Free Asking for Trouble by Anna J. Stewart Page B

and headed out the back door, adjusting her Bluetooth. Once she was in her car, she pulled out the white envelope containing the checks she’d collected from various stores and individuals over the last couple of days, along with the bundle of cash she’d saved for a rainy day.
    Except her rainy day was more like a typhoon.
    All the more reason to get the money into the account and start whittling down the missing two hundred grand.
    When she’d first siphoned money from the center’s construction fund into the operating expense fund, it had been with the intention of repaying it as soon as possible, and for a while she’d been doing well.
    But that was before construction delays set in. Before the bills mounted. Before money set aside to repay the “loan” had been gobbled up by Morgan’s refusal to turn any patient away.
    Within six months what had initially been one hundred grand had doubled and then exploded into the impossible.
    She hadn’t been able to fill the hole fast enough to keep up with the books. Until Nemesis stepped in.
    And then stepped out.
    She started the engine and turned on the radio as she did a final check of her calendar for the morning. The local news was spouting about the college basketball team and how they’d been pulverized by a neighboring community college during a practice game. Morgan couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone to a game of any kind.
    The local newscast blared its syncopated theme song as news personality Lara Stark’s voice floated over the airwaves. Morgan withdrew the deposit bag for one final check.
    â€œSources inside District Attorney’s office revealed the Nemesis investigation isn’t running as smoothly as anticipated. Rumor is the D.A. is considering filing charges of receiving stolen property and/or collusion after the fact against anyone suspected of accepting money from Nemesis. As we’ve been reporting for the past few months, numerous individuals and businesses have publically thanked Nemesis for giving them large amounts of cash, money that has saved homes, paid bills, and in one instance, allowed for a life-saving medical procedure. But D.A. Marshall believes that while the public and media have embraced Nemesis, in doing so, they’ve goaded Nemesis into committing more crimes, as evidenced by the Cunningham burglary this past Saturday night. More details to come as this story develops. This is Lara Stark reporting.”
    Morgan’s throat closed around the icy air in her lungs as her hand froze on the Nemesis cash.
    Rumor has it. Nothing confirmed
. It wasn’t as if Morgan had taken out an ad on the evening news. She hadn’t told anyone about the four “donations” she’d received from Nemesis. How could she when it meant admitting to shuffling money between the foundation accounts like she’d pilfered the cardboard Monopoly bank.
    How Nemesis had gotten those envelopes onto her desk at the construction site was the question that gnawed at her most, but then that was what Nemesis excelled at, getting in and out of places without being seen. She wasn’t going to question the gift.
    Morgan dug into the bag and pulled out the bundle of twenty-five thousand she’d hoped to deposit today. Her pulse beat double in her neck. Better to be safe at this point, keep the deposit under the reportable ten grand. No red flags, no filings to the FBI or treasury. Not that large cash deposits were out of the norm for her for the foundation. But now wasn’t the time to take chances, not when she still had four weeks and three days to find the rest of the money.
    She’d done the wrong thing, she knew, but for the right reason. That money she’d taken had saved lives, and for that she would never regret her actions. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t desperate to cover her trail. No matter whose help she had to take. All the more reason to be relieved that