Rupert rolled his eyes before he turned to leave.
“You could try being kinder to people,” she said to Green, unable to hold back from speaking her mind in that regard.
“You let me worry about me, while we see what you’ve found here.” Green pulled the drawer open and stepped back.
Huh.He’d given her credit, and she had just assumed Green planned to take over from here.Hecan surprise me…She moved in and peeked inside. Numerous files labeled with surnames followed by a comma and first name. They were in alphabetical order, and most of the names belonged to women. She searched forCrawford, Susan.Came up empty. She kept thumbing through and found one labeledKramer, Dale.She plucked that folder from among the rest and opened it up.
“An NDA,” Green said as if he’d made an Earth-shattering discovery, not just read the title of the legal document over her shoulder.
She set the folder on the desk and grabbed the non-disclosure agreement for a closer look. Green hovered. She glanced over her shoulder at him. “A little space would be nice. You could look at another file while I read this one.”
Green let out a sigh but returned to the cabinet and lifted the lot out and set it on another chunk of the desk.
She read through and noted Kramer’s NDA dated back decades. It was probably drafted soon after he’d started working for Timothy Hanson. She glanced over the contract and stopped on a section entitledSurvival Clauseand studied it. When she finished, she said, “Larry?”
“Go away, come here. Make up your mind.”
She’d do herself a favor and ignore his attitude. “Even if Kramer’s responsible for the accident, I don’t see him confessing any time soon.”
“Criminals rarely do, Moore, but what’s your point?”
“The survival clause in Kramer’s NDA says it remains in effect even after Timothy Hanson’s death. If Kramer breaks the NDA at any time, he will lose his pension.”
“Really?” Green walked over to see for himself, and Cindy pointed out the sticky clause. After a few seconds, Green’s jaw became rigid. “Well, we don’t know that Kramer did anything criminal yet, not for certain, but someone only puts an NDA into effect like that who wants complete control over someone.”
“Right? And it suggests to me they could make people do things they don’t want getting out. Bad things. Criminal things.”
“Yeah, I get it, Cindy.”
“But surely, there must be a loophole to breaking an NDA if a crime is involved.” A lawyer or therapist could break privilege if their client or patient confessed to a crime or spoke of hurting other people.
“I imagine there would be.”
“Thing is, though, we suspect Kramer of one thing, but what if that’s not all he’s done? How many more victims might we be looking at?” She spoke in a lower voice, conscious of Rupert outside of the door.
“Who knows?”
A non-answer wasn’t satisfying. Not that Green could give her anything else. She was inclined to call Lieutenant Coleman right away and confirm the existence of an NDA for Kramer. It was one he mentioned being curious about. Once she told him, he could pass it along to whoever might be questioning Kramer.Knowledge is powerwas an adage for a reason. It was true. But waiting for a few more minutes wouldn’t hurt anything. What else would they find?
Green set a stack of folders on the desk, and she grabbed one that immediately caught her eye.
“Hey, Moore, I was getting to?—”
“I met this woman.” She pointed at the label.
“And who is Rhonda Stein?”
“She was Timothy’s secretary just before Susan Crawford. It was speculated that she signed an NDA.”
“Which I guess we’ve proven now.”
“Except for why a secretary would need to sign one.” Though Cindy could only imagine one of its unstated purposes was to intimidate Rhonda into behaving how Timothy wanted. The hairs on Cindy’s arms rose.What a predator!
“She would have been privy to a lot of confidential conversations.”
“Nah, there’s more to this. I feel it.”
Green smiled tightly. “Feeling something doesn’t make it a fact.”
