Conall, page 7
“Don’t you have anybody else you could call on?”
She shook her head. “Not really. Though it’s not a hard job, it does still require a certain amount of personality, tolerance, and the ability to answer the phone.”
He hesitated, then offered, “Look. I can step in and answer the phone and move people through the office and keep things flowing. I could handle that.” She stared at him in shock, and he shrugged. “I deal with animals pretty well, and I always have,” he added. “It’s not as if I”—he laughed—“I can’t be any worse than what you had, but maybe that’s not quite correct,” he said, with a smile. “Anyway, if you don’t find somebody else in time, just let me know. I’m still a warm body.”
She nodded, still staring at him in shock.
“I know you weren’t expecting it,” he said, with a shrug, “but I’m not that scary, am I?”
She chuckled. “No, you’re not that scary, and the offer is very much appreciated because I honestly don’t know if I can get somebody in on this short notice.”
“You’ll have to hire somebody else eventually.”
She groaned. “The only reason I agreed to hire Mel in the first place was because I was desperate.”
“Staffing is really that big of an issue here?”
She nodded. “It can be, yes, and that’s frustrating in itself because we’re not sure whether it’s just a temporary shortage or the new wave now,” she admitted, with a sigh.
“Has anybody complained about wages, or is it just the fact that they don’t want to live or work here?”
“Most of them are heading for bigger towns, bigger cities,” she replied, “and I can’t really blame them.”
“What about you? Are you okay to stay?”
“I would like to stay,” she said. “I was born and raised here, and that does get in your blood.”
“It does, indeed,” he agreed, with a smile. “Let’s go talk to Michael, make sure he knows just how vulnerable he is. I don’t want to put any ideas into his head, but I don’t want him to wake up one day to find he’s been cleaned out because his nephew decided to go someplace better. Whatever the hell his nephew’s name is, Michael better watch out.”
“It would really hurt Michael if that happened.”
“I know, but, if Michael has already trusted him enough to provide access to his bank account information, then it’s up to Michael to make a decision, but at least it will be an informed decision.”
“But even some informed decisions can still be made with blinders on, and that’s the worst,” she argued, “especially blinders where family is involved.”
He smiled and nodded. “I understand, but would you feel any better if Michael ended up getting cleaned out, and we hadn’t said anything?”
“No, I would feel absolutely horrible,” she cried out. “I’ll meet you over there.”
And she got back into her car, she turned on the engine and waited for him to pull out first, then followed him, since he knew where he was going.
As he pulled up to the front of Michael’s place, she watched as Page took one look at the two of them and bolted back inside, slamming the door. She groaned to herself. “Damn it, you don’t have to make things harder on yourself.”
But apparently he did. When they got up to the front door, nobody answered. She looked over at Conall, and he nodded. “I don’t even know if Michael’s here, but I can bet that the kid has been spouting off a bunch of lies in the meantime.”
“Of course he’ll try and save his position,” Bethany murmured, as she picked up her phone and called Michael’s number.
He answered in a grumpy voice. “I’m here. I’m here. What the hell is going on?”
“It’s Bethany. Can we talk to you?” she asked.
“Sure, but my nephew says that I can’t go to the door and that you guys are here to cause trouble.”
She sighed. “Maybe so, but it’ll be trouble for him, trying to save you some trouble. Still, you need to know what’s been going on.”
There was silence first, then he swore softly. “I’m coming. Just give me a minute or two.”
“Make sure he doesn’t stop you,” she murmured.
“Is it that bad?” Michael asked.
“Honestly I don’t know,” she admitted. “I’m not sure to what extent this tomfoolery has risen to.”
Michael groaned softly. “The door shouldn’t be locked, but I suspect Page has locked it because of you.”
“Can you unlock it, or do we need to find another way to get in?”
“I’m in my room,” he muttered. “It’s a little hard for me to walk these days on my crutches, and I’m not in my chair.”
“Michael, do you need help?” she asked in alarm.
He hesitated again. “I don’t know. My nephew says you’re here to cause trouble.”
“From his perspective, I’m sure that’s true, but nothing he didn’t bring on himself.”
“Can you give me an idea what it is?”
She looked over at Conall, who stood at her side. “His girlfriend worked for me …”
“Melanie,” Michael replied, “kind of young, but a sweetheart.”
“Yeah, … well, … she caused a ruckus at my office, so she could steal the petty cash and give it to Page, and he took off with it. That’s when Bacchus got lost because they opened the door to a cat cage with dogs in the waiting room to cause enough chaos to hide their theft, when stealing the petty cash. In the meantime, the War Dog walked out the front door, and Mel couldn’t be bothered to stop Bacchus. It was clearly an intentional two-person job,” Bethany pointed out.
“What?” Michael asked in astonishment. “What about the animals?”
“That’s the problem,” Bethany replied. “The other animals were eventually contained, but Bacchus went missing because of their orchestration, and there’s been no verified sign of him since.”
