"Mrs. Simms, would you please come into my office," said my boss Mr. Tomkins on the intercom on my phone. I immediately entered his office and noticed one of the senior partners, Mr. Kiley, was sitting with him.
"Yes Mr. Tomkins," I said as I approached his desk.
"Please sit down Mrs. Simms," he said as he motioned me to the chair beside Mr. Kiley. "Mrs. Simms it seems we have some sort of discrepancy in the trust account. Ten thousand dollars to be exact. Can you help at all with our investigation?"
Both gentlemen were looking at me intently. My face became flushed and my stomach felt weird as my blood pressure rose above the safe level. 'God, they found out already,' I thought and I was at a loss for an answer. Let me take you back a month ago.
Johnny, my husband, came home one Friday night and told me he had a sure thing where, if he had seven thousand dollars, he could turn it into a hundred thousand overnight.
"I've got ten thousand in my purse that I must deposit in the trust fund from work, but I must make the deposit by Monday at nine AM. How sure of a thing is this and just how fast can it turn around?" I asked as I saw his eyes grow big.
"Ten grand!? Alright!" he exclaimed as he gave me his assurances that it was as sure as they get. Well John's big plans didn't go as planned and he lost the whole ten thousand. Now I was about to face the music. I felt ill.
"Well Mrs. Simms?" asked Mr. Kiley.
"I just borrowed it. I will pay it back. All of it." I pleaded.
"And just how do you plan to do that?" asked Mr. Tomkins. "Your net pay is less than one thousand bi-weekly and we know your husband isn't working at present, so just how do you plan to return the missing funds. Maybe it's time we called the police," he said as he reached for the phone.
"Now hold on, Old Man," Mr. Kiley said and Mr. Tomkins sat down. "Maybe we can work this thing out. I don't think the firm can use any un-necessary publicity right now and she seems like she wants to set things straight. Let me talk to the partners and see what we can come up with. OK with you my dear?" Mr. Kiley said as he looked me up and down.
"Anything. Anything at all," I said. I didn't want to spend the next ten years in jail. I would be forty when I got out and the best part of my life would be wasted.
Mr. Tomkins said that I should go home for the rest of the day and that they would have a solution worked out in the morning. Needless to say I hung my head in shame as I left and didn't make eye contact with any of my co-workers as I left that day. My head was just spinning as I drove home. I still don't know how I made it, but I arrived home in one piece.
"What are we going to do?" was the question John asked after I told him that we had been found out.
"What ever it takes!" was my response as I tried not to picture myself behind bars.
I didn't sleep at all that night except I was just drifting off as the alarm went off. I quickly showered and dressed and arrived at the office fifteen minutes early. I was ashamed of the mess I had gotten into. I had worked at the firm for ten years. I started here when I first graduated in the secretarial pool and had worked my way up to being Mr. Tomkins private secretary.
"You're early. Good. Let's get you up stairs and see what the partners have worked out." Mr. Tomkins said as he ushered me to the elevator and up to the executive offices.
As we entered the board room the partners all stopped talking and looked at me. They were all in their sixties, except for Mr. Tomkins, who was in his early fifties.
"Well my dear," Mr Riley started. "We, the partners, have a proposal which we would like to run past you. You can either agree with what we offer or Mr. Tomkins will have his way and we will call the police to handle this matter."
"I'll do what ever it takes!" I splutter out in fear.
