Before he knew what he was doing, Ian was back in the car and driving to the station. Several people greeted him by name on his way past. Marissa stood next to the water cooler, making herself a cup of coffee. He walked up to her and poured himselfa generous amount. When Marissa twisted to face him, she gave him a knowing look.
“Don’t start. I had nowhere else to go, okay?”
Marissa lifted the Styrofoam cup to her lips. “You have the morning after Thanksgiving off. You should be spending it at home with your family.”
Ian’s coffee was bitter, and it burned the tip of his tongue. “I was. I even took Lucy out Christmas shopping, and we ran into my grandparents and uncle.”
Marissa raised an eyebrow. “And you still ended up here? Railings, you need a life.”
“I have one,” Ian protested, pausing to follow her to her desk. He pulled his chair out and sat down. “I just don’t like not knowing what to do with my time.”
Marissa set down her cup and straightened her back. “It’s called relaxing. You should try it.”
Ian scowled at her.
His phone rang, interrupting the rest of her sentence. He fished it out of his pocket and immediately sat up straighter when Bryce’s name flashed across the screen.
“I was going to call you earlier, but it was Thanksgiving.”
“It’s okay. Did you find anything?”
“I’m emailing you some documents I found. I’ve spent the past few days going through all of my dad’s files, and I think I found some of the evidence they were going to use.”
Ian wedged the phone between his ear and shoulder. His knee bounced up and down while he waited for the computer to start. “Some? You couldn’t find everything?”
“I’m not sure if this is everything,” Bryce replied after a brief pause. “But I figured it’s better than nothing.”
Ian’s screen came to life, and he reached for the mouse. “It’s got to be, but is it going to be enough?”
Bryce blew out a breath, and Ian could hear the strain in his voice. “Honestly? I’m not sure it’s going to be. If this was the smoking gun my dad had, then I guess he was hoping to scare Eric with it. During a trial, I’m not sure this would be enough.”
Ian frowned and fixed his gaze on the screen. After logging into his email, he leaned forward and waited for the page to load. Next to him, Marissa was muttering to herself and peeking over at him.
His stomach tightened when he saw the unread email in his inbox. Sweat formed on the back of his neck and palms.
His heart was pounding against his ears as he opened the document and waited.
Ian’s shoulders sagged, and he ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not going to lie; I was hoping for a lot more.”
“I’ll keep digging, but I thought this could be a good place to start. There’s got to be more, and if we managed to uncover this, I could probably find out more today.”
“If he hasn’t covered his tracks,” Ian muttered under his breath. “Okay, keep looking anyway, and let me know as soon as you find anything.”
“Will do. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving.”
Bryce paused. “You too.”
With that, the line went dead, and Ian was left with a bad taste in the back of his mouth. He tossed his phone onto the desk and pressed two fingers to his temples. Rubbing in slow, circular motions, he eyed Marissa out of the corner of his eye as she skimmed through the evidence.
Once she was done, she leaned back in her chair and let out a low whistle. “Yeah, I think your PI is right. This isn’t going to be enough to put Eric Taylor away. It’s barely enough to tie him to anything.”
Ian pointed a finger at the screen. “It ties him to evidence of fraud, bribery, jury tampering.”
“Yeah, but nothing concrete.” Marissa shook her head and frowned. “I’m sorry, E. I know it’s not what you want to hear.”
Ian opened his mouth to respond, and his phone rang again.
“Somebody’s popular today,” Marissa joked, despite the concern written across her face. “Want me to get that?”
