Christmas Data Breach

by K. D. Richards

  Gideon hadn’t brought up the night they’d spent together, and despite herself, Mya couldn’t help feeling uncharacteristically insecure. She knew one incredible night didn’t necessarily mean anything. The problem was, she wanted it to mean something. She wanted it to mean he was as open to giving their relationship a second chance as she was.

  But wishing wouldn’t make it so.

  The Nobel Pharmaceutical headquarters was a flashy new building constructed primarily of glass. In the lobby, a twelve-foot Christmas tree commanded the eye and oversize bulbs hung decoratively from the glass ceiling. Holiday music played softly over the speakers.

  They hadn’t called ahead, and Mya was surprised when Shannon immediately agreed to see them.

  Shannon hadn’t changed much since their days as students. She was still tall with an ethereal quality that led people to want to protect her when they really should be more concerned about protecting themselves from her. Her angled blond bob was lighter than it had been the last time Mya had seen her, and small wrinkles creased her sandy-colored skin around her eyes and mouth.

  “Mya, what a pleasant surprise.” Shannon rose from her chair but didn’t approach. Her light blue eyes flashed, not exactly in welcome, but more like curiosity as Mya and Gideon entered the spacious office.

  They’d crossed paths enough times over the years to have perfected a professional facade, but hugs and warm greetings they’d never share.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t have a lot of time today. I’m sure you can’t imagine the pressures involved in running a large research lab.” Shannon sneered.

  TriGen might not have been as big as Nobel, but TriGen’s reputation was second to none thanks to Irwin’s pioneering efforts and their work was no less meaningful. Her treatment proved that. And she’d done it without the help of multiple research assistants, interns and various administrative personnel.

  “Yes, I’m sure it’s tiring finding ways to let others do the work while you take the credit.” A better woman might have let the barb pass without comment, but old habits were hard to break.

  Out of the side of her eye, Mya thought she saw the slightest of smiles flicker across Gideon’s face. It was gone before she could be sure, though.

  Shannon gave a forced chuckle. “You’ve always had a peculiar sense of humor.” Shannon’s gaze moved to Gideon. Based on the men Shannon had been linked to in the society section of the local paper, Gideon was not at all her type. He was attractive enough, but Shannon’s last boyfriend, a tech millionaire, had a lean body obviously sculpted by a personal trainer, most likely with a little help from a surgeon. The man was five years their junior and looked as if he hadn’t ever done a day of manual labor, quite possibly the polar opposite of Gideon.

  Still, Shannon had eyes, and she looked her fill. For his part, Gideon remained expressionless.

  “Who’s your friend?” Shannon said as a seductive smile spread across her face.

  They hadn’t discussed how Gideon would introduce himself. Instinct had Mya wanting to keep the fact that he was her ex from Shannon. Whether that instinct derived from the idea that Shannon would be more open if she believed Gideon was a somewhat neutral participant in the conversation or if it was born from something more personal wasn’t something Mya felt comfortable examining. She took the easy way out. “I’ve hired West Investigations to help figure out what is going on.”

  Shannon waved them toward the guest chairs across from the sleek desk.

  “Yes, I was so sorry to hear about the destruction of your lab.”

  “That’s one of the things we’re here to talk to you about,” Mya said, sitting.

  “I’m not sure how I can help, but I’ll do my best to try.”

  “If you heard about the lab, you might have also heard that several attempts have been made on Mya’s life in the last several days,” Gideon said.

  “I’d heard about the fire at your lab, and the death of your receptionist, of course. Has something else happened?” Shannon answered.

  “A man on a motorcycle shot at us yesterday. My research assistant Brian was killed.” Mya leaned forward in her seat, her gaze trained on Shannon’s face looking for a reaction.

  Shannon pressed a hand to her chest, her eyes widening slightly. “Oh, my goodness. I’m so sorry to hear that and sorry for your loss.” If she was acting, she was good.

