Chapters (62)
- Cover
- A PENNY
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- A Sample Chapter of Don’t Take Any Wooden Nickels
- About the Author
- Other Books by Mindy Starns Clark
- About the Publisher
“By the time Wendell got back here, he’d had a lot of time to think about things. He knew that if sneaky stuff was happening in his company, he was partly at fault because he’d been so consumed with his health that he hadn’t paid much attention to the business lately. He became obsessed with finding out exactly what was going on.”
“What did he find out?”
“That things were even worse than he thought. Five district offices had been closed. Three of the buildings had already been sold. Fifteen people had been laid off from the staff here. All sorts of things to cut costs, right under his nose. Derek was as clueless as his father. In fact, he’s still clueless, as far as I know.”
I thought about Derek, so consumed with the problems in his marriage that he didn’t even see his company was being robbed blind. Suddenly, an idea began to form in my mind. Perhaps Judith had done all of those acts of vandalism against Sidra not out of some demented fury, but as a cold, calculated way to distract her brother from what was going on at his company.
“Had this been a regular business,” Gwen said, standing so that she could pace back and forth, “heads would’ve rolled. Wendell could’ve tracked down the source of the problem and dealt with it swiftly and severely.”
“But…”
“But this was Feed the Need, Callie. This was a nonprofit. You can’t just announce to the world that people have been stealing money here. It takes years to build up the public’s trust and the efforts of thousands of people to make an organization like this work.”
“I know, but—”
“Understand something, Callie. Until this happened, our record was exemplary. We belong to different watchdog groups, and we’ve met all of the criteria, passed every screening with flying colors. When Wendell realized what was going on, he had a very difficult choice to make. Either he could blow the whistle and destroy the efforts of everyone just because of the destructive acts of a few individuals, or he could deal with it in his own way, quietly: Replace the money, repair the damage, eliminate the troublemakers, and keep our agency’s reputation intact. He was doing the right thing. He just didn’t have a chance to finish it.”