Chapter Nineteen

“Wow, nothing gets by you, does it?”

“Nope. Not only am I naturally observant, but the Navy also honed it to a fine point.”

“Touché,” she said.

“So, what’s going on in that beautiful brain of yours?”

“Well, I talked to my boss earlier. The FBI team is onsite and gearing up to look at what’s going on. He said there was no point in being on standby and gave me off until Wednesday.”

“That’s great! So why the face?”

“Well,” she stumbled, “I planned on asking you if you wanted to take a long weekend with me, but I was worried about you losing income if the store was closed. Then I get here, and you said I was the first customer all day, and I felt even more guilty for wanting to ask you to come goof off with me.”

“You are so sweet,” he told her sincerely, and kissed her. “But there’s nothing to worry about. I own and run Book Keepers because I want to, not because I have to work.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really,” he confirmed. “Now, what else is going on? Because you still look concerned about something.”

She filled him in on the conversations with the life insurance company and with the lawyer.

“Sounds like you’re going to be wading through lots of legal documents soon.”

“Yeah. But it will be good to get it all done and move on. Except the donation part. No clue how that works.” She frowned, looking and feeling stressed.

“I do,” he said, and when she turned to look at him, he shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, I didn’t think I’d ever have anyone in my life again to miss me, so I changed my will to donate my body to science. It’s a pretty simple process, really.”

“What happens?”

“The coroner’s office calls the facility the body was willed to and lets them know that person has passed, and that facility arranges transport. Which means,” he covered her hand with his, “no, baby, you won’t have to see him or be anywhere near him. I know that’s the part of this that was freaking you out the most.”

She let out her breath.

“You’re exactly right, that one piece of this whole thing just tore at my gut. Even though he’s dead, I don’t want to be anywhere he is. At all.”

“I figured,” he said gently, reassuring her. “And you won’t have to.”

“So, back to the original topic,” she said. “Wanna play hooky with me?”

“Are you kidding me? Of course, I do,” Rick grinned. “We can start now, if you want.”

Faith laughed.

“I was thinking a mini road trip starting tomorrow afternoon, actually. I feel the need to stick around for those two overnight packages to show up. Sooner I get that stuff in motion, the sooner it can all be over with.”

“Agreed,” he nodded. “And it gives me time to pick a perfect place for our first getaway together.”

“Rick Connor, you hopeless romantic,” she teased, batting her eyes at him.

“Only for you, Faith Thomas. Only for you,” and he swept her into an ardent kiss.

***

Like the leaves turning, more things had changed in Faith’s world by mid-November.

She’d received the package from Marty the second week of September and gone through the numbers with a fine-toothed comb.

Between the stocks, cash accounts, and the sale of that gaudy, overpriced chunk of glass and steel that Kevin had called his ‘dream home’, she would get another $1.5 million once the estate was completely settled and taxes paid. The life insurance proceeds had already been duly deposited into an interest-bearing savings account.

Rick had been right about the donation to science part of things; the coroner’s office had dealt directly with the clinic it had been willed to, so she was able to stay out of that completely, which was a huge relief to her.

The little company she loved working for had had to start completely over, pretty much from scratch. Although the FBI techs tried everything they knew, the electronic records just weren’t recoverable.

The last week of September, the owner had informed the management team that permanently closing the business was looking more and more like the inevitable outcome.

But she believed in the company and its people, and she’d made it a point to meet with the President again that afternoon after making some calls and checking some figures.

She’d disclosed her recent good fortune to him, then offered to put one million dollars in working capital down to back the rebuild of the company they both cared about so much. She’d also reminded him that rebuilding would be slow, but not impossible.

“Sir, you and I both know our storage warehouse has never, ever been cleaned out,” she had pointed out. “Remember? I’d been here a month, and suggested it, and I thought you were going to shoot me, and you said you’d ‘prefer not to shred anything at this time’?”

He chuckled, remembering.

“That’s exactly what I said.”

“You probably have every single customer record, order, PO, whatever you need from the time this place first opened all the way through now, to rebuild with. It’s just in paper form, not electronic, that’s all.”

She saw the light come on in his eyes, so she’d kept going.

“So, we bring in people, sir, and we roll up our sleeves, and we enter that stuff into a new, clean, virus-free accounting software on a new, clean, virus-free server. It may all have to be done manually, and it may take extra people on extra shifts. But we can do this. We shouldn’t have to reload absolutely everything from the beginning to be able to reopen, just the year-to-date stuff on the sales side and AP for now, and the customer histories. For inventory and AR, it’s even simpler. Beginning balances. I know we can do this, sir. This company is too damn good to just fold.”

“I see where this is going, Faith. And yes, it’s a viable option to closing. But why would you want to put your own money in? What’s in it for you?”

“Sir, I believe in this place, and its people. I’m willing to stake an investment in my belief. If I’m right, make me a minority shareholder, up to the value of my investment, or make payments back to me once the company is sustainable, take your pick.”

“And if you’re wrong?”

“Then we’ll know sooner rather than later, and it becomes a write-off on taxes,” she’d said with a twinkle. “But we both know I won’t be wrong about this. We were kicking ass and taking names in this industry before some jackass set a virus loose on us. And we can do it again.”

***

Now they were almost finished with the fourth quarter, and the company had battled its way back. Some things were still left to do, but Faith’s personal financial gamble on her professional life had paid off in a big way.

Through long hours, they had rebuilt an entire electronic accounting system, with all customer records, inventory, you name it. Total down time from virus being unleashed to doors open again for business was about five weeks, and Faith’s capital infusion covered the payroll dollars and new computer systems needed to make it happen.

A follow-up project was planned to scan all older papers into an electronic storage configuration, but after those physical papers had saved the day even Faith was reluctant to part with them entirely. The whole experience had given her a renewed appreciation that traditional methods were still very valuable in their way.