Steve Clairborne stretched his long arms up over his head and yawned. Another morning of tedious audit work had at last gone by the wayside. “How ‘bout lunch, guys?” the pencil-thin, red-topped young man asked. As senior accountant in charge of the audit staff, he set the pace.

“Let’s do it!” Shel Jonas yelped, slamming his pencil down onto his desk. The rotund first-year staff assistant liked his food.

Tro Nguyen and Steve laughed. Anything to break the tension of the grueling ten-hour workdays that were the norm for public accounting staffs at their clients’ businesses during the fiscal year-end ‘busy season’. Cynthia Kirwan, a born accountant in both appearance and attitude, didn’t share in the laughter.

Tro carefully placed the gold-trimmed mechanical pencil his parents had given him as a university graduation present down on his desk. “You can lock up the room, can’t you, Steve?” he asked.