Page 68 of Once Upon a Beast

“Nor would he be the first one who was right. He didn’t do this. Your father is innocent and I’m hoping you will help me prove it and get the right man arrested.”

“I still don’t understand how James could have embezzled money in a company that he wasn’t a part of. I can’t imagine my father being dumb enough to allow him to see his passwords.”

“He didn’t,” Garrett said.

“Okay,” I said slowly.

“Why don’t you have a seat and I can go over everything with you.”

I took a seat. I hadn’t realized I was still standing. This was all a lot to take in and I wasn’t handling it well.

Garrett was a short man who barely stood over five-feet-five inches. He was skinny and had the look of a runner's physique. He had kind brown eyes behind his glasses and his hair looked like it was in desperate need of a haircut. It fit his look as his shirt was a bit rumpled and his pants looked like they needed a good iron. He gave off the vibe that he didn’t care or think too much about his appearance.

“Why don’t you start by telling me how and why you got involved with looking into my father’s innocence,” I said.

“Besides being an accountant and helping prisoners. I like to consider myself a bit of a true crime nut. I like to listen to podcasts, watch documentaries, and read books on the subject.”

“There hasn’t been any on my father.”

“Exactly,” Garrett said with a smile. “Which I personally thought was odd. He was such a hated man I would have thought someone would have jumped on the idea to talk about him.”

“He never told his story to anyone,” I stated.

I had people try to interview me but I had always declined. They had tried to use me to get my father to talk, it hadn’t worked. He hadn’t taken any interviews or done anything to prove his innocence. It was one of the reasons why I didn’t think he was being truthful. Why would an innocent man not shout his innocence to anyone who would listen?

“Only because they were asking him the wrong questions.”

“What questions were they asking?” I asked.

“They only wanted to know where the money was and why he did it.”

“I take it you asked him the right questions?” I asked

“Your father was a man who was making good money, he had a thriving business. He wasn’t a gambler; he didn’t have a mistress or an extravagant lifestyle. There were no red flags that would give any reason why he would need that much money that fast. Plus, it was too obvious what he was doing. Normal cases like this take years to prove, his only took six months. He seemed too smart to let himself get caught the way he did. It was more—”

“Like he wanted to be caught,” I finished for Garrett.

“Exactly. And why would a man who was a billionaire in his own right, on track to make even more money the following year do something so reckless. Why would he open himself up to being caught and lose everything that he had?”

“Criminals do stupid things all the time,” I said.

Garrett shook his head. “Or it was done by a mastermind whose whole idea was to make sure that your father was caught. He wanted him to be put away. He wanted him out of the picture.”

“James and my father were best friends. They’d known each other for years. Why would he want to hurt my father?”

“That was the million-dollar question. There were too many things about the story, about your father, that didn’t add up. Someone wanted to take him down. Someone wanted to not only destroy his business, but his livelihood, and everything he held dear. This wasn’t just a simple embezzlement; this was big and put him away for years. This had to have been done by someone who hated him.”

“Again, not James. He loved my father. He supported him through the trial. He supported me. Dad never suspected him. He even told me to look to James for support when he went away.”

“Your father didn’t know what James was doing or how deep James’s hatred for him went until he went away and started looking into it himself.”

“Why? What did my father do or what did James think he did?” None of what Garrett was saying was making any sense. I wanted to believe that my father was innocent but I couldn’t wrap my head around the thought that James was the one who did this to him.

“Simple. Love.”

“Love?” I laughed. Of all the things that Garrett and my father had said to me this might have been the most ridiculous. “Who? What? When?”

“Layla’s mother,” Garrett said.