Betrayal

Chapter 7

TALLIE QUIETLY TOLD the assistant director on the set the next day that he’d be taking over for her when she left at four o’clock. They were reshooting some minor scenes that day and doing reverses, where the cameraman had to shoot the actors’ backs for a variety of camera angles in important scenes. She didn’t need to be there for that, and the assistant director was pleased to take over for her. She didn’t say anything to Brigitte until right before she left.

“I’m going back to town,” she told her. There was a definite distance between them at the moment, but no one else had noticed. It weighed on Brigitte every time she looked at her. For the first time in seventeen years, Tallie was being distant and aloof. She was trying to process all that had happened, and make her peace with Brigitte’s silence for so long. Brigitte understood it, but it hurt anyway.

“Do you want me to drive you?” Brigitte offered, assuming that she would.

“No, I’m fine. I need some time to myself right now,” she said, and Brigitte nodded. “I’m taking one of the SUVs from the set till Monday.” Brigitte nodded her understanding. “You can go back to town now if you want,” Tallie told her, and Brigitte said she was staying in Palm Springs for the weekend. She didn’t tell Tallie, but she had been planning to come back anyway, to spend the time with the young actor she was having the affair with. They were going to hide out together until Monday, although a few people already suspected their involvement, and Tallie had heard about it too. But she hadn’t said anything to Brigitte. Her sex life was her own business, and one of the perks she enjoyed about her work, an unlimited supply of young actors for her personal entertainment. Tallie never paid attention to it, nor acknowledged that she knew.

Tallie left quietly and drove off in the SUV, after telling the head writer to be sure and fax her the script changes at home over the weekend. She wasn’t in the mood, but she told herself she couldn’t get sloppy or lazy about work just because her home life was falling apart. She was always conscientious and diligent and disciplined, even if her heart was breaking.

It took her two hours to get back to the city, and she was at Margaret Simpson’s office on the dot of six o’clock. She had worn a torn T-shirt, jeans, and a pair of disreputable-looking old sneakers. It had never even occurred to her to dress for the appointment. She had too much on her mind to care, and she had come right from the set, and the investigator didn’t seem to notice. She noted silently how beautiful Tallie was and wondered if she dressed that way because she was so upset about her boyfriend and assistant, or because she was working. She didn’t know it was her personal style.

Meg was wearing a navy pantsuit with a white blouse, her long dark hair sleekly pulled back in a smooth ponytail, and very little makeup. She looked like a doctor or a lawyer, and it was easy to believe she had been an FBI agent. She had a very official way about her, and an air of authority. She was forty-two years old, and had been in private practice for ten years, since she’d left the FBI, gotten married, and had children. She had spent ten years in the FBI before that, she explained to Tallie, to assure her of her skills and credentials. But what Greg had told her was enough. Tallie trusted her completely.

Meg asked her a long list of questions about Hunt and Brigitte, mostly about the places they went and their personal habits. Tallie gave her the descriptions of their cars, and Hunt’s license plate number. She didn’t have Brigitte’s, but her car was distinctive, and would be easy to follow. And Meg knew how to get all the information she needed from the DMV. It wasn’t a problem. She had Brigitte’s home address from Tallie, and then Tallie remembered to tell Meg that Brigitte was planning to stay in Palm Springs for the weekend, with a man, she assumed. She gave her the names of the institutions where they both did their banking, the names of the two hotels that were on her credit card and Brigitte had signed for. And then she told her what Brigitte had told her about the young woman in Hunt’s office. She didn’t know her name. All she had to go on was what Brigitte knew about her. But it was more than enough for Meg to get started and assign private investigators to them. Tallie agreed that they were both to be under surveillance until further notice, whenever Meg felt she had enough information for Tallie to come to some conclusions.

