Likely Suspects (17 page)

“It was a crazy night.
I was three sheets to the wind. It was an office party. Things got a little out of hand. I don’t know what she does or doesn’t have. It’s been years.” He emphasized the years.

“
Did she ever try to extort you? Why did you keep her at the company?”

“
It was never anything that sordid, and I couldn’t just fire her. She was a reliable worker, not to mention the potential sexual harassment lawsuit. Hell, she could have sued me if she wanted, but we let it go, I thought. Let bygones be bygones. She got transferred to executive personal assistant to the Board. Her office is still on the top floor, but she works for all the board members and is in charge of the other assistants.”

“That’s it?”
I was unsure if there was anything else to the story or anything else he had failed to disclose.

“That’s it.
I treat her just like any other assistant. I don’t ask for anything special. Most of the time, I get one of the temps to fill in if I need an assistant for something. When I hired you, she just happened to be the only one in the office to make the call.” I resisted the urge to bust his balls over how easy it is to make a phone call.

“Ever hear a
ny rumors about her with Denton or any of the other board members?” Before he could answer, my phone rang again. We both turned toward the intrusion. “Hello?” I asked, not checking the name.

“Hello, Alexis. Please don’t hang up,” the last voice I expected to hear responded. I turned and headed for the stairs, looking for some privacy.

“I’m listening,” I re
plied, trying very hard to keep my tone neutral.

“I just wante
d to personally apologize for my egregious behavior last night,” Denton sounded remorseful. “I don’t know what came over me, but I was completely out of line. I hope you can forgive me.” I made it up to my room and shut the door.

“Okay.”
I didn’t know why he was calling, and I was apt to let him do most of the talking.

“
Let me try to make it up to you. Perhaps you and James would like to meet for dinner, my treat. Or drinks? Coffee? Anything? I’m so ashamed.” Denton was laying it on thick. He was scared he’d be removed from his position as acting-CEO.

“James has a fairly busy schedule,” I
responded. My mind was racing. I still wanted answers about his connection to Griffin and if he knew anything about the money. “But I’d be willing to meet for a quick cup of coffee.” The thought of seeing that slime made my skin crawl; I must have caught this affliction from Martin.

“Really?”
He sounded overly enthused. “That would be great. Just name the time and place.”

“Coffee shop on
Third in,” I glanced at my watch, “thirty minutes?” He was still on the clock, but a quick coffee break wouldn’t hurt.

“You’ve got it.
See you there.”

I hung up the phone,
grabbed my purse, slipped my smaller caliber back-up handgun into it, along with my MT ID card, and grabbed my keys. I went back downstairs to find Martin still standing where I left him.

“I have
to go,” I said, looking around the room but not really at him. “Here.” I pointed out the nine millimeter still in my shoulder holster, resting on the end table. “In case of anything, remember point and shoot, just like a camera. Call the police first, then me.”

“Where are you going?” he asked
, confused and somewhat suspicious.

“I have a
semi-personal matter to take care of.” I was being intentionally vague and lying outright to him. “I should be back soon. Just stay put in the meantime.” I tried to leave, but he grabbed my arm.

Spinning around, I confronted him, un
sure of what my face reflected. It might have been anger, defiance, or hurt, but he let me go without another word. I went down the stairs, retrieved my car, and headed toward Third Street.

During t
he drive, I tried to figure out what I should say or do. I wanted to confront Denton, but I didn’t want to risk tipping him off either. Finally, I decided to just play it by ear as I pulled into a parking spot and tossed a few coins in the meter. Inside, Denton was already seated at a table.

“
Alexis, I’m really glad you agreed to meet me.” He was being too polite.

“Mr. Denton.
” He was still wearing his sunglasses, and I wondered if he had a black eye or maybe just a bruise across his cheekbone.

A waitress walked past and asked if we
were ready to order. I requested a regular coffee, as did Denton. He sat back against the chair and removed his sunglasses.

“You might want
to put some ice on that,” I suggested, hiding my internal cheering masterfully. He tried to smile but winced.

