I wish I was the one asking the questions here, but I doubt that would look good since Paul already suspects Devin and I are an item. Grilling him about a package she received with his prints on it would not diminish his suspicions at all.
“It was on the floor in front of the reception desk when I stepped off the elevator. I picked it up, and seeing it was addressed to Ms. Miller, I was going to drop it off to her on the way to my office, but I saw Crystal doing her morning pickup, so I handed it off to her. Am I missing something? All I did was pick up a dropped package and hand it to Crystal to be delivered.”
If his story is true, where the hell did the package come from?
“No. You’re fine, Paul,” Madison assures him, knowing we can’t accuse him of anything without more proof. “We just had an issue with the contents of the envelope and needed to identify where it came from. Thank you for your help.”
Paul’s displeasure with being questioned is evident as he exits the office with a huff while grumbling to himself.
The moment the door closes, Devin stands from the sofa irate. “None of you believe that shit, do you?”
Madison answers before I get the chance to say anything. “It’s easy enough to fact-check. We can check the cameras in the lobby and see if he did indeed pick up the envelope as he said.” Her voice is soft and placating. “We can’t accuse him of lying without proof, Devin. I understand how all of this affects you, but if it winds up being someone else, you don’t want to have Paul going to HR with a harassment claim.”
“You can also see where it came from in the first place,” Veronica adds.
Devin’s shoulders drop, and she deflates onto the sofa. “This is so fucked up.”
“Call your IT department and have them forward the video feed from Friday, as well as the day before,” Veronica says as she stands from her chair and packs her things up. “I’ll have my guys go through and see what they can find from Mr. Atler’s story. Until then, sit tight.”
Sit tight? Does she know what this is doing to Devin? There’s no way she can sit tight even if I tied her to the fucking chair.
“There has to be something else we can do in the meantime to try and fight this battle,” I respond, not liking the idea of sitting around with my thumb up my ass while someone is actively trying to sabotage Devin and me—not that I give two shits about myself at this point. “We can’t sit around waiting for the next bomb to drop.”
“There’s nothing for you to do, Sebastian,” Veronica explains. “I’m working on getting my guy here for the printers, as well as Mario, my audio guy, to sweep for cameras and bugs in your offices.”
Madison and Devin look around the office with frantic eyes at the mention of bugs.
“You really think someone could have put a bug and a camera in the offices? We’re meeting in here right now, so how does that help us? If there is a bug, they’re going to know we’re checking for them and our entire game plan. What the hell were you thinking, Veronica?” I stand, knocking my chair back, pissed off as hell.
How could she be so dumb? She clearly knew she was going to sweep the office for wires, so why the hell did she decide to have this too-important-for-a-phone-call meeting inside my fucking office?
It defeats the purpose entirely.
Veronica digs into her back and pulls out a small black box.
“This is called an audio scrambler, and it’s the reason I felt comfortable enough to have the meeting inside of your office and not over the phone, Sebastian.”
She moves toward me, handing over the audio scrambler, and I look it over before handing it back. “Is this foolproof?”
“Yes. This will jam up any listening device within this block. I only buy top of the line when it comes to electronics. No one will hear a word being said when there’s one of these around. I actually carry one in my bag at all times, even if there isn’t a real reason for it. Call me paranoid, but it comes with the job.” She winks at me before getting back to scheduling. “I may be able to get my printer guy in here tonight, after hours, if that’s possible.”
“We can arrange that,” Madison says.
Veronica grabs her briefcase. “Perfect.”
A knock on the door has us all turning our heads in that direction. In the midst of our stare, the door opens, and Crystal pops her head inside. “Hi, Mr. Brooks.”
“Crystal.”
“I’m so sorry. I hope I’m not interrupting.”
“It’s fine.”
She steps inside, holding a manila envelope that stands out amongst the normal interoffice mail, and as she holds it out toward me, my lungs constrict with nerves.
“I would typically deliver this in the afternoon with everything else, like usual, except it’s marked as urgent, and you know company policy.” Her voice trails off.
Taking the envelope from her, I nod, hurrying her along. “It’s no problem. Thank you, Crystal.”