Meg explained to Tallie what her rates were, which sounded reasonable. She had expected it to be expensive, and it was, but it was worth it to her. She wanted to know everything she could now. She suspected that the surveillance on Brigitte would be useless since her personal life and who she was sleeping with didn’t interest Tallie. It was Hunt she was concerned about. But she also told her about Brigitte’s history, the wealthy family in San Francisco, her trust fund, and all the perks she derived from being Tallie’s assistant, which made her even less likely to be stealing money. She had no reason to. And Brigitte received everything she could possibly need as gifts in the job, everything from designer clothes to jewelry and complimentary weekends at fancy hotels. Brigitte had as little need to steal from her as Hunt did, although she didn’t make nearly as much money, but Meg wanted to get all the background on them she could, in order to do a thorough investigation.

Tallie reminded her again before she left that her main focus of interest was Hunt, and whatever Meg could find out about another woman, and whether or not he was really having an affair. The missing money was important too, but harder to explain since neither of them had any reason to be stealing from her. It made no sense, but neither did his cheating, since they were happy. She wondered now if he had only stayed with her in order to protect the movies they made together. Maybe that was his only interest in her, and why he was having an affair. The whole thing was incredibly hurtful, and she wanted to get to the bottom of it as soon as she could. She knew that Meg wasn’t going to be able to tell her Hunt’s motivations, but at least she would know if he was involved with someone else, how long it had been going on, and how serious it was. She didn’t want to just trust Brigitte’s information. And Brigitte had told her two small lies initially about the hotels, although her lies where harmless, but they were lies.

Meg said she would get in touch with her, and call her to give her a progress report in a few days. Tallie trusted her complete discretion, and Meg looked reassuring as she walked Tallie out of her office. It was just after eight o’clock. Tallie wondered if Hunt was already at home, but didn’t want to call him. He hadn’t called her so far that evening. She had gotten a text from Brigitte saying that she hoped she had gotten home safely, and wishing her a nice weekend. Clearly, Brigitte was running scared, which saddened Tallie too. Her two most important relationships, other than her father and daughter, had taken heavy hits that week, possibly fatal ones. It remained to be seen in the coming days how great the damage was.

She felt numb as she left Meg’s office, and on the spur of the moment, she stopped at her father’s house on the way home. Amelia, his housekeeper, came in to take care of him during the daytime, and the rest of the time he still managed on his own. He had been a tall, handsome man in his youth, and looked a great deal like Tallie, but at eighty-five, riddled with arthritis, he appeared old and bent as he came to the door with his walker. But his eyes were as fiery and alive as they had ever been. His spirit was the same as it had been when he was in command of his cases in the courtroom. He looked worried when he opened the door to his daughter and saw how sad she looked.

“Well, isn’t this a nice surprise,” he said, smiling at her, and moved his walker aside so she could come in. He had just finished the dinner that Amelia had left for him. He led a lonely life, was rarely able to get out, and a visit from her was always a treat. “What brings you here?”

“I was on my way home. How are you, Dad?” She leaned over to kiss his cheek and sat down in the living room with him. It pained her to see his struggle to lower himself onto the couch, and she worried about him too. Her worst fear was always that he would fall and hit his head or injure himself in some other way, but he was stubborn and insisted on living alone.

“I’m concerned about you. What have you found out about those spreadsheets I looked at?” They were a grave concern to him. If someone was stealing from her, the cash that seemed to have gone missing represented a great deal of money, and he knew how hard she worked for it. He had never been a rich man, but he had done well and was comfortable and had helped her whenever he could, particularly in the beginning, but her real success was only thanks to herself and her own hard work and enormous talent. He was immensely proud of her, and now her daughter Maxine. And he knew how thrilled Tallie’s mother would have been with her too. The look of pain in Tallie’s eyes as she gazed at him made his heart ache for her.

“I just hired a private investigator,” she answered him. She took a deep breath. “I don’t know anything yet. I hope I do soon. Right now, none of it makes any sense. Brigitte says that Hunt is involved with another woman. I’ve got some hotel bills they’re both lying about, although Brigitte finally confessed about that. And there’s no reason for either of them to be stealing money from me. They don’t need it. I just don’t get it.” She looked tired and depressed. The whole thing was immensely distressing, and he was distraught about it too.

“Could it be anyone else?”

