Desperate Play

by Barbara Freethy

  "Should we check Noelle's desk first?" he asked, as he punched the elevator button.

  "Seems like the best place to start," she said, a heavy note in her voice.

  "I can do it myself."

  "No, you were right earlier. I need to see her desk today, when there aren't dozens of other people around, watching my reaction." She squared her shoulders and stepped into the elevator as if she were going off to do battle.

  He knew what she was feeling. He'd lost more than a few friends to violence in his life, and the first few days and weeks were always rough.

  "After we check Noelle's desk, I need to go to my office and then the auditorium," Avery added. "And I don't need you looking over my shoulder for all that."

  "That's fine. I have some work to do, too."

  "Really?" she asked with surprise. "I thought you'd put up a fight."

  "You'll be safe in your office and in the auditorium."

  They got off the elevator on the third floor where the business, legal, and accounting departments were located. Noelle had been assigned as an admin for all three departments and had sat with a dozen other admins in a room filled with large cubicles and the latest equipment with seated, standing, and treadmill desks as well as oversized monitors, printers, and small filing cabinets for storing duplicate copies of information stored on the company's web server.

  A bank of windows threw some nice light over the area, and as they walked toward Noelle's desk, which was in the middle of the room, he made a mental note of the names listed on gold placards on the cubicle walls next to Noelle's desk. Kathryn Sams and Jaycee Lawrence were apparently Noelle's closest cubicle buddies, and it definitely might be worth having a conversation with both of them.

  Avery stepped into Noelle's cubicle, her expression tense and wary, as if she was afraid of what they would find, although he didn't believe they'd find much. He knew the FBI had already swept her desk and cubicle, but he wanted to see it for himself, as did Avery.

  There was a yellow polka-dot mug on the desk that immediately captured his attention. Apparently, Noelle really liked yellow. But the top of the desk was clear of any other items. He opened the drawers and found nothing more than blank notepads and pens.

  "Avery?"

  A woman's voice brought both their heads up.

  "Kathryn," Avery said in surprise.

  "I can't believe Noelle is dead," Kathryn said, shaking her head in disbelief

  As the two women hugged for a long minute, he made note of the fact that the short brunette was the woman who sat next to Noelle. If anyone might have overheard something or been privy to Noelle's confidence, it might have been her. Although, he would have thought that Noelle would have shared more with Avery, given their long history. If she hadn't, it had to be because she didn't want Avery to know what she was up to.

  "I keep hoping it's a dream," Kathryn added, her gaze moving toward Noelle's desk. "It's so neat," she added, a note of surprise in her voice. "Did you clean out her desk?"

  "Not me," Avery replied. "The police and FBI were here yesterday."

  "Oh, of course, that makes sense."

  Wyatt couldn't help noting how Kathryn's gaze darted around Noelle's cubicle, as if she were looking for something. Finally, her gaze came to rest on him, and she started. "Sorry, I don't think we've met."

  "Wyatt Tanner. I work upstairs in security."

  "Yes, that's right. I've seen you around."

  He wondered if that were true, since he didn't really wander around much, especially not on this floor.

  "Are there any leads on who killed Noelle?" Kathryn asked him.

  "No. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?"

  "Me? No!" she said somewhat emphatically. "I don't know anything."

  Wyatt noticed Avery's gaze sharpen at Kathryn's denial.

  "Noelle didn't mention she was in any kind of trouble?" Avery asked.

  "Was she in trouble?" Kathryn countered.

  Avery shrugged. "I don't know. It certainly feels that way now."

  "But you were with her Friday night. If she did have a problem, she would have told you. She always said you were good friends." Kathryn licked her lips. "There was one odd thing."

  "What's that?" he asked sharply, drawing her gaze back to his.

  "Her boyfriend, Carter. He came by Noelle's desk Friday night, and he was going through her drawers. He seemed angry about something. I asked him if he needed help, and he said Noelle had called him and told him she'd left her phone here, and he was looking for it. I helped him search for it, but we didn't find it. He seemed really annoyed." She paused, licking her lips. "He's—he's not a suspect, is he? I heard something rumored to that effect."

  "Everyone is a suspect," he replied. "Did you notice Noelle having a problem with anyone else? Did she go out with other people in the company besides Carter?"

  "I don't think so. I mean, she was really pretty, and very popular, and there were always a lot of men coming around to say hello or ask for her help. But she seemed most interested in Carter, especially after she was assigned to the patent office for a few days. I remember when she came back, she said that she found the legal stuff really interesting, that it was amazing all the things the company was inventing. Not that she knew what any of them were. We used to laugh about how we rarely knew what we were writing letters or memos about," she said with a teary smile. "Noelle said she was really over her head when she helped out in Kyle Tremaine's office one day. She said the man was clearly brilliant, but she could barely understand a word he said."

  As Kathryn rambled on, he thought about how much access Noelle had had to other departments, something he hadn't really considered before. He also hadn't known that she'd spent time in Kyle's office, which might have given her even greater access to proprietary information. But what was also interesting was Carter's search of Noelle's desk on Friday night.

