With Leo home from school for a few days, I distract myself by throwing myself into PTA work. We earned a ton of money at the fall carnival, and I have some catching up to do, since I was in the emergency room with Leo most of the evening of the carnival.
The biggest fundraiser by far was the silent auction. I have to admit, April does a good job with it.
Except as I’m looking at the bids, it doesn’t seem to add up. The winning bids seem greater than the amount deposited in the PTA account. I finally get a calculator and do the math. It turns out I’m right. There’s a big discrepancy.
There’s money missing. A lot of money.
I spend the next hour on the phone with the bank. It takes some investigating, but it turns out some of the money was being filtered into a second account. One that isn’t affiliated in any way with the PTA.
Meaning somebody stole the money.
And then I do something really sickening. I go back to last year’s numbers. To my horror, there was a discrepancy last year too. How did I miss it? I thought I was so careful and organized.
Somebody stole money from the PTA account for the last two years.
And there’s only one person who could have done it.
April.
I can’t believe it. After everything else she’s done, she also stole money from her child’s school? What is her encore going to be? Is she going to set an orphanage on fire while poisoning puppies?
The worst part is, I’m not sure how to handle it. I would love to turn this over to the police. I would love for April to go to jail for this, if nothing else. I mean, this is a lot of money. We’re talking grand larceny. That’s a felony.
But at the same time, I’m afraid of the scandal. The PTA has been my life for the last few years. If people found out that money was being stolen, we’re never going to be able to raise money again in the future. My best bet is to try to get the money back and sweep it under the rug.
I have to confront April.
The next morning, after Leo returns to school, I call April into my office at school to talk to her about the silent auction. My heart is thudding so loudly, April must be able to hear it. She has to know how terrified I am of her.
And now I’m going to confront her for the first time. I have no idea how she’s going to take it.
She doesn’t even look nervous when she sits down across from me at the conference table. April is never nervous. Not really. She sometimes tells people she’s nervous about this or that, but she isn’t really. I wonder if she ever feels any real human emotions or if she’s faking everything.
“Sit down,” I tell her. “No ‘please’?”
There’s an edge to her voice that makes a chill go down my spine. I lift my eyes and her own eyes are boring into me. Do I really want to do this?
I take a deep breath. Be brave, Julie. You’ve brought down worse people than her. “I was looking at the app you used to record the bids and accept money into the PTA fund. And I noticed that there was a second account recorded. That a percentage of the money was being filtered into an account that wasn’t related to the school.”
She blinks innocently. “What do you mean?”
Okay, she’s going to play dumb. “I mean, somebody created another bank account that’s been stealing money from the silent auction that was supposed to have been going to the PTA.”
She clamps a hand over her mouth. “Oh my God. Who would do something like that?”
But of course, she knows. And she knows I know. She’s still going to make me play this game though.
“You,” I say. “You did it.”
“Julie, I would never do that.” She reaches out and before I can yank my hand away, her hand is on mine. “You know you can trust me.”
Her hand is gripping mine, applying an uncomfortable pressure. I take another deep breath and yank my hand away. “I’m sorry. But I know you did it.”
“But—” Her eyes light up. “Maria! She and I were working on the silent auction together! She also had access to the account.”
“It wasn’t Maria.”
I can see the wheels turning in her brain. “Maria is the one who told you to look at the account, didn’t she?”
Oh God. She must have seen that burner phone in Maria’s purse, and now she thinks Maria is the one tormenting her. I can’t let her believe that. “I received an anonymous text message telling me to look into it,” I lie.
April’s face turns pink. This might be the first time I’ve ever seen her lose her composure. “Look,” she says, “Maria set me up. She created this false account, then she ‘discovered’ it. And now it looks like I’ve been stealing money! But you have to know, I would never do something like that.”
“April…”
“Maria is evil!” she cries. “She’s been tormenting me for months by sending me threatening text messages.”
My stomach sinks. She’s convinced Maria is the one doing this to her. This isn’t good. Especially since I know what April is capable of. “How do you know?”
“I just do.”
“What sort of text messages? Can I see?”
April sits there a moment, quietly gnawing on her thumbnail. Finally, she says, “I deleted them.”
And then I feel a rush of relief. She has nothing on me. Nothing on Maria. She’s too scared of her secrets coming out. “That’s unfortunate,” I say.
“You’ve known me for years! You really believe her over me?” “Listen, April.” I use my courtroom voice—no emotion. “I’m not
going to turn this matter over to the police, but I expect you to return the money. If you don’t, well, then it will be a police matter.”
Her eyes fill with tears. Is it all an act? I can’t tell with April. But I’ve shaken her. I hope she returns the money so I don’t have to go to the police. “Julie.” She stares across the table at me. “This is a huge mistake.
Believe me.”
I get that chill down my spine again. I wonder if she’s right. Maybe I’m making a mistake by crossing her. But I have to take the chance.
I can’t let her get away with it anymore.
