Friday came, and Jim Wright returned to Ruth Simpson's office. Once again, she had the books out and ready for him. Jim noticed that the general seemed much more nervous this time, than she had on the last visit. Since he knew exactly what he would find, this check didn't take long. Within a half-hour, Colonel Wright was telling the general that everything still looked fine and that he sincerely hoped he was done. A minute later he got off the phone with "C.I.D." and informed General Simpson that General Lewis had indeed given him permission to close this investigation. Jim apologized for all of the general's time he had taken and left her office.
As soon as the colonel was gone, Ruth called the other women and practically shrieked that it was over. Within minutes all five women were in that office. They were so relieved they were almost shaking. It was over. Monday afternoon, Ruth would withdraw the money back out of the base accounts and they would pay off Tony Vineti. And in a couple of weeks, the election would be held and they would all make back all the money they needed.
The weekend was a blur for the ladies. First thing Monday morning, Ruth began looking through the base accounts. One had to be careful doing this. You couldn't just take all the money from one account. Ruth needed to pull money from all the base accounts in a way that it wouldn't be missed for a couple of weeks. It would take several hours to go over the books and decide exactly what withdrawals to make. Around 2:00 in the afternoon, Ruth thought she was just about done, when the phone rang.
Ruth answered the phone. It was Colonel Wright. "General, I'm sorry to bother you, but I forgot something last Friday. I need a witnessed copy of your most current statements. I'm afraid I'll have to come by later this week and pick one up. Would Thursday or Friday be okay?"
The general told Jim that either one would be fine. She still had all the papers from last Friday.
"No general, I'm afraid you don't understand. I must return a copy of the statement current as of the day I see it. I don't need to go over any of your books, we know everything's in order. I just need a copy of the bank statements. So, will Friday be all right?"
Ruth was afraid she might faint. She really was getting dizzy. All she could do was murmur back that Friday would be fine. Colonel Wright thanked her for her cooperation and hung up. Ruth managed to stagger over to her chair and sit down before she fell down on her office floor.
She was still just sitting there staring into space, when Sue Lynn Fairchild walked in.
"Hey Ruth, you won't believe what I... Ruth, RUTH!!" Sue Lynn shook her boss and Ruth gradually came around.
"Ruth, What's wrong?"
It took the general a couple of tries, but she finally managed to explain to Colonel Fairchild what had happened. A moment later, Sue Lynn was trying not to faint right next to her boss.
After the girls had gathered themselves, they called the rest of the crew and told them to meet in the office immediately. Panic set in as what had happened was explained to the others. Finally, the only thing anyone could think of was for Ruth to call General Lewis and see if somehow she could just fax him the statements she had.
Ruth dialed the number for C.I.D. and got herself transferred to General Lewis' secretary.
It was almost bedlam in Tony's office. Connie was on the phone talking to Ruth, and everyone else was struggling not to laugh so loudly that it would be heard in the phone. Connie, meanwhile, was apologizing to General Simpson for the fact that General Lewis was unavailable. He wouldn't be back in the office until tomorrow afternoon. The general was certainly welcome to call back after that.
Ruth just thanked the secretary and hung up. She told the others that she hadn't been able to get through to the general. Lee was so panicky that she told Ruth that she just should have demanded to speak to him.
"YOU TWIT! Are you NUTS?! Even if they had been able to find him, I'm trying to ask a favor of him. How agreeable do you think he'd be if I had him dragged to the phone? JESUS!!! All we can do is call back tomorrow and hope that General Lewis will be reasonable. I'm sure he probably will. After all Colonel Wright doesn't want to waste any more time here, and I'm sure the general has important cases waiting for his people to get to. If I'm nice and explain things to him, I'm sure he'll except the papers we have. Now everyone go home and get some sleep and we'll meet here tomorrow afternoon."
Of course, none of the women really slept that night. If they did fall asleep, they just had nightmares of what was waiting for them. So it was four very bedraggled looking ladies who joined Ruth Simpson in her office Tuesday afternoon.
When everyone was there, Ruth called "General Lewis." She got through to his secretary and this time the woman put her through.
"General Lewis, sir, this is Ruth Simpson...Nice to talk to you too, sir. Listen, the reason I called is that Colonel Wright says that he has to come back next Friday and get current account statements.--...Yes sir, he did explain that. It's just that I hate to see him have to make another trip so far out of his way. I would be happy to fax you the documents from last Friday's audit. They're completely up to date, and they would save you from having to send your man out again. I'm sure you have much more important things waiting for him."
"Ruth, I appreciate your concern, but it's not really a problem. The next assignment I have for Jim Wright is no more than 100 miles from you. And I really do need those papers. I know there was no real crime after all, but when we're talking about a sum of money that large, unfortunately I really do have to get all the documentation together."
"I understand general, I just wish I could save you the trouble. I'd be happy to do whatever I can to speed this up."
"No Ruth, it'll be fine. Unless there's some other problem I don't know about. There's not a problem with the accounts after all, is there?"
"No general, there's no problem. If it has to be this way it's fine with me. I'll have the papers ready for Colonel Wright on Friday...Yes, I hope that will be the end of it, too. Goodbye general."
"Oh GOD!!!" The scream came from one of the sisters. Ruth wasn't even sure which. And actually, she wanted to scream, too.
"WHAT DO WE DO NOW??!!" That scream definitely came from Lee Kwan.
"How the Hell should I know?" Ruth shrieked back. "We can't touch the money now, and we can't pay Mr. Vineti. So if anyone's got any bright ideas, now would be a really good time to share."
Unfortunately for Ruth, and the rest of them for that matter, no one had any ideas.
It was Sue Lynn who finally said what they were all thinking.
"It looks like we're going to be giving Mr. Vineti our boobs to play with."
"The HELL WE ARE!" That had gotten Ruth's attention.
"I'm a GODDAMNED general. I am not walking into that damn bastard's office and handing my tits to him and saying 'Here, have a good time with these."