  Had Carter been looking for Noelle's second phone that he'd denied having any knowledge of? And why hadn't he mentioned that Noelle had left her phone at work and asked him to look for it? They'd specifically spoken about the phone. It was hardly something he would have forgotten.

  Finally, Kathryn came to a stop. "Sorry, I'm chattering on. I'm a little rattled after what happened to Noelle. I heard she was stabbed. It sounds awful. And you found her, Avery? Was she alive? Did she say anything to you?"

  "No, she didn't," Avery lied. "And she had her phone when she was with me. In fact, she texted me when she was running a few minutes late."

  "Maybe she found it then. Anyway, I just stopped in to grab my work computer." She paused. "Oh, is there going to be a service, Avery? I'd like to go, and I'm happy to help with any plans. Just let me know."

  "I'll keep you in the loop," Avery said, as Kathryn moved into her own cubicle.

  They walked back to the elevators in silence, not saying a word until they stepped inside and the doors shut.

  "Oh, my God," Avery said, her eyes lit up with excitement. "Carter was looking through Noelle's desk on Friday night. He lied to us about Noelle's phone. Maybe he is involved in her death."

  "He's involved in something, but I don't know what."

  "I'd like to go back and confront him."

  "I want to gather more information before we do that, and you have work to do."

  "That's true. I know I need to concentrate on that, but it won't be easy."

  As the elevator doors opened on the second floor, he put a hand on her arm, staying close as they walked down the hall to her office.

  Avery opened the door to her office and waved him inside. It wasn't a large room, but it was filled to the brim. Bookshelves lined two walls and were crammed with books, flyers, brochures, DVDs about space, and boxes of Nova Star swag: tote bags and key chains, journals and educational booklets for teachers and students. Clearly, Avery had had a hand in designing and providing information for everything.

  She walked around her desk and opened her computer. While it was booting up, she look
ed back at him. "You can go now. I need about a half hour here, and then I have to take my computer down to the auditorium and run through the show. That could take another half hour. What are you going to do?"

  "Check through the security camera footage and see what else Carter was up to on Friday night besides going through Noelle's desk. Lock this door after I leave and call me if anyone comes knocking. When you're ready to go to the auditorium, let me know, and I'll walk you there."

  "Wyatt, you can't babysit me every second. Tomorrow I'm going to be back here doing my job and the day after that."

  "I'm only interested in today. Call me when you're done."

  "All right."

  He walked outside and waited for her to lock the door, then headed upstairs to his office.

  * * *

  Security ran lean on the weekends, and instead of the usual dozen or so men and women who worked in security operations during the week, there were six people in today: three sitting in front of a bank of security cameras, two working on their computers, and the last person sitting at a desk very near to his own. That person was Lance Hughes, a forty-six-year-old, ex-Navy communications tech who monitored their server for any unauthorized access to their computer system.

  Hamilton liked hiring ex-military. He said he knew he could count on soldiers to not only protect but also to fight. And he was probably right about that. But what he most valued in the security personnel working under his direction was intuition, attention to detail, and an instinct for anomalies. Lance had all those traits and had become one of the people he relied most upon.

  It also helped that Lance wasn't competitive. He hadn't cared that Wyatt had come in over personnel who had been there years before him. Some of his coworkers had definitely not liked his sudden appearance a month ago, or his close relationship with Hamilton, who had stated on more than one occasion that Wyatt was his guy.

  Lance gave him a nod, as he looked up from his computer. "I didn't know you were coming in today."

  "How's it going around here?" Lance was one of the few people who knew that there had been a security breach several months earlier. He didn't know that Jonathan Tremaine might have been involved, but he'd been put on high alert weeks ago to watch for anything unusual.

  "It's quiet for now." Lance folded his arms across his chest as he leaned back in his swivel chair.

  "What do you know about the homicide involving Noelle Price?"

  "Not much. I've spoken to the police and the FBI. They're digging into the case."

  "I noticed you came in with Avery Caldwell. How's she doing?"

  "Not very well. Hamilton has asked me to keep an eye on her. She went to Noelle's apartment yesterday morning and ran into a man with a gun. Luckily, she was unharmed, but there's concern she might be in danger."

  "And this has to do with Nova Star?"

  "Don’t know yet. But I'm going to find out." He moved over to his desk and sat down in front of his computer. Within minutes, he'd pulled up the security camera footage from Friday afternoon. He flipped back and forth between cameras as he tried to zero in on the path to Noelle's desk.

  When he got a clear shot of her desk, he backed up the footage until Noelle was on the frame. The time on the camera read five twenty. She pulled a phone out of her bag, and his pulse quickened as he saw the black case. She texted someone. He tried to zoom in, but the message was too grainy to read.

  Five minutes later, she got up and tossed her phone into her bag and then said good-bye to Kathryn and walked out of her cubicle.

  He watched her empty desk for another ten minutes, speeding up the footage until he saw Carter come into the frame. He pulled open Noelle's drawers with force and anger, not seeming to care who might be watching him. Kathryn got up and said something to him and then came around to help him in his search.

  As Carter slammed a final drawer shut, he said something to Kathryn, and as she replied, she put her hand on his arm.

  His gut tightened. Kathryn was more than a little friendly with Carter. The way she touched him, the way she leaned in, suggested they had an intimate relationship.

