Canyon of the Sphinx Read Online Free PDF Page A

daughter Eden
in her arms, came rushing in after them to break up the fight.  All Marcus had
to do was snap his fingers and the boys immediately stopped tussling. Even at
two years of age, they had learned, wisely, to respect and fear their father.
Marcus held out an open hand and Ethan, knowing exactly what his father meant,
begrudgingly plopped the toy into the massive palm.
     "Who had it first?" he
asked.
    The boys looked at each other a
moment before pretending they weren't really interested in the truck after all.
The laptop computer and shredder were much more interesting. The baby began to
whimper when she saw Kathlyn and the nanny put her in her mother's lap. 
Kathlyn kissed the dark head and cradled her daughter.
    While the rambunctious sandy-haired
boys resembled their mother, the baby was clearly Marcus’ image with her dark
hair and cobalt blue eyes. Marcus watched Kathlyn with the baby, knowing how
hard it was on her to have to leave the children. He put his hand on the back
of her head to comfort her, his mind moving between his wife's departure and
his father's health. The twins rushed up to him, a pen in hand, wanting some
paper to write with. For their age, they communicated quite well and Marcus
found a couple of piece of scrap paper and a few high-lighter pens for them. Eden,
seeing that her brothers had fun things to play with, wriggled off her mother's
lap and went to see what the fuss was all about.
    The nanny was astute enough to
leave them alone for the precious remaining time they had left until Kathlyn
left. After leaving a message for her mother, Kathlyn spent the rest of the
afternoon with the children, drawing, playing with trucks or whatever else
captured their fancy. Jensen was set up in the VIP tent as an office, but she
wandered in several times during the course of the afternoon with questions for
Marcus. She was very respectful, apparently more fearful of the kids than interested
in them. Marcus wasn't in the greatest mood, contributing to her timid manner.
After her fourth visit, Kathlyn didn't see her again until sundown.
    "Dr. Burton," Jensen
stood outside the tent. "Are you busy?"
    Marcus was sitting at his desk
with Ethan on his lap. They were playing a preschool computer game together.
"Come on in."
    Jensen entered timidly, glasses
on her nose and a collection of paper in her hand. "Sorry to bother you
again," she said. "But I seem to have run across a problem."
    Kathlyn lay on the futon with the
baby on her chest, not paying much attention to Jensen. The woman put the
papers in front of Marcus.
    "I was going through the
year end totals for last year and for some reason, there are some confusing
expense reports."
    Marcus peered at the paperwork. "How
so?"
    Jensen pointed to a few lines on
the spreadsheet, highlighted with gray shading. "Over one hundred thousand
dollars has been paid out in expenses for things that I found questionable. So
I did a little digging."
    "And?"
    Jensen pulled out a sheet of
paper from her small stack. "I have some expense reports here," she
said quietly. "I just pulled them out randomly, from the files. Expenses
like a color printer and an exchange server. Sound familiar?"
    "No."
    "I'm not surprised. I can't
find any records of the purchase, no receipts, no requisition or purchase
orders, not even the equipment itself. Does an archaeological site really need
an exchange server?"
    Kathlyn was listening at this
point. "Of course not. Who signed the expense reports?"
    "You did, Dr. Trent."
    Kathlyn sat up, holding out her
hand. Jensen gave her the paperwork. Kathlyn scrutinized the document, her gaze
lingering on the signature at the bottom. "I would have never signed for
something like this," she said. "But it's my signature, no doubt
about it."
    Marcus put Ethan down. He began
pouring over the documents that Jensen had put on his desk. "I've never
seen this stuff before," he said. "It's all sorts of expense reports
for things we don't even use around here;