“I just don’t see who. Maybe it’s something my accountant is doing. Business managers and accountants steal from people like me all the time. But he seems so respectable and serious, I can’t see him doing this either. And why now? He’s been doing my accounts for nearly twenty years. And that still doesn’t explain Hunt cheating on me, if he is.” She still hoped in her heart of hearts that Brigitte was wrong and it would turn out not to be true.

“Maybe your accountant is in some kind of financial trouble. People’s circumstances change. You should have him checked out too.”

“I will. But I want to know what’s going on with Hunt and Brigitte first. I want to know who I can trust. And even if he’s not stealing from me, Hunt could be cheating on me.” They both knew that was true.

“I hope he isn’t,” Sam said unhappily. “I like him a lot. I always have.” And he thought he was good for Tallie. Or had been until now.

“Yeah, me too,” Tallie said glumly, and it was going to be really difficult to act as though nothing was happening now while she waited to find out. “Have you had dinner yet?” she asked her father with a look of concern, and he nodded.

“I want you to take care of yourself,” he admonished her with a fatherly look. “This is very hard on you.”

“No kidding.” She smiled ruefully. “I feel like my whole life went down the tubes this week. I’ve been avoiding Max. I don’t want to tell her about any of this yet. She loves Hunt too.” And she had had so few male role models in her life that Tallie didn’t want to spoil their relationship, at least not yet, until she knew if he was cheating on her or not. She hoped that the story Brigitte had told her wasn’t true. Maybe he was just concerned about the girl in his office and had been kind to her, without it being an affair. For the moment, it was a slim hope, but she was clinging to it until she knew more.

Tallie and her father chatted for a little while, and then she went home. Hunt was out and had left her a note. He was having drinks with Mr. Nakamura’s lawyers. They were getting the last details of the contract worked out, and he said he wouldn’t be home late. He got home shortly after she did and was tired. Tallie looked exhausted and was lying on the bed.

“You look beat,” he commented, as he took his jacket off and threw it on a chair.

“I am,” she said without moving from their bed. “It’s been a tough week.”

“At least you’ll be home from location soon. I miss you when you’re gone,” he said with a smile and sat down on the bed next to her. She didn’t know whether to hit him or cry, or take him in her arms and hold on for dear life. She didn’t want to lose him, but maybe she already had.

“Do you?” she asked, her voice small and muffled in his chest.

“Of course I do, silly. Do you want to go out to dinner?” She shook her head. She was too tired and down to want to go out.

“Not really.”

“I can rustle something up here.” She nodded, wondering how many more nights like this she would have with him, how many home-cooked dinners and sharing the same bed. If Meg told her that he was involved with someone else, this was all going to be over, and she realized that it was possible their days were numbered. The very thought of it wore her out, and made her immeasurably sad. She already felt as though she had lost him. In her gut, she believed what Brigitte had said, and feared it might be true. It had happened to her before, though not after four years. This time she had thought she was safe and home free. Maybe not.

He went downstairs then and made an omelette and a salad for both of them. He opened a bottle of her favorite wine, and they sat quietly in the kitchen and ate dinner. Tallie was very quiet, and he put some music on. But she couldn’t think of anything to say to him. He asked how the last two days of shooting had gone, and told her about his meetings with their investor’s lawyers, and he said everything was going well. And after dinner, Tallie took a shower and went to bed. She had hardly said a word all night.

“Are you okay?” he asked, looking worried about her. She was painfully subdued.

“I think I might be coming down with something,” she said vaguely. “I’ve been feeling weird since yesterday.”

“Then get some sleep,” he said, tucking her in, and he went downstairs to his office to look over some papers the lawyers had given him to read. And she pretended to be asleep when he came back upstairs. She felt like she was living a nightmare with him. It was a lonely feeling, and when he turned off the light, there were silent tears rolling slowly down her cheeks.

She went to the gym early the next morning, and called Max in New York afterward. She was out with friends for lunch in some noisy place, and Tallie was relieved. It was hard to talk and Max said she’d call her later, so she didn’t hear the tone of despair in her mother’s voice.

