Theme Prompt - Cook the Books

This wasn't the first time Jane had looked at the books kept by the dry cleaning business she worked for. This wasn't even the first time that something twinged as wrong. But every time before, she'd ignored the feeling and marked down what she needed. After that, she'd closed the books and went on with work and her life. Her boss was a little terrifying, if she was being quite honest. She had suspicions that he worked for the mob or something like that. There were strange people who'd visit every once in a while, people with flat eyes and twitchy fingers. They would step through the door like they owned the place, walk past her, and go through the doorway into the back of the store. The first time, Jane had ignored the whispered conversation. But when it happened again and again, she tried to catch as much as she could.

When she heard the words "murder" and "didn't get caught", Jane suddenly regretted listening to all the conversations. Her own conversation with a patron stuttered to a halt before she picked up her sentence again, the patron not really noticing anything other than the quick stop. They left with their dry-cleaning and Jane had put on her most pleasant and innocent face afterwards. A few moments later, the man who'd walked into the back area left just as silently as he'd come in. Her boss could be heard swearing to himself in the back room before stomping away angrily.

All of that, and other clues, led to tonight. She'd been approached by a federal agent asking her to find any evidence she could against her boss. The agent had promised her protection, had promised a new life if she'd needed it once everything was finished. Jane had been reluctant at first; how could she leave her family and friends? But picture after picture was trotted out for her, gory images of death and destruction, all attributed to her boss. It seemed he was much more important than she'd thought. So Jane had agreed, vague memories of errors in the books running through her head.

And as she searched through it, she found it. There was a second set of numbers, hidden inside the first set like a code. Money funneled into the dry cleaning business and money funneled back out, all without being reported. That would be enough to get her boss in trouble and likely sent to jail for a time. Jane picked up the book and packed it into her purse, starting at a noise from behind her.

"I thought I'd find you here eventually," her boss said, his voice disappointed and cold. "After Ryan told me you'd been approached I've been watching the shop every night. I'm sorry to do this, Jane, you were a good employee. You should have kept to yourself."

The last thing Jane saw before pain and blackness overtook her was her boss standing about four feet behind her with a gun raised. The muzzle flash highlighted his eyes, which looked as cold and dead as his voice. She didn't even feel the ground when she hit it, life and sense gone from her eyes already. Her boss lowered his gun and looked towards the back door. Footsteps move forward and the agent that had approached Jane in the first place stepped into view.

"Too bad she couldn't be quiet," the agent said, shrugging at the body cooling on the floor. "Then again, most people trust their police. Now you have another position to fill and a body to get rid of."

"Getting rid of the body is the easy part," the boss said, laughing. "What I hate is job interviews."