by Iona Rose
The elevator comes and I get in. Thankfully, I’m alone, because the tears start to pour down my face. I wipe them away angrily, but they keep coming. I give up trying to wipe them away and instead, I just stand ramrod straight, starting at the doors until I reach the ground floor and they ping open. I step into the lobby and practically run across it. Half blinded by tears, I collide with someone in the doorway.
“Sorry,” I mumble, stepping to one side.
“Elena?” I look up and see Jess. She’s looking at me in concern. “Let’s walk.”
She turns and walks out of the building with me. I don’t want to have to try and explain any of this to her, but I am glad to have someone walking beside me as I rush to my car, not looking up from the pavement.
Jess walks right to my car with me, and when I unlock it, she gets into the passenger seat uninvited.
I sigh and get in. “I just want to go home Jess,” I say.
“I saw the email,” she says, ignoring my statement. “I was just on my way up to your office to talk to you and make sure you were okay.”
“Do I look ok?” I snap.
She shakes her head.
I sigh again. “I’m sorry. It’s not your fault and I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Especially, considering you’re the only person who has actually spoken directly to me since the email went out. Well except Ashton, but I’m barely thinking of him as a person right now.”
“Elena, you don’t honestly think Ashton did this do you?” Jess asks.
“Well, yeah!” I exclaim. “Who else can it have been? The photos only went to him and the email came from his account, which he admitted no one else has access to.”
“Someone could have gotten their hands on his phone or used his computer,” she suggests. “And you know you can schedule an email to go out at a later time right? So it wouldn’t necessarily matter whether Ashton was at his computer at the time of the email going out or not.”
“Ok, I didn’t think of that,” I admit. “But at the end of the day, I only sent those pictures to him. Even if he didn’t send the email, he passed those pictures on to someone else. God, I’m so fucking stupid.”
“You’re far from stupid,” Jess says. “And anyone with eyes knows there was nothing unsolicited about this. Ashton is crazy about you, and everyone can see it.”
“He’s just a good actor, Jess,” I say.
“No one is that good an actor,” Jess insists. “Look, I get how this looks, but Ashton isn’t the type of guy who would do this. I don’t know who has done it, but I do intend to get to the bottom of it.”
“And when that path leads you to Ashton? Which it will,” I say with a raised eyebrow.
“If it does, and that’s a big if, then I’ll hold my hands up, and I’ll be the second in the queue to punch him.” Jess smiles. “After you.”
“You can be first,” I say with a sad smile. “I never want to set eyes on him again. Not even to punch him.”
“Then I’ll do it twice.” Jess grins.
“Deal,” I say, surprised to find myself grinning back at her.
“And if it wasn’t him?” Jess says quietly.
“Then we’ll both be in the queue to punch whoever it was,” I say.
“Good enough for me,” Jess says. She reaches for the door handle. “I’d better get back to work. I’ve just been out to see a client who wants a whole new program and he wants it like yesterday.”
“Don’t they all.” I smile as Jess gets out of the car.
She smiles back in at me. “Call me anytime, Elena,” she says and then she closes the door and walks away.
I sit in the car park for a few minutes, getting my head straight. What started out as such a good day has become one of the worst days of my life. And the worst part? Despite everything, I already miss Ashton.
Chapter Thirty-eight
Ashton
I go into work on Tuesday with a heavy heart. I left the office last night pretty much as soon as Elena did. I told her I was going to find out the truth of who did this, but I have no idea where to start, and last night, I was too furious to think straight. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything productive at the office, so I left.
I drove over to Elena’s place, but she refused to open up the door if she was even home. I didn’t push it too hard. I saw the way she flinched away from me yesterday, and the last thing I want to do is scare her. But how can I prove that I love her and I would never do anything to hurt her if she won’t even speak to me? There’s only one way. I have to find out who sent that fucking email and send her the proof that I had nothing to do with it.
In some ways, this is my own stupid fault. I should have deleted the pictures she sent, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. She looked so fucking sexy in them, deleting them would have felt like a crime. I wish I had now though, and none of this would have happened. She would still be mine.
I try calling Elena again, as I sit down at my desk. The call rings and goes to her voicemail like I knew it would. Like the other thirty four calls I made last night and this morning have. I don’t bother leaving a message. If the other twelve don’t convince her to call me back, then this one won’t either. I still can’t resist sending her another text though.
No matter what happens Elena, I want you to know how much I love you. And that I didn’t send that email. A x
No answer, just like I expected. I sigh again and run my hands over my face. How the fuck do I go about proving my innocence in this? Before I can even begin to formulate an answer to that question, there’s a knock at my door. I look up and see David Malone from HR. Great. Just what I need. I wave him in and he comes in looking awkward.
“I’m assuming you know what this is about?” he says as he sits down opposite me.
“I’d be willing to make a good guess,” I say. “Look, I get that it’s your job to follow up on stuff like this, but I want it on the record right now, that I didn’t send that email and—”
David holds up his hand, cutting me off midsentence.