Hunt played tennis with friends that afternoon, while Tallie read new script changes and added to them, and he suggested they go to a movie that night. Tallie felt as though she were moving underwater and they were moving in slow motion. She wondered how long the investigation would take. It felt like an eternity and had only been a day, if that.

She realized that one of Meg’s investigators must have followed them when they went to the movie, but she had no sense of it. Meg had assured her that they were good, and Tallie knew they must be. There was nothing to suggest that they were being followed or watched. When she looked around, she saw no one. And Hunt suspected nothing.

It felt like the longest weekend of Tallie’s life. They took her father to lunch at the Ivy the next day, at Hunt’s suggestion. It was a production taking him out, but Hunt had always been sweet about doing things like that, which made Tallie even sadder now. What if that was all over? She could see why people didn’t confront a cheating spouse, as Meg had said. There was so much to lose. But she couldn’t see living with him if she knew he was being unfaithful to her. She couldn’t have done it, but losing her life with him would be hard if that was what happened in the end.

Lunch at the Ivy was busy and noisy and her father made an effort to appear normal, but she knew he was as disturbed as she was. They sat on the terrace and saw several people they knew. Tallie could barely get through the charade and was relieved when it was over.

Brigitte checked in with Tallie twice over the weekend, which was unusual for her, and she sounded uncomfortable too. She said that she was enjoying the spa in Palm Springs, but Tallie suspected that if she had been, she wouldn’t have called. Brigitte was clearly worried. And so was Tallie. Only Hunt was oblivious to what was happening and thought she was sick. He made a gentle attempt to make love to her on Sunday night, but Tallie just couldn’t. She wanted to wait for Meg’s report now, and she told him she thought she had the flu. He brought her dinner on a tray and made her chicken soup, which nearly made her cry.

“You don’t have to spoil me like that,” she said sadly.

“I want to. I love you, Tallie,” he said, and sounded so sincere. It made her wonder if Brigitte was wrong and had heard inaccurate office gossip. She didn’t know what to believe. More than anything, she felt confused. And they chatted like old friends while she ate her soup. He tucked her into bed afterward, with a kiss, but she couldn’t sleep. She’d had nightmares all night whenever she did.

She drove herself back to Palm Springs on Monday morning in the SUV she’d borrowed from the set, and she was in her trailer by six A.M. She tried to rouse herself to think about her work, but everything was hard right now and took ten times the effort it normally did to get her motor running and concentrate on the film.

She handed the script changes back to the writers, and by eight the cameras were rolling and they were back to work. Brigitte had gone to L.A. for the day, to do some work, and she didn’t come back to Palm Springs until Tuesday. Brigitte arrived in the Aston Martin, looking as sexy as ever. She put on a big show of being jolly and in good spirits. She had brought Tallie her mail from the city and had a number of things to show her. Tallie pretended to be interested but she wasn’t. She didn’t care about anything right now except what she was waiting to hear from Meg. It was Thursday when Meg finally called, six days after they had met. They had been the longest six days of Tallie’s life.

“How are you?” Meg asked her politely. She sounded businesslike and cool, and Tallie wanted to scream at her to tell her everything immediately. She couldn’t wait a minute longer, but that wasn’t the way Meg worked. She was professional and precise.

“I’ve been going crazy waiting to hear from you,” Tallie said honestly. She was in her room at the hotel, and hadn’t gone back to L.A. all week. She told Hunt she was still feeling sick, was too tired to drive back to L.A. at night, and didn’t want to expose him to her flu.

“I’m sorry,” Meg said quietly. “Sometimes it takes a few days to get the lay of the land. This is actually pretty quick for us, but I know it must seem long to you.” It was the understatement of the year.

“Interminable,” Tallie said grimly as she lay on her bed. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“I’d rather we meet face-to-face. I can come out there if you like. When are you coming back to town?”

“Tomorrow night, or maybe in the late afternoon.” Part of her wanted to press Meg to tell her now, and part of her didn’t. She was afraid to hear the results of her investigation. What if she hated what she heard?

“I’m clear anytime tomorrow,” Meg said crisply.

