November 2, 2018 

Cynthia Webber sat at a desk in a spare office at Calgary Police headquarters finishing her notes for the week. As a forensic accountant and part-time consultant on fraud cases, she normally worked from home, but she found herself missing the office and all the people that worked there. 

Proofreading her file notes, she wished she had some sort of say in the outcome of the case. A sixteen year old hacker had ghosted an eighty-five year old who’d died months ago. The teen had stolen the man’s identity and was cyphoning the deceased’s old age security cheque into her own bank account.

Once the woman’s relatives found out they just wanted the money back. As far as Cynthia knew, they weren’t going to press charges. She shook her head, wondering what would become of the girl. Clearly she had great skills when it came to computers. Even if the family changed their minds about pressing charges, the teen’s offence wasn’t violent, so she likely wouldn’t go to jail. 

“Hey, doll,” came a voice from the hallway. Hack, Calgary Police Services top cyber crimes guy—the only man in the office who could get away with calling all the women “doll.”

Cynthia smiled at the sound of his somewhat obnoxious greeting, but when she glanced away from her laptop to ask him how he was, he was already long gone. Must be a busy day for him. Hmm. Could anything be done for the teen so she’d be encouraged to put her skills to good use instead of a life of crime? Certainly not if the family wasn’t going to press charges. 

She shrugged. That wasn’t part of her job. Her job was to present the facts of the fraud, so if the case went to court, the evidence would be clear and speak for itself. 

She finished reading her report and made sure it was saved in the right place on the police network.

From the corner of her eye, Cynthia sensed someone in her doorway, and she looked up.

“Hi, Cynthia,” said Melody, one of the staff psychologists. A warm smile spread across her face and Cynthia’s lips curled in response.

“Hi. How are you?”

Melody stepped inside the office. “I was going to ask you the same thing.” She dipped her chin and arched her brows slightly. The look told Cynthia she wouldn’t find out how Melody was. Not right away anyway. This was Melody’s I’ve-got-my-eye-on-you look.

Cynthia’s cheeks warmed. She hadn’t seen Melody for a while after several regular sessions. Not since she’d had trouble coming to terms with Melody’s suggestion that burning a certain photograph might help her move on with her life. Help her get closure.

“I’m doing well,” Cynthia answered, trying to ignore the thoughts that were now focused on the photograph in her purse.

“Glad to hear it.” Melody’s voice was cheerful enough, but the look in her eyes didn’t match. They had an almost suspicious vibe about them. She was always good at seeing through the walls Cynthia put up.

Cynthia’s cheeks grew warmer, and she glanced back at her laptop even though her work was finished for the day. 

“You know where to find me if you want to talk.” She took a step towards the hall. “Even if it’s not about work.”

The photograph wasn’t about work, but she never would have discovered it if it wasn’t for a case she’d worked on a few months ago.

Feeling as though she should walk Melody out, even though the woman had barely stepped inside the office, Cynthia rose and strode to where Melody stood. “Thank you,” said Cynthia. 

Maybe she should book another session with Melody. But what was the point? Melody had made her feelings about the photograph very clear. Cynthia didn’t really know why she was hanging onto it. As angry as it made her, she just couldn’t bring herself to let it go either. 

“How’s Warren?” Melody asked, placing a hand on the doorframe. The question caught Cynthia off-guard. Detective Warren Scott was currently on medical leave due to a leg he’d broken while saving Cynthia’s life. Of course, that came up in one of her sessions with Melody, as well as Cynthia’s feelings for Warren.

Medical leave did not sit well with Warren, and he’d made Cynthia and her four-year-old son Luke his protective-detail project. Not that they needed protecting now that Cynthia’s stalker was behind bars. Still, on the nights Warren crashed on her couch, she did feel much safer with him around than when he wasn’t there.

“He can’t wait to get back to work.”

“Sounds about right.” Melody looked down the hall as if she wanted to get going. “How much longer does he have?”

“Three weeks until his cast comes off.” Warren had been counting the days and driving Cynthia crazy with his constant complaining about how itchy the cast was and how he couldn’t wait to get rid of it. At first, she didn’t mind—Warren never complained about anything—but his daily texts of “X more days” had gotten a bit old when he started counting down on day five of having his cast. 

Melody smiled with closed-lips then turned and walked down the hall. She glanced over her shoulder at Cynthia. “Enjoy your weekend.”

Oh, she planned to. “You too.” Cynthia walked back to the desk, thinking about the meal Warren had offered to cook for her and Luke tonight. Cynthia’s favourite. He’d even called Mom and got her lasagna recipe. 

Cynthia closed her laptop then tucked it in her laptop bag. She grabbed her purse from the bottom desk drawer. The photo flashed in her mind again. Evidence of her late husband’s infidelity. She’d only known Warren about six months and they’d been dating less than a month. Warren had been married before and had a son who died as an infant. He never talked about his ex-wife and Cynthia never asked, assuming it was too painful. He would never do anything like that, would he?

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Sorry about the centered formatting above. Every month, I try to change it to left alignment and it just goes back to centered. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the Death Tax preview. When I first revealed the cover, I was hoping to have it published this summer, but it is taking longer than planned due to a secret project I've been working on (sneak peek of that below). I'm under contract for that one, so I can give you hints, but I can't say much more until the manuscript is ready to go.

I hope you are enjoying your summer. We have been experiencing unprecedented heat and wild fires here in BC. If you can spare any rain where you are, we'd sure appreciate some!

Until next month, happy reading!

Michelle