of it?

Or was everything I knew so far unrelated to her murder?

Annie stood, slinging her purse over her shoulder. “I should be getting home. You have a dog waiting, and I have three cats.”

“I know how hard it was for you to tell me what you just did, so thank you.”

She nodded and left the office. As I started to gather my things, questions swirling around in my head, the office door opened.

Annie stepped back inside, folder in hand.

“There’s one more thing,” she said. “And I wasn’t going to do this, but now ... well, now it doesn’t seem right if I don’t.”

“Go on.”

“When I was talking about Owen before, you were confused about how I was so sure that he was the one stealing from the company.”

“It’s speculation, and maybe you’re right, but I’m also still hung up on Noelle’s anger over the situation. I’ve heard she was meek in nature, kind, and soft-spoken. So tell me, why was she so riled up? What else was going on in her life at the time? There must have been something making her more agitated than usual.”

“All I can say is I’m doing this for Noelle, even though it worries me.”

“You’re doing what for her?”

“I’ve already told you I caught Owen taking a blank check, and I’ve told you about the watch.”

“You have. Is there something else?”

“There is ... What I haven’t told you is, before Owen hid the books, I made a copy of the checks, to document which numbers were missing. I also made a copy of the financials, anything I couldn’t get to add up. In my opinion, it proves it was him. The handwriting matches up, as you’ll see, and I can confirm it’s his. I’ll give you these copies. All I ask is one thing in return—find the bastard who killed Noelle before anyone else gets murdered.”