“Four o’clock?” Tallie suggested. “I’ll try to get out of here after lunch.” She could drive herself in again, and she was going home for the weekend. She had kept her dealings superficial with Brigitte all week, or avoided her completely. She wasn’t comfortable with her at the moment. Tallie felt as though she had been blindfolded and didn’t know where she was, or with whom, or who to trust. Her confidence in the people closest to her had been shaken, until she talked to Meg. Only she could reassure her, and Tallie didn’t know if she would, or make it infinitely worse with her report. She was dreading what she’d hear.

“Four is fine,” Meg confirmed. Tallie didn’t ask her if the report was good or bad. She was too afraid to know, without the details. And she was awake all night after they spoke.

The shoot the next day seemed endless and her nerves were on edge. She had a meeting over lunch in her trailer with the writers, and as soon as it was finished, she took off, without saying goodbye to Brigitte or anyone else. The AD was taking over for her again and seemed pleased. And Tallie kept her foot on the gas all the way to L.A. She was at Meg’s office at four o’clock sharp, with her heart pounding. She felt her stomach tie in a knot as Meg’s secretary showed her in.

Meg stood up with a warm smile as Tallie walked into her office, and she invited her to sit down across her desk. Tallie had never been as nervous about any meeting, or as frightened about what she was going to hear. Meg’s face gave away nothing, she was a pro. But she looked sympathetic, which Tallie read as a bad sign.

“Well, I think we have what you wanted to know. Not all of it, after this brief an investigation, but enough to give you a general picture.” Tallie noticed she had a thick file on her desk with a number code on it, which represented Tallie’s case. She was discreet if nothing else.

“We’ve been following Hunter Lloyd since last week, and doing a superficial assessment of his financial situation. There are records we don’t have access to, like his bank records, but we checked his credit, spoke to some people at his bank, and investigated as much as we could about how he spends his money. He has a big income, as you know. And his assets are solidly invested in a diversified portfolio. Everything we found tells us that he’s financially sound. He’s not afraid to spend money, as you probably also know. He drives a Bentley sports model that he owns, he has solid real estate holdings and investments. He’s not irresponsible about his money, and it looks like just about all his purchases and transactions are done by credit card. There is absolutely nothing we turned up that suggests he’s in financial trouble, needs money, or has a shady reputation. He has an A1 credit rating, and from what I was able to find out, he seems to make no purchases with cash. All the stores he deals with are paid by credit card. In fact, he seems to charge everything. There can always be something hidden we didn’t find-this was really an initial investigation, not a forensic financial one-but he looks solid as a rock financially, and my gut tells me that he’s not stealing cash from you. He has absolutely no reason to. Another three hundred thousand dollars a year would be nice, but he just doesn’t need your money.” Tallie nodded as she listened. It was reassuring, but if what Meg said was true, then Brigitte was lying, which was upsetting too. But at least Hunt was clean about the money. It was what she had thought too. Why would Hunt steal from her? There was just no reason to, he had a lot more than she did, and he wasn’t a greedy person. He had always been generous with her, and paid way more than his share of their expenses. As far as the money went, Brigitte’s story didn’t hold water.

“The rest of what we found out about Mr. Lloyd is more disturbing. Our sources were consistent and told us that he has been involved with this young woman in his office for about a year. It may have begun as a situation of sympathy. She was in fact the victim of domestic violence from her estranged husband. She took him to court repeatedly over it, was hospitalized once, and is currently waiting for her final decree of dissolution, in about two months. Her ex-husband was jailed twice for abusing her and their son. The boy is three years old. And she does work for Mr. Lloyd. He sees her in the evening several times a week, meets her at the Chateau Marmont and Sunset Marquis, and spends the night with her frequently when you’re out of town. He stayed with her three times this week. She leaves the child with a neighbor, and they usually go to a hotel. She may be afraid to have him stay at her house in case her ex-husband is watching or stalking her. They seem to spend a lot of time together.” And with that, she took several blown-up photographs out of the file on her desk, and spread them in front of Tallie. He was kissing a beautiful dark-haired young woman in one of them, and in another he had an arm around her shoulders and was holding a little boy’s hand, at the zoo. Meg pointed to the photograph and explained that it had been taken the previous Saturday. Tallie remembered that he had told her he was playing tennis with friends. Instead he had gone to the zoo with this woman and her son. The little boy looked very cute.