He started swearing. “Page has been acting funny, ever since that government guy showed up, asking about the dog.”
“Conall’s here with me right now, and we just came from Melanie’s house,” Bethany shared. “So I would really like to talk to you, and I would like to talk to Page.”
“I’m pretty sure he’ll bolt, if I let you guys in.”
“What would you like us to do?” she asked Michael, looking over at Conall. “You know this won’t have a good end.”
He groaned. “I was really hoping the kid had changed, that he would calm down and settle in and be a decent answer for getting me some help and some company. Yet I guess I knew. He’s always been chafing at the bit, always wanting to go places, always wanting to be somebody.”
“He can be somebody all he wants,” she stated firmly, “but he doesn’t need to do it on my dime.”
“Or mine,” he added heavily.
She waited and then asked, “Have you had a problem along those lines?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t know.”
“Then I suggest you let us in and let us help you figure it out,” she suggested.
“What about this other guy, Conall? Do you trust him?”
“Yes,” she confirmed, surprising herself. “I do. He’s here for the well-being of the War Dog and is very unimpressed at what’s going on. He’s the one who brought up the fact that, if Mel and Page were willing to take money from me, we are worried about you and your money. If Mel and Page have your bank account information or anything else, then you’re at risk too.”
Michael started to swear. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll get to the door.” With that, he ended the call.
She looked over at Conall and nodded, and he gave her a somber look. “He already had a good idea, didn’t he?”
“He’s aware that he could be in trouble, yes. He’s not sure, but he did mention something about his money.”
At that, she watched Conall’s eyebrows shoot up.
“You know, the kid has probably been trying to work his way into his uncle’s good graces over time, so he could have access to whatever he needed, whenever he needed it.”
“I can’t imagine Michael has any money worth stealing.”
“No, but he gets a steady paycheck every month,” Conall pointed out, “a paycheck he needs, and he can’t live without it.”
“Right.” She winced as she thought about what would happen to Michael if he didn’t get his monthly pension. “You’re so right there.”
“So, somebody’s got to stop this punk and unfortunately his girlfriend too.” He cast her a sideways glance. “I suppose you won’t press charges, will you?”
She shook her head. “No, not over $75, or whatever it was. It may have been $100. Can I afford to lose it? Sure, but I’m not happy about it. I can at least withhold it from her final paycheck. More than that, I’m very unhappy about losing a staff member, putting myself back into a difficult staffing situation, but more than anything,” she stated, fuming by now and looking hurt, “she put the animals at risk that were in my care, and that is unforgivable. As bad as it already is, I’m aware that it could have been so much worse.”
Michael finally got the door unlocked but struggled to open it while in his wheelchair. Conall pushed it open and helped Michael get out of the way, and the two of them stepped inside. With a smile, Conall greeted the frail old man. “Hey, Michael. How are you doing?”
The old man shrugged. “I was doing better before you two showed up.”
“But were you really?” he asked, looking at him intently. “Are you sure you aren’t better off knowing the truth?”
His shoulders slumped, and he nodded. “I am, but, damn, it hurts.”
Conall asked, “Is Page here now?”
Michael shook his head. “No. He took off out the back door.”
“Of course,” Conall muttered. “What we really need to know is just what all they’ve done and what they were prepared to do,” Conall stated. “I’m not accusing anybody of anything, but I don’t want to see you end up losing your pension because these two have found a way to take it out the minute it arrives.”
Michael stared at them and winced. “I don’t even know what I would do if that were the case,” he replied bitterly. “I barely have enough to live on now. He’s always asking for things I don’t have, … food that I can’t afford. He always wants to go downtown and pick up extras and treats. Plus he’s a young man, wanting to go do things.”
“He can go and do things all he wants,” Conall noted, his tone hard, “but he needs to pay for it himself, and, in order to do that, he needs to get a job.”
“Yeah, but then I lose him,” Michael said, “and I get that, for you, it’s probably not major.”
Conall immediately held up his hands. “You don’t know anything about me, so you can’t make that judgment,” he declared soberly. “I do understand, but I also see a lot of our older and disabled veterans getting abused or taken advantage of, often by family, and, I hate it. I get that some person’s company is better than no company at all, but somebody you can’t trust isn’t a good answer.”
Michael’s face twisted, as he nodded. “When I was in the military,” he shared, “it’s all fine and dandy, and I was part of a big family. But, now that I’m not in the military anymore, everybody forgets. Sure, I might be lucky enough to have a few friends still in contact with me, but, over time, everybody forgets. Nobody cares, and none of it is important anymore.” He was gulping now. “And that’s—”
“Hard?” Conall filled in.
“Yeah, it is hard, and I don’t like it. I never did like anything about it, and to think that now I’m stuck in that loneliness and heading down into more of it is even worse.” He looked around at his house. “This is all I’ve got.”
“Yes, and it’s worth fighting for,” Conall declared. “You can’t allow Page to strip it all away from you.”
“No, I can’t,” he agreed. “There’ll be no food for me, and, if I ever get Bacchus back, there won’t be food for him either.”
