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Running his hand through his hair, Jonathan looked at his family. “You can give your report to all of us at the same time.”
“Jonathan,” Preston said, “what’s going on? What report?”
It was Rachel who answered. “Harvard, Ryan, Elle, and myself—”
“I’m a late addition,” Harry interrupted, giving everyone a wave and impressing no one with the printed image of bobblehead Einstein on his T-shirt.
Rachel frowned at him before continuing, “We all work for Benson Security.”
“You mean worked,” Marcus said, appearing confused.
“No. I mean, we’re still currently there. I’m still a partner. These are still my minions.” She waved a hand in their direction, making Harvard grin. “Jonathan and our father hired Benson Security to uncover who’s been stealing research from TayFor for the past few years.”
Charles shot to his feet. “This is out of order. Something of this magnitude should have gone through the board first.”
“Not if it’s a board member who’s stealing from you,” Harvard said.
“Do sit down and shut up, Charles,” Francesca told him. “We have more than enough to deal with without adding your tantrums to the mix.”
“Well, I never.” He sat down with a thud.
“I’m assuming you’ve uncovered the thief,” Jonathan said.
“Elle?” Harvard indicated that she had the room. “Please do the honors.”
Elle practically danced on the spot, making the blue bunches in her hair bounce along with her. “Okay, so we knew secrets were being siphoned off, so we set out to—”
Rachel held up a hand. “We don’t need the Columbo version. We just need a name, and then the police can take over.” She looked at Harvard. “You did call them?”
“No, I thought we’d just take the culprit down to the basement and put a bullet in their head.” Of course, he’d called the police.
“I’m not staying here for this.” Charles got to his feet again. “How do you expect us to believe a word you say when you can’t even take yourselves seriously? I’ll call in the police myself. If there’s a thief, they can deal with it.”
“Oh, there’s a thief,” Elle said. “And if I can’t describe our process, then I’ll just go for the big reveal. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your thief”—she stretched out an arm, sweeping it left to right before stopping on one person—“Preston Talbot.”
There was silence until Rachel’s grandmother spoke up. “Well, that was a bit anticlimactic, don’t you think?”
Harvard definitely had a soft spot for that woman.
Preston looked around the room. “You don’t honestly believe them, do you?”
His mother, Anne, leaned forward, placing her hand on the table as though reaching for him. “Preston? Why would they think you stole from us?”
Pure fury flashed in his eyes before disappearing just as quickly. “This is clearly a mistake. I haven’t stolen anything. I’m sure my lawyer will deal with whatever information they have within minutes.”
“We have your phone,” Harvard said. “It has two apps on it. One connects to a signal jammer on the camera facing West Building. The app shows it was last accessed on the morning that the system went down, when everyone was told not to access the servers.
“And the other app connects wirelessly with the card reader that was hidden under Francesca’s work desk and is linked to her computer. On top of that, now that we know who’s behind this, we also know where to look for the money. Because money always leaves a trail.”
Harry nodded from where he stood beside the door. “I’m running searches right now on your financials and any accounts set up in your name or your children’s names.”
“And I’m looking into your purchasing history,” Ryan said. “If there’s a record of you buying a Wi-Fi card reader and a signal jammer, I
’ll find it.”
“And even though I did my bit by hacking your phone,” Elle said, “I’m going through your contacts to see if I can find the people who bought your information. I’m sure I’ll find them eventually. It’s like finding a loose piece of wool in a sweater. Once you have it, all you need to do is tug to make the whole thing unravel.”
“This is what we do,” Rachel told her cousin. “And we’re rather good at it.”