I am so surprised by the forwardness of his gesture that I stop talking and let him interrupt me.
“No one in the HR department thinks you’re stupid enough to have sent an email like that from your own account. But we have to treat this seriously and as such, we need to freeze your account while we investigate it.”
“That won’t be possible,” I say.
He goes to interrupt me again, but this time, I don’t let him. “Believe me, I appreciate the seriousness of this David. I’ve already lost Elena because of it. I refuse to lose my business over it. And if clients can’t reach me, then that’s a very real possibility. I have no issue with you investigating the matter. I intend to launch an investigation of my own too, and I am willing to tell you whatever you need to know to get to the bottom of this, but I need my emails.”
“But—”
“Look,” I cut him off. “I know this is your job, but ultimately, you work for me, and I’m telling you not to block that account. Other than that, you have free reign to do whatever you need to do. I have nothing to hide and you can poke around in the account all you want as long as it doesn’t affect clients.”
“Then may I suggest a compromise?” David offers.
I nod for him to go on.
“The email luckily didn’t go to clients. It was sent as an internal memo. May we freeze the account’s ability to send and receive internal communications, but still allow it to send and receive external emails, so clients aren’t affected?”
It’s still not ideal. It means I’ll spend half of my day on the phone to staff members, but it’s a fair compromise, and if I refuse this, I’m only making myself look guilty. “That’s fine,” I say. “I assume you’ll want to interview me too?”
“Yes, but we’ll need to do that later on after we’ve made our initial investigation.” He stands up. “Thank you for your cooperation on this.”
“I want to get to the bottom of it as much a
s you do. Maybe more so,” I tell him.
He nods and leaves my office.
My phone beeps beside me and I grab for it, my stomach fluttering. Can it possibly be her? Is she willing to at least talk to me? My heart sinks when I read the text message. It’s not from Elena. It’s from the florist. I sent Elena a huge bouquet of flowers this morning, and the text is the florist informing me that delivery wasn’t possible as the recipient refused to take them.
Perfect.
I look up from my phone again as another knock comes on my door. I need to get on with this investigation but I can’t just ignore the staff. It’s Jess, and she left me a message last night informing me that one of our big clients has tasked her with building him a whole new platform and if she has something she needs for that, then I have to grant it. Whatever it is. I wave at her and she comes in.
She sits down in the chair David has just vacated. She sits in a casual slump, and there is nothing awkward about her. She doesn’t beat around the bush. “I know you didn’t send that email,” she says.
“Well I’m glad for that Jess,” I say. “Now what can I do for you?”
“You can start by switching seats with me,” she says with a grin.
I raise an eyebrow.
“I want to take a deep dive into that email,” she explains. “On the surface, it came from your phone’s IP address. But there’s a possibility that someone cloned your email account. To anyone looking at its source, it would show as coming from your phone, but there would be some tiny, subtle differences in the blueprint of the thing, and to find them, I need to get into the master account...”
A lot of what she’s saying is going over my head, but I know enough to know she has a much better chance of proving my innocence than I do and I’m already out of my seat before she’s even finished her sentence.
She sits down and I take the seat she’s just vacated. She clicks, studies, clicks, studies.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask, unable to hold my curiosity back any longer.
“Well, like I said, any subtle differences will only be visible on the master account or—”
“No,” I say. “Not that. Why are you helping me?”
She’s still clicking around. She shrugs one shoulder as she keeps clicking. “I want a pay raise.”
“You find the culprit and it’s yours,” I say without hesitation.
“I was joking.” Jess laughs. “You’ve always been sound with me and I don’t believe you’re that guy. Plus, Elena is my friend and I want to catch the bastard that’s done this to her. My guess is it’s the same person who was sabotaging her when she first started working here, only now they’ve seen that’s not working, so they’ve upped their game.”
“You’re still getting a pay rise if you suss this thing out.” I smile.
She smiles at me and keeps clicking. After a couple of minutes, she slams her fist down on the desk hard.
I jump slightly.
“Dammit,” she says. “The account wasn’t cloned. Who else has access to your phone?”
Chapter Thirty-nine
Elena
I think for a moment. “No one. I mean I guess Elena could have gotten it over the weekend, but there’s no way in hell she did this. Oh, wait... I went into a meeting yesterday afternoon and left my phone in my office.”
“So literally anyone who works here, or who was visiting could have taken it for a while and snuck it back without you knowing?” Jess asks.
I nod.
“I’m going to say something now,” Jess starts. “... and it’s on the condition I don’t get fired or punished in any way, and you ask no questions about how I came by this knowledge.”
I nod for her to go on. It’s something big for her to include a disclaimer like that.
“I know about the internal cameras,” she says. “Are there any in here?”
I nod. Of course. The cameras. How could I forget such a big thing? I don’t even care how Jess knows about them. She’s one of the employees I trust the most and I know she would have kept it quiet. My excitement at being reminded about the cameras fades and I shake my head slowly.