“I definitely deserved this.
” He indicated his bruised cheek. “I can’t excuse my behavior, but I’ve hit a rough patch lately. Yesterday might have been my rock bottom. I told you about my girlfriend leaving. And then this opportunity James gave me, it’s amazing, but I’m so apprehensive about screwing it up.” He considered his words for a moment. “I drank a bit too much and jumped to the wrong conclusions, and for that, I am deeply sorry.”

“
Well, you know the old adage about assuming things.” I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with this, so I started with the simplest question I could come up with. “What was your girlfriend’s name?” Getting him talking would hopefully lead to more information.

“
Jill.” I thought back, positive he had said the same thing last night. At least he was consistent. “I thought we were going to get engaged, but…well, things happen.”

“Yeah.
” I tried to figure out how to get onto the subject of work and how personal he might be with the assistants.

“H
ave you and James made any travel plans or anything? You both should enjoy your time off as much as possible.” He was trying to make polite conversation. The waitress brought our coffees and retreated into the kitchen.

“Not yet, you know James, has to make sure everything is working perfectly before he c
an relax. You’re the lucky one.” I tried to appear friendly, even though I was fighting the overwhelming urge to throw my hot coffee in his face. Don’t be vengeful, Parker, my internal voice insisted.

“How so?”
He seemed clueless, and I saw my opening.

“Y
ou have the help of Mrs. Griffin and all the other assistants. You have an entire staff of people working under you while I’m stuck at home, simultaneously trying to be travel agent, assistant, and significant other.” I was over-embellishing, but hopefully, he’d latch on to the bait.

“
I didn’t think of that.” He leaned forward and gave my hand a friendly pat. I noticed his watch encrusted with diamonds. That must have cost a pretty penny. “If you want, I can have someone work on your travel plans for you.”

“It’s okay.
” I resisted the urge to jerk my hand away and instead forced a small smile onto my face.

“
If there is anything you or James need, please don’t hesitate to ask. I owe him for this opportunity, and I still need to make amends with you. Tell me how I can make it right.” He was being self-deprecating and contrite.

“Thanks for the offer.
” I tried to change topics and find another way to get back on the subject of Griffin. “Is everything more or less back to normal at work today? You know, after the explosion on Thursday.”

“Yeah, MT is
a tight ship.” He assumed, albeit incorrectly, Martin asked that I inquire about this. “You can tell James I’ve got it under control.”

“And everyone is back to work then?
Well, with the two obvious exceptions, of course.”

“I think everyone is back, a
t least as far as I know. HR didn’t report an abnormal amount of call-ins or absentees.” He glanced at his watch which he seemed to be doing quite often. He was probably ready to get back to work, or maybe he was hypnotized by the shimmer from the diamonds.

“Have you seen Mrs. Griffin?
She must be lonely on the seventeenth floor all alone. I haven’t seen her since Thursday morning and never got a chance to tell her we weren’t going to be in for,” my voice trailed off, “a while.”

“
I was talking to her today. She’s doing fine, moved down to some extra offices on the fifteenth in order to help me out.” He seemed pleased by this.

B
efore I could continue, my phone rang. This time it was Mark. “Sorry, I have to take this.”

“Hi, honey,”
I greeted, trying to imply it was Martin.

“Alex?” he asked
as if I had lost my damn mind, which maybe I had. “It’s Mark.”

“Of c
ourse. Did you find what you were looking for?”

Mark still seemed
confused by my part of the conversation but understood enough to realize something was up. “If you’re in danger, name a type of fruit.” I waited. “Fine, you aren’t in danger, but you can’t talk I take it.”

“Very good, dear.”
I wanted him to get on with it. “So did you find it or not?”

“
Anita got the trace. The blocked calls were coming from the MT offices. We got the extension, 325. Any idea who it belongs to?”