Conall nodded. “Your nephew …”
“What?” Michael asked, staring at him shrewdly. “You might as well go on and say it.”
“I don’t have any easy way to say this,” Conall began, “but it doesn’t seem like he’s too brilliant.”
At that, the old man snorted. “No, he isn’t, and neither is that girlfriend of his. I was worried about the two of them together because they complement each other, but not in a good way.”
At that, Conall nodded. “I’m sorry about that too. Her family isn’t impressed with the situation right now either.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I have no doubt her father is absolutely hopping mad over it. He’s got no truck with lying and cheating at the best of times, but to think Melanie stole money from her work to give to Page? Well, that’ll send Mel’s father over the edge.”
“It may already have,” Bethany replied, as she looked down at him. “I don’t know what Mel was thinking.”
“She wasn’t thinking,” Michael replied. “She was just reacting. Somebody who she thinks loves her wanted something, and she was more than willing to do anything she could to keep him.”
“It’s a little more than that, I think,” Conall added. “You’re probably right to a certain extent, and young girls are very impressionable. They get a boyfriend and want to keep that boyfriend, but it is troublesome that she didn’t seem to think anything was wrong with taking the money. And she’s pretty upset that her paycheck will get tapped in order to recoup the money because, as far as she’s concerned, your nephew should pay for it.”
“Sure, he should, but you also know that he won’t. Come on. Come on in,” he said, as he slowly wheeled his way into the living room. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do now though.”
“One is to change the password for all your banking,” Conall stated bluntly.
Michael admitted, “I don’t know how to do that.”
“Do you have a laptop? Do you do online banking?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but my nephew’s been doing it for me.”
When Conall winced at that, Michael groaned. “You really think he’ll strip me of my money?”
Conall nodded. “Right now Page is scared because we figured out what he and Mel were up to. Page doesn’t want to get caught, and, with me here, … chances are Page is thinking I’ll be some bad guy, who brings it all down on him, instead of seeing the reality that Page brought it all on himself.” Conall shrugged. “You know what young men are like.”
“Yeah, it’s been a long time though,” Michael muttered, “and I didn’t think my nephew would be like that.”
“If you have a laptop and a password,” Conall said, “we can confirm that your bank balance is somewhere around what you think you should have and maybe set up an alert—in case any money is taken out that you didn’t authorize.”
“I had to go to the bank to authorize him to take out money as it is,” Michael shared.
Conall frowned at him and then glanced at Bethany.
She was chewing her bottom lip. “Not a good sign.”
“You think that’s a bad idea, don’t you?” Michael asked Bethany.
She nodded. “I suspect that, if he hasn’t left town already, he’s headed to the bank right now.”
“I really can’t afford to lose all my money.” Michael started to fret.
Conall immediately pulled out his phone and asked for the bank name. He quickly brought up the contact information and was on the phone within minutes. When he finally got through to a bank manager, he put it on Speakerphone and had Michael identify himself.
“Hey, Michael. What’s the matter?” the manager asked. “Your nephew is in here right now, getting what you needed. Did you need more?”
“No,” Michael said. “I need you to stop him from getting whatever he’s taking. I didn’t authorize it.”
Silence came on the other end. “You know you gave him access, right?”
“I gave him access so that he could help with paying the bills, but I never wanted him taking money like it’s his,” he replied in outrage.
“I don’t know about that, but you gave him access, which means he can take out money,” the bank manager explained. “I’m kind of helpless to stop him.”
“And yet,” Conall broke in, “if you thought there was an elder abuse situation happening right now, then surely you would do something about it.”
“Sure, but I know Michael signed to let him onto the account, which means Page has every right to take out money. If you want that stopped, I need you to come down here and do something about it.”
“He’ll be there in ten minutes,” Conall snapped, “but, in the meantime, you need to understand that a fraud is happening right under your nose and that Michael is notifying you of that right now. You are on notice. Hear it well that Page is actively defrauding Michael. His nephew is not allowed to take any money out of Michael’s account as of right now, not until we get to the bottom of this.”
“Who are you, and who are you to tell me anything? Until I have Michael here telling me himself, I won’t listen to anybody else.” Conall looked over at Michael and saw he was starting to get angry.
“Damn it, Stephen. You know me.”
“Yeah, I do know you, and I also know you asked me to put your nephew on your account, which gave him access to your money.”
“That was before I just found out that my nephew has been involved in stealing from the vet clinic,” he bellowed. “It sounds like he and his girlfriend are getting ready to make a run for it, and, if he’s there getting money out right now, I did not authorize it.”
“You don’t need to authorize it because he’s already allowed to come here, to get money to pay bills, and to take out a certain amount of money because he needs to go get groceries.”
Conall added, “Well, maybe you should find out how much money he’s taking out right now and understand that, if you don’t stop this, and Page does take out any money today, it will be on you, and you can bet the war department will be out to do an investigation of any abuse of our veterans.”