“Her name is Angela Morissey. She is twenty-six years old. And he has told several people he plans to marry her. She believes that to be true too. And she has told people that in confidence.”

She showed Tallie several more pictures of them then, going to a movie, coming out of a restaurant with the boy, and getting out of his car at the Sunset Marquis. He looked like he had a whole life with her, and they both looked happy whenever they were together. Tallie suddenly wondered if she had let him down in some way, if she complained too much, or wasn’t as much fun, or was too tired after working too hard. Or was she too old since the girl was so much younger? Why had he done this to her? She had to fight back tears as she looked at the photographs. It nearly broke her heart to see them, and he looked like he loved the little boy.

“There is a previous history here as well,” Meg went on, looking slightly apologetic. She could see how shaken Tallie was, and had known she would be. This was like being brought into the doctor’s office to be told you had cancer, instead of getting a phone call to say you had a clean test. There was nothing clean about this. Hunt had been cheating on her with this woman for a year. For an entire year, he had lied to her, and been sleeping with someone else. And in the photographs he looked happy and in love. And the girl was gorgeous and thirteen years younger than Tallie.

“In the course of our investigation, we were told that he had another involvement before this, with another woman. We have a full description of her, but no photographs. We can research it further if you like, but I don’t think it’s necessary. He also met her at the Chateau Marmont and Sunset Marquis several times a week during their involvement. He’s been a regular in both places for several years. The woman before this one was mid to late thirties, blond, very beautiful, very sexy, looks like an actress. They were involved for approximately three years, and her first name is Brigitte.”

As she said it, Tallie nearly threw up on the desk. She stared at Meg in disbelief and horror, as the investigator handed her a glass of water. Tallie took a sip and set it down on the desk, and looked at Meg blindly as she went on.

“It sounds like it was your assistant, from everything we heard about her.” It also explained the credit card charges Brigitte had signed several times at the two hotels until a year ago. Either she had been careless, or maybe she’d gotten to the hotel first, and since Tallie never looked at the bills, she had never expected her to see them, until Victor’s recent audit. And it had stopped a year ago when Hunt got involved with the other girl. And God only knew how many others there had been. “All our sources say that their affair stopped when he got involved with Miss Morissey, and supposedly Brigitte is very angry about it. In addition, although your assistant makes a great deal of money, she has a considerable amount of debt, her credit is not flawless, and you appear to be her only source of income. All of those records are not available to us since we’re not a government agency, but we saw nothing to suggest she gets money from her family. And she spends a lot. And she is currently having an affair with a young man named Tommy Apple, who is a minor actor in the movie you’re filming. She spent last weekend with him, and they’ve been together since filming started. It doesn’t sound like a serious affair.” She showed her several photographs of Brigitte with Tommy, which Tallie didn’t care about. What she cared about was that Hunt and Brigitte had betrayed her. And his three years with her and one year with this new woman meant that Hunt had cheated on her for all four years they were together. For the entire time, he had been seeing someone else, and Brigitte, the person she had trusted most in the world, had had an affair with her boyfriend for three years. They had both betrayed her totally. And as hurt as she was by Hunt, she was even more so by Brigitte. He had turned out to be just another asshole who was lying to her and cheating, Brigitte had been her best and closest friend for seventeen years, since they were barely more than kids. It was a blow she hadn’t expected and it hit her like a wrecking ball as she stared at Meg in disbelief.

“Are you sure?” Tallie said in a hoarse voice.

“I believe so. Our sources seemed very sure of what they were saying. The evidence seems to be pretty glaring.” She looked deeply regretful to be reporting it to Tallie, and she felt sincerely sorry for her. It was a terrible shock for Tallie. And even if the report of Hunt’s affair with Brigitte was wrong, which seemed unlikely, he was clearly involved with someone else now. She was thirteen years younger than Tallie, and he seemed to be deeply committed to her and her little boy. And all Tallie could think was that he was a cheater to the core, with no integrity or decency at all. And Brigitte was no better.

