DOUBLE MINT Read Free Page A

stood there, catching my breath. As soon
     as I calmed down, so did the cat. I reached up and patted it; I spoke in very soothing
     tones. “Good kitty. Get off my head, you psycho kitty.”
    To reward it for letting go of my scalp I gave it the Gummy Bear, which immediately
     glued its front teeth together, quieting it down and keeping it busy.
    Shopping list: Gummy Bears.
    Hiding behind sunglasses the size of Frisbees, I entered the building. I had the hair
     of someone who’d been electrocuted, a few scratches, and a cat tucked under my arm.
     The cat whipped its absurdly large tail back and forth and slung its head around trying
     to lose the Gummy. We caught an elevator.
    A lady asked, “Is your cat having a seizure?”
    The cat, offended, convulsed—its rounded spine digging into my side, and spit at the
     woman, the red Gummy Bear dangling from one of its dagger teeth.
    Good kitty.
    I walked in my front door and dropped my Super Spy bag and the cat on the floor. The
     cat shot off for who knows where. Bradley Cole said, “Oh, my God. Davis.”
      
    * * *
      
    “We have a visitor.”
    I nodded.
    Bradley gets a look on his face when he wants to tell me something but doesn’t quite
     know how. He got it now.
    “What?”
    “Maybe?” He put his hands on both sides of my head and patted about my ears, trying
     to tame my mass of red hair. I held up a finger, ran down the hall, looked in the
     mirror, fainted (no, I didn’t), lassoed my hair into a ponytail, dabbed at the blood,
     then joined him in the foyer.
    “Where’d the cat go?” I asked.
    “I don’t even care.” He took me by the elbow, led me through, then introduced me to
     Griffin Chase.
    What had been a pleasantly boring summer for me officially ended on this swamp hot
     Sunday in late July, the same day I woke up with frosting in my hair, took ten lobster
     calls, and discovered Holder Darby left home in a hurry without her cat. While I’d
     been busy with all that, the Independent Bankers of Alabama had been pouring into
     the Bellissimo, five hundred strong, including spouses, sponsors, and vendors. The
     vendor sponsoring the conference was Paragon Protection, a company that provided security
     products and services, and the bankers were here courtesy of them. Not only was Paragon
     paying for the bankers to be here, they held a top spot on our Valued Business Partner
     list. We’ve done business with them since forever. In fact, they built and installed
     the Bellissimo vault. This week, in conjunction with the conference, Paragon Protection
     was scheduled to inspect and conduct any needed repairs to the Bellissimo vault—a
     chore my husband had been working on for weeks. Paragon built the vault in 1995, installed
     it in 1996, and came back once a year to make sure everything was A-OK. It was a no-brainer
     to conduct the annual inspection in conjunction with the conference. For obvious reasons,
     vault operations needed to be kept hush-hush, and this year’s inspection could be
     conducted discreetly, flying under the radar and cover of the convention. Timing is
     everything.
    The process began with a physical inventory this morning, conducted by Griffin Chase,
     of Hammond Stevenson Morris & Chase, the Bellissimo’s outside accounting firm that
     audits all things gaming. And it was Griffin Chase, managing partner at the firm,
     who broke the bad inventory news. Missing from the vault: four million dollars in
     platinum coins. Present in the vault: four million dollars in fake platinum coins.
    “Who has access to your vault, Brad? Do you know who could have done this?”
    I did. I knew exactly who could have done this.
    “You’re sitting on more counterfeit coins than I’ve ever seen or heard of in one place.
     And excellent replicas,” he said, “amazingly realistic in quality, color, weight,
     and design. Do you have any idea where they came from?”
    I certainly did. I knew exactly where they came from.
    “Do you know