“What?” Jess says. “Don’t tell me there are no cameras in here.”
“There are,” I tell her. “But the condition of having internal cameras that no employees know about is that I don’t have access to the footage. The only way the footage sees the light of day is with a warrant from a cop or an acting judge. And that could take months.”
“What security company do we use?” she asks.
I think for a moment then get up and go to my filing cabinet. I pull my keys out and unlock the bottom drawer until I find the paperwork. “This one,” I say, handing her the file. “But it’s no use. They won’t break their confidentiality agreement.”
“Let me ask you a few things,” Jess says. “How important is Elena to you?”
“More important than anything,” I answer without hesitation. “I’ve loved her for as long as I can remember.”
“Right. So if it came to it and you had to find a new security company, you would do that for her?”
I nod. “Of course.”
“I’ll be right back.” Jess darts out of my office, ignoring me calling after her.
I sit in stupefied silence for a moment. I have no idea where she’s gone or what she’s doing, but I know the company won’t talk, no matter what story she feeds them.
She comes back after a couple of minutes holding what I think is an external hard drive. “What I’m about to do stays between us,” she says. “I need to know I can trust you on this.”
“You can. But it doesn’t matter what you tell the company, they won’t budge.”
“I’m not planning on asking for their permission to see the footage.” Jess grins. She plugs the hard drive into my computer tower and types out a few things on the keyboard. “I’m hacking into their system. That device allows me to access things I shouldn’t. And it covers my tracks. They will never be able to prove we were the ones who hacked them, even if they discover the breach. But it won’t take a rocket scientist to work it out when all that’s touched is our footage and I have no intention of spending time in their systems looking at other people’s private things to create a ruse. That’s why I said you might need to change companies. There’s a good chance they won’t even notice I’ve been in, but just be aware of it.”
“Go for it,” I say. “There are plenty of other companies I can use for surveillance and alarm systems.”
“If I find anything, it won’t hold up in court,” she explains. “So you can never, ever show it to the police or anyone in authority. I want to help you, but I have no intention of doing time for you.”
“Fucking hell Jess, do you really think I’d throw you under the bus like that?”
“Not intentionally or I wouldn’t be doing this. I do know how tempting it will be to get justice against the person who did this though.”
“As long as I can show Elena the footage and prove to her I didn’t do this, that’s all I care about. And I might just have to have a little chat with the culprit, see if I can get them to trip themselves up.” I grin.
“Bingo,” Jess says. “We’re in. Now, it was yesterday you left your phone in the office right? What time?”
“The meeting was at three thirty. And I was probably out of the office for about an hour, all told.”
Jess taps at the keyboard for a moment and then she beckons me around to her side of the desk. She plays the footage at a fast speed until someone appears on the screen and then she slows it down. The camera sits behind my desk, in a place that gives a view of the whole office, including the door.
I watch as Lincoln, one of the junior IT technicians, peers through my door. He’s holding a piece of paper. He looks this way and that, seemingly debating whether or not he should come in. He decides to do it. I knew that already, because that piece of paper he was holding was an important contract which was waiting on my desk
when I came back from the meeting.
Lincoln steps into my office and puts the paper on my desk. He looks around for a moment, and I think his eyes are on my phone, but then he reaches for the post it notes beside the phone and writes the message I read, informing me he needs my signature on this. He sticks the note on the paper and leaves my office.
“Dammit,” Jess comments. “I thought for sure we had him there when he was looking at your phone. Except he wasn’t. God, how can someone be that nervous all the time, so they look terrified at the idea of using someone else’s post it notes?” She speeds the footage back up.
Now, I’m starting to lose hope. I look away from the screen and sign the contract Lincoln brought me while it’s fresh in my mind.
Jess nudges me. “Look,” she says.
Beatrice has appeared on the screen. Unlike Lincoln, she doesn’t hesitate. She walks in, her head held high and goes to my desk. She picks up my phone and drops it into her jacket pocket and then she leaves the office.
Jess and I look at each other with open mouths.
Jess keeps scanning forward, and sure enough, not ten minutes later, Beatrice returns and puts the phone back on my desk. She looks awfully pleased with herself. She slips back out of the office.
“Son of a bitch,” I say quietly. I go back around the desk and sit down. I am so shocked. I mean I know Beatrice acted a little weird about the whole me and Elena thing, but this? This is a step further than I ever thought she would go.
“Fucking hell,” Jess says. “I don’t know who or what I was expecting, but not... well, maybe. She acts so odd at times.”
I nod.
“And at the risk of sounding totally sexist, I guess I expected it to be a man. I didn’t think a woman would do that to another woman, not even one she doesn’t like. What’s Elena done to her to deserve that?”
“This isn’t about Elena. I’ve suspected for a while that Beatrice has a thing for me. I mean I didn’t think it would go this far. But I think she took the phone probably with the intention of sending Elena a mean text from me and trying to cause trouble between us. And then she saw the photos and went a hell of a lot bigger.”