  “Are you behind it?”

  Mya surmised from the sharp look Gideon sent her, he didn’t agree with the direct approach. But Shannon wasn’t a person you could do subtle with. Deceit and subterfuge were second nature to her.

  “Behind... You can’t possibly think...” Shannon’s eyes grew wider. She shot an innocent look toward Gideon.

  “Cut it out, Shannon. Your little show won’t work on Gideon, and I already know it’s a load of crap.”

  Shannon’s gaze landed on Gideon with new interest. “Gideon. The ex-husband?”

  Mya wasn’t surprised that Shannon knew about her marriage to Gideon. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer and all that. She kept up on the comings and goings in Shannon’s life. She knew Shannon had also married, had a child and divorced since they’d graduated.

  Shannon’s eyes scanned slowly down Gideon’s body and back up again. “For a genius, you’re pretty stupid to let such an...attractive man get away from you.”

  Mya fought the urge to smack the woman.

  Reminding herself that distraction was Shannon’s goal, Mya pulled her back straight. “The murders of my coworkers? What do you know about that?”

  Shannon’s sultry smile dropped away as her gaze snapped from Gideon to Mya.

  For a brief moment, Mya could see the unadulterated hatred brewing there. “You can’t barge into my office and accuse me of murder.”

  “We’re just asking questions,” Gideon said. “No one is accusing anyone.”

  Mya caught his pointed look out of the side of her eye, but she knew Shannon was far too manipulative for subtlety to work on her.

  “We found a packing slip in Rebecca Conway’s handwriting with your home address.” Mya was almost positive she’d seen Shannon flinch at the mention of Rebecca’s name, but the moment passed so quickly she couldn’t be completely sure. “What did my receptionist send to you?”

  There was no mistaking the anger on Shannon’s face. She snorted with derision. “I don’t know your receptionist or anyone named Rebecca. Now I want you both to go.”

  Gideon laid a hand on Mya’s thigh, stopping her from shooting back a response that would no doubt have had Shannon calling security.

  “We’ll leave, but I’m sure the police will be asking you the same questions,” Gideon answered.

  The expression on Shannon’s face was as far from flirty as one could get now. “Why would the police want to talk to me? I have nothing to do with any of this.”

  “Come on,” Mya said incredulously. “I know you started the rumor that my formula doesn’t work. If you didn’t tell the cops yourself, you made sure they heard the lie.”

  A cold smile curved Shannon’s lips. “I did no such thing, although I can’t deny I too heard that rumor. From a reputable source, I might add.” Shannon leaned back in her leather executive’s chair and folded her arms across her chest. “If it’s true, it would seem to me you had more reason than anyone to destroy the lab and keep those who knew about your failure quiet. Is that why you’re here? To divert suspicion from yourself onto me? If so, it won’t work.”

  “You haven’t answered the question,” Gideon said.

  “I don’t even know these people. Why would I want to kill them?” Shannon’s mouth twisted into a snarl. The alluring facade she wore to fool the masses had fallen away to reveal the real Shannon underneath.

  Gideon’s face remained passive. “If Mya’s formula wasn’t a failure, that means she found a cure before you an
d Nobel.”

  Shannon scoffed. “That’s a big if.”

  “It’s a fact. And since we’re talking rumors, I’ve heard that your board of directors is not happy with the cost and progress of several of the bigger projects you’ve spearheaded in the last year. Maybe you know that getting bested by my tiny lab would have been the last straw.”

  Shannon rose. “The only straws I see are the ones you’re grasping at. Now, I believe I asked you both to leave.”

  They rose. When she reached the door, Mya turned back.

  Shannon watched, a smug smile on her face.

  Mya held Shannon’s gaze. “If I find out you had anything to do with any of this, losing your job will be the least of your worries. I promise you that.”

