Outlast the Night Read Online Free PDF

and document it so everything adds up at the end of the year,” Sam said.
    “Yeah,” Caine said. “Just that. I have a degree in business. That was supposed to be useful.”
    “I’m sure it is,” Sam said, “but you got it at an American uni. If you were running the station over there, you’d know exactly what to do. I’ll bet we can get it sorted in a few days. I had to do payroll and taxes for the Smiths when I ran the office at their shop. The scale is different here, but one employee or fifty or five hundred, you still have to pay them, deduct payroll taxes, and track benefits.”
    “Yes, and then there’s deductions for supplies and all the rest,” Caine said. “I know what would be deductible as a business expense back in the US, but not everything is the same. Every time I think I’ve got it figured out, I read something else and decide I don’t understand it at all.”
    Sam finished the last of his eggs and picked up his coffee cup. The conversation had bolstered his courage. This might be a job interview, but Neil was right. Caine wasn’t looking to trip him up. “Let’s take a look, shall we?”
    “Just let me refill my coffee.”
    Caine poured himself another cup of coffee and then led Sam into his office in the station house. For all that the building itself spoke of the age of the station, the interior of Caine’s office was every bit as modern as anything Sam had seen in Melbourne.
    “Nice place you got here,” Sam commented.
    Caine shrugged. “Uncle Michael still did everything in ledgers, although Macklin made him start using a computer the last few years, when his handwriting got illegible. I wasn’t even going to try using his ledgers, and his computer was so out of date that it was almost as bad. I figured if I was going to spend the money to update the office, I might as well update it completely and then I wouldn’t have to do it again anytime soon.”
    “Makes sense to me,” Sam said. “It’ll make my life easier too, so I’m not about to complain. Want to show me what you’ve got?”
    Caine turned on the computer and angled the monitor so Sam could see as well. He pulled up the payroll records. “See, here’s the problem,” he said. “We pay them on a monthly basis, but we only employ them eight months of the year, so I’m pretty sure we’re taking out too much in taxes, but I can’t figure out the formula for the right amount.”
    Sam smiled. He could do this.
     
     
    “J EREMY , Neil’s gone with a couple others to bring a mob in from the north paddock, but there’s another mob to the south. I’ve got bodies but no one with experience except Jesse, and he doesn’t have a dog of his own,” Macklin said.
    “And bad weather is heading this way,” Jeremy said, looking toward the highlands.”
    “Exactly. Will you go with Jesse? Technically he’s in charge, but mostly because he knows where the sheep are.”
    “Yeah,” Jeremy said. “I’ll be his backup.”
    Jeremy whistled for Arrow and crossed the station to the paddock behind the breeding sheds where they kept the station’s horses. A group of men had gathered, including the one Jeremy was looking for. “Harris?”
    “Yeah, you riding with us today?”
    “Macklin asked me to, yes,” Jeremy said neutrally.
    “Well, saddle up. Daylight’s wasting.”
    Jeremy hid the relief he felt at Harris’s words. He’d met with such hostility from so many quarters since his arrival that he’d started to expect the worst. Harris, at least, didn’t seem bothered by his presence.
    “I don’t know the station’s stock. Got a suggestion which one I should ride?”
    “Any of them except Ned,” Harris said, indicating a big sorrel gelding. “That one’s Macklin’s, and I’ve never seen anyone else even stay on him.”
    From Emery, that would have been thrown out as a challenge, but Harris apparently intended it as a simple statement of fact.
    “Then I’d better pick a different one,” Jeremy said