Peter was on another of his two hour "breaks" when I decided that

I'd close out his register early to make the Steve/Twins shift a

little easier.

I left Heather to run things while I counted him out.

The drawer was short.

My first thought was that Peter was lifting the money for his

"breaks," but he'd always been bad on the register. There were

always a dozen or more over-rings per shift.

I searched the tape and found what looked like a couple of

mistakes, mostly wrong key presses when making change.

Then it hit me.

Steve was taking money from the twins to balance out Peter's

drawer and blaming the shortages on them.

A quick scan of the past receipts containing shortages confirmed

it for me.

Peter had always worked the afternoon shift before the twins.

Steve had always closed.

*****

"The twins are a couple of stupid kids," said Steve, when I asked

him and Peter about it. "It's wrong of you to blame Peter for

their screw-ups."

"I may have made a mistake, Steve," mumbled Peter, who'd

immediately locked eyes with Steve when I asked about the

shortages.

"Whenever I count your drawers, Peter, they're correct. To the

penny. End of discussion."

"You're sure you never counted wrong?" I asked, watching the two

men stare bullets at each other.

Steve pointed a finger at me. "End of discussion."

*****

Brian and Kevin called me at home that night. Steve fired

them after closing when their drawers came up "short."

"He's a fucking asshole," said Brian. "Even if he is your kid and

all."

I couldn't disagree with him. There was too much evidence against

him-- my "son."

*****

I sat down and wrote them each a severance check and a letter of

recommendation.

If Steve and Barbra wanted to clear out all of the good people

that I hired, let them pay for it.

I didn't give a shit anymore.