Free Close Your Eyes by Ellen Wolf Page B

surprised ; she thought Ry an would share such a dramatic event with her.
    ‘He most probably didn’t want to worry you . ’ Matt shifted uncomfortably , and she had the uncanny feeling there was something he wasn’t telling her —s omething important and unpleasant, if she was to judge by the creases of worry that had suddenly appeared on his handsome face.
    ‘All right, hand it over , ’ she demanded, determined to get to the bottom of it, no matter what. ‘I can tell you’re hiding something, Matt . You can make it easy or difficult, but either way , I will find out what is it.’
    Her cheeky approach worked . He smiled, his blue eyes reluctantly admiring her tenacity .
    ‘I should have known, Meg .’ He sighed again, his golden eyebrows knitted into a straight line. ‘ You never give up, do you? ’
    ‘Of course not.’ She smiled encouragingly, praying that neither Ry an , n or Sonia would interrupt. This was her moment , and any disruption would only serve as an excuse for Matt to slip off the hook and leave her dangling.
    ‘Well, Burt McConnell, that’s the manager ’ s name , ’ he injected, his voice rougher now, ‘was not expecting to be found out for a long time to come. He got very mad, of course. He had a pretty good deal going, year after year. When Ry shook it all up and his perfect plan fell apart, he… lost it, raging and threatening everyone.’ He looked at her anxiously , and finally , the pieces in her brain clicked together, forming a rather intimidating picture.
    ‘ You mean he threatened Ry , don’t you?’ Her lips felt stiff, and she was suddenly cold all over. ‘ Did you go to the police, Matt ? Did your grandpa do anything at all?’
    She knew her voice had risen a bit . A note of hysteria crept into it as she imagined the possibilities. Some bitter, resentful conman held a grudge against Ry an . She was worried, and Matt ’s uncomfortable expression did little to calm her down.
    ‘Of course we did.’ He rushed to soothe her, his blue eyes earnest. ‘ We filed a report and had the whole team pick apart every lead we had. Burt was fired and left, disappearing without a trace.’
    ‘You mean, your grandfather didn’t pursue any charges against him?’ she asked in disbelief, not quite sure she understood. ‘ The man was stealing his money , and he just fired him, without any consequences?’
    ‘ Grandpa didn’t want to deal with the mess and the publicity of it all , ’ Matt patiently explained. ‘ It would be all over the papers, dragged out and vivisected over and over again. The horse show next month is very important to him , and he didn’t want to have anything ruin the joyful occasion. I guess he figured that keeping things quiet and under wraps was worth the money he had lost, anyway. It’s not like he has to watch it too closely, Meg . ’
    That was true . The Harper family didn’t need to count their pennies ; the embezzled money was probably a drop in the ocean of their overall wealth.
    ‘Firing him was a big deal to G randpa, Meg .’ Matt lips tightened into a line as he spoke . ‘ Trust had always mattered to him so much that I guess he considered firing Burt more hurtful than any other kind of punishment . I bet if it were the other way around, it would hurt him most. What he didn’t think about was the fact that Burt used this money for gambling, be it horse racing or cards. He apparently lost a lot of it recently and had some debts to cover, hence his bolder - than - usual move on our money . If he had stuck to the smaller amounts , it’s likely no one would have even notice d , and he could have gone on like that forever. He made some really bad bets and suddenly needed a lot more. That’s how he came to be noticed by Ry.’
    ‘ So you don’t know where he is ?’ S he didn’t want to sound too worried, but couldn’t really help it. Some vengeful maniac was on the loose, blaming Ry an for his misfortunes. She wasn’t sure how much worse it