Free Sweets Forgotten (Samantha Sweet Mysteries Book 10) by Connie Shelton Page B

sure even the owners have to do it.”
    Kent Taylor was writing all this
down. “Back to the sheriff’s question. Did either of you hear of Mr. Robinet
having an altercation with anyone in the last few weeks?”
    J.B. snickered a little, then
caught himself.
    “Want to share what that’s
about?” Taylor asked.
    J.B. slid a quick glance toward
Michael, who responded with a tiny one-shoulder shrug.
    “It’s just that I’m not sure I
should say this about my boss,” J.B. said, fidgeting from one foot to the
other.
    “Whatever it is, you need to say
it,” Beau said, trying to keep his tone softer than Taylor’s. He stepped over
and closed the door to the hallway.
    “Well, the truth is that there
aren’t many people Zack doesn’t clash
with. Helen and Amber are the only ones here in the office that he hasn’t
yelled at since I’ve worked here.”
    “Even the two of you? He’s yelled
at you?”
    “Not so much in the last couple
weeks,” Michael said. “When we were on deadline for the new upgrade? Yeah, it got
a little intense then. He was under a lot of pressure ’cause the trade show
space was booked and he’s got all these suppliers calling, like, fourteen times
a day.”
    “Yeah,” J.B. added, “and the
sales team. Some of those meetings
got really—whew!”
    Beau took another tack. “Mrs.
Robinet works here sometimes, right? How is she to work with?”
    “Oh, she’s pretty nice.” Michael
actually blushed a little. Young guy crush?
    “Although she really doesn’t come
back here much at all,” J.B. said. “She and the partners would have these
meetings. I suppose they talked about money. That’s our impression. She does
something with investments or something like that.”
    After asking if they could think
of anything else, Beau and Kent moved again toward the front, stopping at Helen
Melrose’s office. The bookkeeper was in her seventies, with a short perm and
polyester pants suit that would not have been the height of fashion twenty
years earlier. She sipped from a pink tea mug and waved them inside.
    “Hello,” she said, amiably enough.
“Amber told me you were here, Sheriff.”
    Beau vaguely recognized the
bookkeeper from somewhere—he wasn’t quite sure. They took seats in front of her
desk and covered the basic questions with her, then asked about any conflicts
between Zack Robinet and his employees.
    “Oh, nothing that would lead to a
murder, I wouldn’t think,” she told them. “The young guys pretty much live in
their world of computers and blow off steam by blasting away at those games
they invent. I suspect Amber might have had a fling with either Chandler or
Zack, which led to her being hired here. But it’s been over for a long time, if
it ever happened. I don’t sense any strain between them now. Younger people are
so casual about sex these days. All this ‘friends with benefits’ stuff is way
beyond me.” She made air quotes when she used the phrase.
    “So your particular job is fairly
stress-free?” Beau asked.
    She snorted. “Hardly. Both
partners are constantly uptight about money, so I have to keep my posting up to
date and be able to print out a P&L on a moment’s notice. Awhile back I
couldn’t seem to get into the computer banking records, but luckily Mrs.
Robinet took over.”
    To Kent Taylor’s inquiry about
whether she’d had words with Zack, she merely chuckled.
    “I don’t let men with tempers get
to me. And, believe me, I do not take
my job home with me. Life’s too short for that kind of stress.”
    “Maybe outside the office?” Kent
Taylor asked, ignoring her life’s-too-short comment. “Anyone other than staff
who might have hated your boss?”
    Helen chewed at her lower lip for
a moment. “A week or so ago … there was one instance. Zack had gone to the
dealership to have his car worked on and he wasn’t happy with the bill. He
stomped in here and told me to lodge a complaint with the credit card company and
not to pay the bill