  * * *

  MYA TOOK A long hot shower when she and Gideon got back to his home. They’d stopped by a big box store after leaving the Nobel offices and she’d picked up a more clothes and staples. She dressed one of her new outfits and returned to the main floor to find him freshly showered as well, cooking dinner, a bottle of red wine breathing on the kitchen counter next to where he stood chopping peppers.

  Mya hadn’t asked what he was making. It didn’t matter; it smelled divine, and she was starving. With everything that had happened during the day, she’d only had time to grab a bag of chips from the vending machine in West’s offices.

  She opened her laptop and got to work figuring out how to save her career. She brought everything she still had regarding the treatment up on the computer screen. Trying to recreate her work would be difficult without a lab or Brian’s help but she was willing to try because if she didn’t do something quickly, TriGen might not survive.

  After leaving Shannon and getting back to West’s offices, she’d had an hour-long conference call with TriGen’s board members. To say they were jittery would have been the understatement of the decade. They’d hashed out language for a press statement and she’d convinced the board to wait and see what the police investigation turned up before making any big decisions. But she knew she couldn’t hold them off forever.

  “Dinner will be ready in fifteen,” Gideon said, stirring something in a large pot. “How’s it going?”

  Mya glanced at the computer’s clock. An hour had passed with no progress.

  “Not great. Trying to reproduce years of work...and I don’t even have Brian to help jog my memory,” Mya mumbled, surprised by the ball of emotion that had formed in her throat.

  “Were you two close?” Gideon strained boiling water from the pasta he’d been cooking.

  “No, not really. You heard what he said in the park. Brian was a terrific assistant, but there was always that little bit of resentment toward me for getting the job he thought should have been his.”

  “Seems like he was more resentful than you thought.”

  “I know. I’m trying to understand it. Irwin devoted his life to the lab and this research, and I can understand him having difficulty letting go of it and Brian’s loyalty to him.”

  “But it’s still a betrayal by two people you trusted.”

  Mya felt herself deflate. “Yes. Although, there’s a silver lining. The notes Brian shared with Irwin will be a big help at reconstructing my research.”

  Gideon’s phone rang.

  “Hey, got a minute?” James said on the other end of the line.

  “Sure,” Gideon said, stirring the food before turning the burner down to its lowest setting. “I’ve got you on speaker. Mya is here with me.”

  “Good, she should hear this too. I’ve dug up some info on Rebecca Conway. Or I should say Rebecca Calcott.”

  “She changed her name.” Gideon carried his cell phone to the table and sat down.

  “I can’t find any kind of legal name change on the record, but sometime in the last year, it looks like she got false identification and assumed the name Rebecca Conway.” The sound of computer keys tapping came over the line.

  “Rebecca Calcott of Cumberland, Maryland, graduated from the public school system with a 4.0 grade point average and enrolled in a local community college. From an archive social media post, it appears she did have an interest in the sciences.”

  Gideon’s phone chimed. Mya peered over his shoulder as he opened a text message with a screenshot of a social media post from Rebecca Calcott excitedly sharing her college class schedule with her online friends.

  “Looks like she was enrolled in advanced biology and chemistry classes besides the core freshman curriculum,” Gideon said.

  “That would explain how she could feign interest in the lab’s work,” Mya said.

  “I contacted the school and was told that Rebecca dropped out before she completed a full semester,” James said.

  Gideon frowned. “Any sign how Rebecca went from straight As and advanced biology to college dropout in just a few months?”

  “Can’t answer that. But I can send you her mother’s address and phone number. Marie Calcott. She’s a home health aide and still lives in Cumberland.” Gideon’s cell phone chimed. Mya leaned over his shoulder and eyed the address in the text from James.

  “I tried calling. The police had already notified Marie of her daughter’s death. She called me a few names I won’t repeat and hung up on me.”

  “We’ll give her some time and try her again,” Gideon said. “We need to find out how Rebecca Calcott went from Cumberland coed to Rebecca Conway, TriGen receptionist. And why.”

  “I don’t know if we’ll have any better results, but I’ll give it a shot,” James said, ending the call.