“I’ll have to check, but
I’ll be home soon. Go ahead and start dinner without me.” I waited, positive he was still puzzled by my odd conversation. “Love you, too. Bye.” I clicked end call as Denton watched me intently. “I swear I don’t see how he ever managed to survive without me,” I said in an exasperated tone. I thought about trying to broach the subject of Mrs. Griffin again, but I didn’t want to raise suspicion. Also, I needed to get a running start on extension 325. It would be best to make a clean escape. I had left Martin and needed to go back and patch things up. “I should head out. Thanks for apologizing in person. You’ll do just fine as acting-CEO.” Denton stood as I slid out of the booth.

“You take car
e of yourself.” He gave me a friendly hug, but there was something about his tone that made me cringe. I pulled away as quickly as possible, exiting the coffee shop. I had just gotten inside my car when my phone rang again.

“Where the hell are you?” Martin asked.
I wasn’t sure if he was angry or concerned.

“
I had something to do.” Mark probably phoned him to make sure everything was all right.

“Are you okay?
Mark called, and he was worried.” At least I knew my gut instincts still worked.

“I’m fine.
Do you know who uses extension 325 at work?”

“
It’s no one’s. It’s a phone in one of the empty offices.” Great, anyone could have made the call.

“Alex,” he sounded
anxious. I heard the sound of him clicking buttons on his phone as if reading a text message. “Where are you?” I put the key in the ignition and drove away from the coffee shop. Conceivably, now would be a good time for full disclosure.

“I went to gath
er some information from Denton, and we stopped to get coffee.” I waited for a response. When none came, I continued. “I didn’t mean to leave you like that, but I just wanted to get some answers.” There was an awkward pause over the line. “Do you want me to pick anything up for dinner?” I tried to show my remorse with a peace offering.

“No.”
There was silence on the phone. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you would have wanted to come, or you wouldn’t have wanted me to go.”
This was started to sound a lot like a conversation an actual couple would be having. “I wanted to see if I could get anything out of him about some persons of interest and thought it’d be easier solo.” Suzanne the Slut could be left out of the details.

“Did you?”

“Nothing earth shattering.
Oh, Denton wants you to know he has it under control.”

“His drinking
or his harassing my security?” he asked bitterly.

“I think he meant
your company, but at least, at the present, the drinking and the sexual harassment are both under control.” I was being a bit callous. Stop it, Parker.

“
Good to know.” His voice still sounded off. “Are you on your way back now?”

“
Yes, ten minutes or so.” We were both being mechanical in our speech. There was another uncomfortable break in the conversation.

“I need to know
I can trust you,” he said quietly.

“Yo
u don’t think you can?” My voice remained calm, but I was getting defensive. There was another painful pause.

“I think
maybe you need to get back here.” Martin hung up the phone.

Accelerating, I headed straight for his compound. Something wasn’t right. I didn’t believe for a moment he didn’t trust me, not after everything that had already happened, so there was just one possibility left. Something was wrong. I thought about calling Mark back or maybe O’Connell, but it would have been premature. I didn’t know the situation. I turned on to the private road and slowed the engine, creeping up to the compound while keeping a constant eye out for any vehicles or signs of movement through the trees, but nothing was there. I used the remote access to open the garage door and pulled my car inside. Everything still seemed normal. Parking my car, I opened my purse and took out the gun. I walked slowly up the stairs and opened the door.

“Martin?” I called, half-
expecting to find an assault team in the living room.

“I’m in the office.
” My nine millimeter was still in the holster on the table, having never been touched. Walking slowly down the hallway, I pinned myself against the walls as I went, just in case I were to encounter any problems.

“Are you alone?”
Granted if he wasn’t, I would have expected him to be forced to say he was.

“Of co
urse.” He emerged from the room, unaccompanied. Automatically, I raised my gun, and he looked at me like I was crazy. “There’s no one here. Just me.” I pushed past him and checked inside the office before lowering my weapon and putting the safety back on.

“So what was–
” I stopped. Did my leaving actually cause him to question my loyalty? Did he really not trust me? “What’s happened? What’s wrong?”