Busy as a Beaver

Epilogue

The discovery of the missing money launched us into the spotlight. Jason’s article about the case was rumored to be earning him a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize in journalism. The FBI, thanks to our tip, managed to get the rest of the money from Michael Carlton’s account in the Cayman Islands, after the bank’s owners were alerted that the owner was dead and had died intestate with no heirs.

We were given the reward offered by the bank – $5 million – for leading the police to the man who had robbed them all those years ago, and for the recovery of the lost money. It was almost all there; Michael Carlton had used some of it to pay off his mortgage and buy some toys, but he’d barely spent 10% of the total. I assumed he was afraid of any red flags that might come from him spending far above what his means should have been.

In the end, the reward was split five ways – Jason got a fifth, I got a fifth, Sophie got a fifth, Charlotte got a fifth and we gave Gloria the other fifth. She wanted to refuse, but we insisted. After all, she had been a victim of Charles Green, and if her husband had told her about his secret hiding spot she would have gotten a lot more than a million dollars.

I was definitely going to spend my money helping animals. That was what I did, and what I was going to keep doing. One hundred percent.

Three weeks after it had all ended, and we’d been given the money, Jason and I were sitting at home, eating dinner by ourselves while Charlotte was down in San Francisco apartment hunting. Bee sat on the kitchen floor, happily munching away at a piece of sushi I’d brought home for her while Jason and I shared a veggie supreme pizza.

“You have some cheese on your nose,” Jason laughed.

I stuck my tongue out at him, then raised it to try and get at the cheese, making him laugh even harder.

“You know, some women can’t do that elegantly,” he teased.

“Careful, or I’ll steal some of your half of the pizza,” I retorted, leading to Jason covering up his plate with his arms to protect it.

“Never come between a man and his pizza!”

As I laughed, I couldn’t help but think that this was absolutely a perfect moment: my fiancé, my cat and I eating dinner, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company. This was perfect. My life was perfect. And I couldn’t wait to see where life was going to take me from here.