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Without looking up, she asked, “Who did what?”
    “Tubby Tom.”   Sam was referring to Tom Mullings from IT.  He was wearing black slacks and a light blue dress shirt tucked into his pants and the buttons over his belly looked as if they were ready to pop. 
    “Uh huh, and what did he do? ” Maggie coaxed for her to continue.
    “Steal that Snickers candy bar out of Sandy’s desk drawer.  She had been looking for it since I met her.”  Sandy Frisk was from Accounting.  Sam found that she was a very smart woman who had a degree in Biology but worked in Accounting.  She had told Sam that she hated being in a lab all day and being surrounded by nothing but petri dishes and microscopes.  So she used her minor degree and started doing accounting work which she enjoyed a lot more.
    Sam couldn’t say the same thing.  Sam didn’t exactly hate accounting but she definitely didn’t prefer it.  But with her taking this job, she’ll have to bite her tongue and do a good job if she wanted that paycheck, and perhaps the chance to build a name for herself (not that she didn’t have a name and that people weren’t familiar with her).  But she preferred that people knew her from her profession, a profession where she went to school for five years and earned her degree to snoop around other people’s business (but secretly).
    Maggie snickered and still hadn’t looked up, her thumbs pressing away as if she were either searching something or writing a photography book on her phone.  
    “Give it up, Sam.  It’s long gone by now.  There’s nothing you can do, there’s nothing Sandy can do.  Plus, the Snickers isn’t worth the potential headache.  Why are you worried about it?  By the way, tell me again how you gave him his nickname.”
    “You see that tub-of-gut he has?  Isn’t it obvious?  Plus, he still has chocolate at the corner of his mouth.  If you’re going to steal something, at least wipe off all of the evidence.”
    Maggie lifted her head and finally glanced up, looking over to Tom.  “Man, you can see that from here?  I can’t see anything.  And his belly isn’t that bad.  It’s more like… like a medium Buddha belly, if you want to call it anything.”
    Sam rolled her eyes.  “Whatever.”
                  After a beat, Maggie asked, ”Did you know that Princess Kate is pregnant?  And that her baby is due in July, practically any day now?  We’re about to have a royal baby!”
    “Way to use your pertinent PI skills, Maggie.  I’m trying to focus on our pool of suspects here if you don’t mind.  Plus, she already had the baby last month,” Sam murmured as she continue to scan through the crowds looking for any tell that could possibly give away anyone’s fault.
    “She did?  Man, this news is old!” she snickered as Sam continued scanning.
    There was loud chatter among groups throughout the conference room.  There were a group of women (whose names Sam couldn’t remember), who were talking about hair and make-up artists and how much they could make if they change their profession from what they did now to that.  Another group were gossiping about a husband cheating on his wife, another wife cheating on her husband, and another husband and wife cheating on theirs with each other.  Sam never realized that infidelity rates would run so high in a small town.  But then again, it sort of made sense to her.  A small group of men were discuss the baseball game that happened to be on last night regarding the Houston Astros and the New York Mets.  Sam caught the last inning of the game.  The Astros lost.  Bad.
    Sam was curious.  Of every gossip she heard all day regarding the announcement, she wasn’t sure which was true.  Some said that there would be pay raises, some said there would be lay-offs, and some said there would be bonuses.  It could be a number of reasons, but Sam didn’t think it had anything to do with that. 
    She wasn’t completely sure,