Clean Books

"e;Trust is the residue of promises fulfilled."e;For chef Greer Rafferty, control is everything. She runs the kitchen of her acclaimed New Jersey restaurant, The Brick & Basil, with mathematical precision—counting everything from the tiles on her ceiling to the knives on her magnetic strip. But her carefully ordered world shatters when her trusted accountant, Elliot Sanger, vanishes without a trace.Elliot didn't just disappear; he left behind a meticulously constructed ghost business in Greer's name, defrauding the IRS out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. With federal agents sitting in her dining room and her ex-husband threatening to take custody of their twelve-year-old daughter, Greer is forced to investigate the financial wreckage of her own life.As she digs into the restaurant's pristine books, she discovers a phantom vendor scheme siphoning money directly from her operating account. But the payment timeline reveals a terrifying discrepancy: the fraud began before her accountant even arrived. The chilling realization sets in—the architect of her ruin isn't a fugitive CPA. It's Nola Kessler, her charismatic business partner, her closest confidante, and the woman pouring her espresso every morning.