Two months of overnight shifts at the grocery store, and I hadn't seen a dime of my wages. Instead I was thirty thousand dollars in the hole.
The manager accused me of stealing. My daughter called me a senile old fool and swore she was done with me. My niece threw me out of the house that same night.
Everyone was waiting for me to go down in flames. Nobody believed I was innocent.
At my lowest, I remembered the card I'd been keeping in reserve.
The moment I laid that evidence on the table, I didn't just clear my name. I took the manager's chair.
1
Five in the morning at the grocery store.
I'd locked up the last cash box and was about to leave when the manager, Otis Whitney, bellowed at my back.
"Ina Dickerson, don't you move!"
My stomach dropped. "Manager Whitney, I've closed out all the accounts. The cash in the registers matches the system down to the penny, and I've already signed off. Is something wrong?"
Otis crossed the floor in a few quick strides and slammed the ledger down on the counter.
"Wrong? I think you know exactly what's wrong and you're playing dumb."
"See for yourself!"
"These past two weeks of daily reconciliations, short every single day. It adds up to a full thirty thousand!"
"You're the last one to lock the box every night, the last one to turn in the accounts. So you tell me, where did the money go?"
I bent over the ledger in a hurry. The shortfalls marked in red pen added up to exactly thirty thousand. Not a dollar more, not a dollar less.
My voice shook. "That's not possible!"
"I count the cash three times every night before I turn it in. I don't sign until every last dime lines up. How could that much be missing? Did accounting make a mistake?"
Otis sneered. "Accounting and I stayed up the whole night. We went through every receipt, every payment. Not a penny off."
"Ina, you're the only cashier on the night shift. Only you and I have keys to the back. I don't come in until morning. Besides you, who could get to the cash boxes?"
Maisie Chavez, the stocker, murmured to Naomi Finch beside her. "I always said she fought to grab all the night shifts. So this is what she was skimming off. What a black heart on that woman."
Naomi curled her lip. "Right? I heard her husband's got cancer and they're desperate for money. Probably drove her crazy. Pitiful people always turn out to be the ones who deserve it."
I raised my voice, furious. "I didn't steal any money. There are cameras over the register area. One look and it's settled!"
Otis gave a snort. "Funny thing. The cameras over the back register area broke three days ago."
I said through my teeth, "The day before yesterday I saw Rufus James, loss prevention, pulling the footage to catch a shoplifter. How is it they break down at the exact moment we need to check the accounts?"
Otis's face went dark. "If I say they're broken, they're broken. Equipment gets old. Is that so strange?"
"Ina, I won't waste words with you."
"Either you cover the thirty thousand today and hand in your resignation on your own, and I let you keep your dignity."
"Or I call the police right now and let them search your house. You weigh it out for yourself."
"Oh, and your wages for these two months, eight thousand total, docked. Just like that."
"That leaves twenty-two thousand. I'm giving you three days. If you can't come up with it, we settle this at the police department."
The others looked at me with contempt, some of them plainly enjoying it.
I opened my mouth to defend myself, but no sound came out of my throat.
"What? Nothing to say?"
Otis sneered. "Take my advice and be smart. Settling this quietly is better for you. If it really goes to the police, your children lose face too. Isn't that right?"
I said, my anger rising, "Manager Whitney, I didn't take the money. You want to call the police, call them now. My conscience is clean, and a straight body doesn't fear a crooked shadow."
I didn't wait to see his reaction. I walked out.
Behind me came Maisie's sour voice. "Oh, still talking tough. A woman her age. No shame at all."
For the life of me I couldn't understand it. Every day I checked everything down to the penny. So how did the money just vanish into thin air?