“I want to pursue another subject with you,” Meg said quietly. “The disappearing cash. I think that’s a very serious issue. I’d like to see you go to law enforcement with this. I think you need to pursue it before you lose more, and possibly you already have. We don’t have the access that a law enforcement agency has to investigate bank records and financial matters. I don’t think Hunter Lloyd is involved here, but you never know. It could be that several people are ripping you off, and not just one, or it could be a clever embezzler. You need to know. I’d like to see you investigate Hunter Lloyd further, just to be sure, your assistant Brigitte Parker, and your accountant Victor Carson. You just don’t know what people are capable of. And you’ve already had a loss of close to a million dollars,” Meg reminded her. “This is no small thing, and it could be a lot bigger than you already know.” This had been a double hit, a triple. Her boyfriend had cheated on her for four years, her best friend had betrayed her with him, and someone was stealing money from her, in vast amounts. Tallie wanted to lie down on the floor and sob, but she maintained her composure and listened to what Meg had to say.

“Who would I go to?” Tallie asked her, feeling lost.

“I’ve spoken to one of my previous colleagues at the FBI, without telling him your name of course. I refer cases to him from time to time. I explained the situation to him, and he’d like to talk to you. It could be that this isn’t a federal matter, there would have to be wire fraud involved, and bank fraud of some kind, but I suspect that’s very likely with someone stealing in these amounts. Twenty-five thousand dollars a month is a lot of money. I think you should talk to the FBI, and have them investigate it, if they’re willing. If not, you can go to the district attorney and the police, but I’d much rather see you in the hands of the FBI. I think they’ll pay much closer attention and get to the bottom of it faster. If you’d like, my ex-associate said he’d be happy to meet you anytime this weekend. I strongly urge you to do that, whatever else you do about the other issues involved.” She wrote down a name and cell phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to Tallie. “His name is Jim Kingston and he’ll be expecting your call,” she said gently. She could see how hard all of this had just been for Tallie. It was the worst she could have imagined, and not in a million years had she expected Brigitte to be involved with Hunt.

“What do I do now?”

“I would talk to Jim Kingston first, before you accuse your assistant. There may be some value in discretion and even stealth. He may want to do some investigation of her bank records before you alert her that she’s been caught, or is under suspicion, if it’s her. Ask for his advice. I think the matter is less sensitive and more awkward for you with Hunter Lloyd, given the situation. But in Brigitte’s case, I would be cautious and line up all your ducks before you accuse her. You don’t want to warn her and have her steal an even larger amount before she goes. And I wouldn’t discuss the money issues with Hunter Lloyd either, or your accountant. I hope you call Jim.”

“I will,” Tallie promised her, and meant it as she put the piece of paper in her purse, and then she just sat and stared at Meg for a minute. “Thank you.” She didn’t know what else to say as she stood up. She felt completely disoriented and as though she were drowning.

“I’m sorry to give you such bad news.” It was what she hated most about her job. Finding the puzzle pieces and fitting them together was fascinating, but doing what she had just done to Tallie and seeing the look in her eyes made her heart ache, and Tallie looked like a nice woman. Greg Thomas, her attorney, had said she was. Meg stood up to walk Tallie out of her office then, and told her to call if she could be of any further help. Tallie nodded, barely able to say anything as Meg handed her the file. “We have copies of all of this. You might want this for your records.” Tallie clutched it to her with tears in her eyes. In it were the photographs of Hunt with the other woman, and the reports of their investigation and surveillance on him and Brigitte. Just having it was depressing. She wished she could throw it away and turn back the clock.

“Thank you very much,” Tallie said softly. “I’ll call the FBI man tonight.”

“I hope you do,” Meg encouraged her. “You really need to investigate this further.” Tallie nodded again, and left the office. She almost stumbled as she walked back to the car. All she could think of were the things that Meg had said to her, about Hunt, about Brigitte, about the young woman with the little boy. She couldn’t stop thinking of the photograph of him kissing her. She threw the file on the seat next to her, started the car, and drove away as she began to sob.