  What the hell was going on?

  A moment later, Carter left. Kathryn glanced around Noelle's cubicle for another minute and then went back to her own desk.

  He forwarded through the footage again and saw Kathryn leaving ten minutes later. He kept the footage going until the room grew dark and then picked up again the next morning. But it was Saturday, and no one was working. The next person who appeared on the camera was Detective Larimer. An hour later, Joanna Davis and several FBI techs appeared.

  His phone vibrated, and he saw a text from Avery. She was ready to head to the auditorium. He pushed back his chair and stood up.

  "Are you leaving already?" Lance asked, giving him a curious look.

  "Yeah, I need to take Avery to the auditorium."

  "Take her?"

  "Like I said, Hamilton wants me to keep her close."

  "Rough job," Lance said with a knowing gleam in his eyes. "She's very attractive. Almost makes me wish I'd taken more science classes in school."

  He smiled. "I know what you mean."

  "Hey, before you go. I don't know if this is anything, but someone tried to use Kyle Tremaine's access code to get into his email file. The user was outside the company and after three unsuccessful tries, they gave up."

  "And the ISP?"

  "That's the interesting thing—the ISP address led me to Brett Caldwell's house."

  "Avery's dad?"

  "And Whitney Tremaine's boyfriend. Now, it's possible that Kyle was at the house and just forgot his new password. We've been requiring updates every week since the security breach."

  "Thanks for letting me know."

  As he left the security center, his mind spun with the latest leads. Kathryn and Carter were connected. Maybe Kyle and Brett were connected, too. He didn't know where the clues would take him, but at least they had more to follow than they'd had an hour ago.

  Fourteen

  On his way to pick up Avery and escort her to the auditorium, he stopped by Noelle's desk again.

  Kathryn was gone. He wondered why she'd really come into the office. Had she wanted to take another look at Noelle's space? Or had she simply come in to get her computer as she had said? He would have to catch up with her later.

  He hurried up to Avery's office and knocked, saying his name as he did so. She flipped the locks and stepped out with her computer in hand. "That took you awhile."

  "Sorry, I went back by Noelle's desk," he said, as they walked to the elevator.

  "Why?"

  "I'll tell you when we get in the auditorium," he replied, as they passed by another employee heading out of an office and into a nearby restroom.

  Avery gave him a frustrated look but didn't ask any more questions until they entered the auditorium. She flipped on the lights and they walked down the aisle toward the center stage, a thousand seats rising up two stories around them.

  "Okay, talk, Wyatt," she said, putting her computer on the podium. "We're all alone here."

  "I reviewed the security footage from Friday night. Carter arrived at Noelle's desk about ten minutes after she left, just as Kathryn said. He went through the drawers and seemed angry and irritated."

  "He was looking for her phone."

  "Here's the thing—before Noelle left, I could see her texting on a phone, and the phone appeared to be in a black case. She put that phone in her bag."

  "That's the one she had at the pier."

  "I'm guessing the person she texted was you."

  "She said she was running late," Avery confirmed. "So, we still don't know where her other phone is."

  "There was no sign of it on the footage I watched. There was one other interesting note. When Carter was about to leave, he and Kathryn had an intense moment together. She put her hand on his arm and looked into his eyes, like she knew him as more than a friend."

  "Carter and Kathryn?" she asked in
surprise. "He was cheating on Noelle?"

  "I don't know if he was cheating. He could have had a relationship with Kathryn before Noelle got hired at Nova Star. But Kathryn definitely didn't share that piece of information with us. She acted like she barely knew Carter, like she was almost afraid of him."

  "She did point a finger at him, almost as if she wanted to make him a target. Was that to throw attention off herself? Or maybe she wanted to get back at Carter for something—like choosing Noelle instead of her? We need to talk to her again."

  "She's gone. That's why I went by Noelle's desk before I came to get you."

  "We'll go to her house then."

  "We need to do some digging first. We don't want to alert Kathryn to anything until we know more. This is too important to rush, Avery. We say the wrong thing to the wrong person, and all the rats will run for cover."

  She blew out a breath. "You're right. I just want some answers."

  "Well, there's someone else we need answers from," he said, knowing she wasn't going to like what was coming next.

  "Who?"

  "Your father."

  "What?" she asked in confusion. "What does my father have to do with any of this?"

  "One of my security team discovered an attempt to log in to Kyle Tremaine's email account from your father's house."

  "Well, my dad lives with Whitney, and Kyle does visit. So, maybe it was Whitney, or Kyle was there and just forgot his password. Your team has us changing passwords every other second these days. My father wouldn't try to get into Kyle's account. He can barely get into his own account."

  "It's probably nothing, but I'd like to ask Kyle about it tonight at dinner."

  "This party is looking to be more fun by the minute," she said dryly. "Is that it?"

  "Yes."

  "Good. I need to focus and get this work done."

  "While you do that, I'm going to call the FBI and see what they know."

  "Really?" she asked in surprise. "Do you think they'll tell you anything?"

  "Probably not much, but it's worth a shot."

  "I thought Hamilton wanted to keep the bureau at a distance."