  “This situation just keeps getting stranger,” Mya said, chewing her bottom lip.

  “Do you know anyone in Cumberland, Maryland?”

  Mya shook her head. “I didn’t know Cumberland, Maryland, existed until a few minutes ago.”

  Gideon’s gaze was intense. “It seems like someone there knows you.”

  Her phone vibrated before she came up with an answer to that. “It’s Irwin.” She connected the call while willing her pulse to stop racing.

  “Mya, my dear. How are you? I got your message.”

  “Everything is a mess. Someone set fire to the lab. It’s gone. And...” The sob escaped before she could fight it back.

  Gideon reached for her hand and squeezed. His strength helped her pull it together and continue. “Brian and Rebecca have both been killed. We think by the same person who set fire to the lab.”

  “I had no idea.”

  Mya wasn’t at all surprised that Irwin hadn’t heard the news. He might have been using Brian to keep up with what was going on at the lab, but he was a hermit at heart. Besides having no phone, Irwin had also resisted getting internet access or even a television. His primary contact with the outside world came through his weekly visits to the small town at the base of the mountain and his friendship with Phil Gatling, the manager of the general store.

  “Irwin, before he was killed Brian told me he’d been sharing my research with you.”

  There was silence on the other end of the line.

  “I know it was a breach—” Irwin started.

  “Of contract and of trust,” Mya said, her voice hard. She didn’t want him to think that what he and Brian had done was okay, but there were bigger concerns to deal with at the moment. “But you may be the one person on Earth capable of helping me right now. Do you still have the copies of the research Brian sent to you?”

  “Yes,” Irwin answered guiltily.

  Her heart beat excitedly.

  “Irwin, I need whatever notes Brian sent you.” She explained the break-in at her home and the stolen server.

  “Of course. Anything you need. I can have Phil send it express mail.”

  “No. This may be all that’s left of our work. We’ll come to you. I don’t want to take any chances.”

  “We?”
>
  Mya glanced over at Gideon. “I’ve hired a personal security firm. There’ve been multiple attempts made on my life in the last several days. It looks like whoever has stolen our research wants to make sure there’s no one left alive who can prove it’s stolen. Irwin, you could be in danger.”

  “I’m sure that’s not the case. Aside from you and Phil, almost no one knows who I am or where I live.”

  “Maybe you should stay with a friend for a while,” she said although she knew it was a futile effort.

  “I’ll be fine. Don’t you worry about me, dear.”

  Mya ended the call and turned her attention to Gideon.

  He swung the laptop to face him. “What’s Irwin’s address?”

  She pulled up her contacts on her phone and read off the address for Gideon. “It’s about an eight-hour drive. I think we should leave now.”

  Gideon glanced at the clock on the stove. “It’s nearly seven.”

  “If we leave now, we can get a room on the way and stop by Rebecca’s mother’s place in the morning before heading to Irwin’s.”

  “If Marie Calcott hung up on James, what makes you think she’ll talk to two strangers who show up on her doorstep uninvited?”

  Her chair scraped the floor as she rose. She paced the length of the table then turned to look back at Gideon. “I don’t know, okay. Maybe she won’t talk to us, but that’s not a reason not to try.”

  Gideon shook his head. “I promised you I wouldn’t put you in danger again.”

  “We aren’t breaking and entering. We’ll knock on the woman’s door. If she slams it in our face, we’ll leave. What’s dangerous about that?”

  From his look, she could tell he was about to tell her exactly what could be dangerous about that.

  “Please, Gideon. We could get answers to who exactly Rebecca was, and I can get my formula and prove to Detective Kamal, Shannon and the scientific community that the treatment works. The police won’t have any reason to suspect I’m a murderer.”

  “More importantly, if the success of your research becomes public knowledge, whoever’s behind all this won’t have an incentive to keep targeting you. They’ll no longer be able to pass off your research as their own.”