“Ri-i-ight. Okay, come with me,” Cooper nudged Felicity. “Let’s get a coffee and discuss strategy. I’ll even introduce you to more tasty carbs.”
With a sigh, Felicity shook her head and said, “If you must.”
* * *
Felicity soon found herself a few streets away eyeballing a bakery called Capri. Fatty, sugary cakes filled the window. “Really?” she muttered, aghast.
“Do you mind? I have to inhale some rainbow cookie when I can’t figure things out. Helps me think.” Cooper grinned.
“Rainbow cookie?”
“It’s big around the Bronx. Legendary, even.”
“If you say so,” Felicity said in a dubious tone.
“I do. So you grab us a pair of counter seats, and I’ll order.”
Felicity pursed her lips and nodded.
Before long, two steaming coffees slid onto the counter in front of her along with sachets of sugar. One coffee was milky, the other dark. “Wasn’t sure how sweet you liked it,” Cooper said, taking the counter stool beside her, “but I was pretty sure you’d go for bitter black.”
“Is that a critique of my personality?” Felicity asked, pulling the darkest cup closer. “Good guess, though.”
“It’s more a powerful boss-lady thing. Dee took her coffee this way, too. Y’all think it makes you look tough. It doesn’t. It makes you look insane.” Cooper pulled her own drink close, added three sugars, and gave it a stir. Then she tugged a plate in front of herself. The cake slice had layers of pink, yellow, and green with a lash of chocolate icing. An edible rainbow.
“How very…gay,” Felicity mused.
“Or…fitting?” Cooper suggested, tone teasing. She grinned and forked a portion off. “Try some?” She offered the fork.
“No, thanks.” At Cooper’s pout, Felicity added, “I’m not a cake fan. This isn’t about my genetics again. Cake’s simply too sweet for me. I have a savory tooth.”
“Fair enough.” Cooper took a bite herself and sighed happily. “More for me.”
Felicity smiled and sipped her coffee. “So is Harvey ducking me? Well, us?”
“Well, I’m not sure what’s going on.” Cooper sighed. “I told him we wanted to talk to him about the vet-tech program because Rosalind seemed to think he was going forward with it. That’s when he got a bit spooked and weird, and he was gone before I knew it.”
“That’s really suspicious. And yet the first day I was here, Mrs. Brooks assured me everything was completely aboveboard financially. Didn’t you say the office only ran at all due to her? She’d know if something was off, wouldn’t she?”
“I think she’d know.”
“So maybe Mrs. Brooks is in on this, too, somehow. Whatever this is.”
“No.” Cooper recoiled. “She’s absolutely dedicated to this charity. And by the way, so’s Harvey. I mean he loves it.”
“But you agree he’s hiding something? Come on, Harvey is the worst liar.”
Cooper took a sip of coffee, her mood turning morose. “He’s an honest man. Well, I always thought he was.”
“Cooper? Has there been any sign that he’s been sliding money around before? Maybe something you paused over at the time but pushed aside?”
She slowly shook her head. “No. And I’m having a hard time believing it now. It’s all so…un-Harvey. It’s not like he needs the money for himself.”
“True. His wife’s success makes embezzlement seem an odd choice. And I really think she believes her husband when he says he’s setting up a vet-tech program. I saw it in her eyes.”
“Well, Rosalind is no fool,” Cooper mused. “Her whole family benefits from her business smarts. She set one brother up with a sporting-goods store. Her sister runs a fashion label that Rosalind funded. Her other brother’s overseas, studying in Italy. Various nieces and nephews have trust funds. She’s in charge of it all.”
“And she gave Harvey an animal foundation to run.”
“Yes. Exactly what he’d have wanted. She appointed family and friends to the board so she could keep an eye on everything. But aside from that and running the donation side of things, she’s hands-off on day-to-day decisions. And Harvey’s done a good job. He gets a few unorthodox ideas every now and then, like the time he thought we should have a Living Ruff toy line. That went nowhere.” She shook her head. “Or when he decided we should pretend we’re on the brink of folding every year.”
“Well, that one backfired,” Felicity said, “given I’m here investigating.”
“I’m extremely glad it backfired,” Cooper said, “or we’d never have met.”
Felicity smiled. “There is that. Anyway, so you’re saying he runs the charity well.”
“He’s a committed administrator, and between him and Mrs. Brooks, the place is like a well-oiled machine. There’s no excessive waste. Our office isn’t cutting edge. No latest tech or computers because he channels everything spare into our outreach programs.”
That explained a few things but not everything—like how bizarrely the foundation’s director was acting.
“He’s not blowing our money,” Cooper continued. “I don’t know what’s going on, but he’s not stealing. And before you ask, he hates drugs and gambling. The man is as vanilla as a milkshake.”
“Not so vanilla that he isn’t hiding something,” Felicity said. “Something that’s enough to make him panic. Is it possible he’s hiding something his wife’s doing? He’s covering for Rosalind? I mean, they clearly love each other. You should hear the way she talks about him.”
“And Harvey worships the ground she walks on, yes. But I meant it when I said she’s a brilliant businesswoman. I can’t imagine she’d ever lower herself to doing something underhanded.”
“Mm,” Felicity said. She didn’t get that vibe from Rosalind, either. Some people just radiated competence and cleverness. Her mind drifted back to Elena.
