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“He gave you permission to hack into sensitive company documents?” Mr. Stover looked ready to faint. “No, he couldn’t have. He wouldn’t—”
“To be fair,” Texas interrupted, “I did challenge him and he didn’t think I could really do it.”
“I recall telling you to keep everything above board,” Knix said on a sigh.
“It is above board,” Texas argued. “The primary owner and partner of Bricker and Stein gave me the go-ahead.”
“Did he really do that or did you goad him into it?” Bellamy asked.
“Does it matter?”
When Knix pinched the bridge of his nose and took a long, steady breath, I decided that enough was enough. Touching Knix’s arm and smoothing a hand down his bicep reassuringly, I looked towards Texas. “Tell us what you found,” I said.
Texas nodded and went back to scrolling through documents and moving them around for a second before he flipped open the notebook and began to type rapidly, scanning the scribbles on the page briefly as he began to speak again. “When I couldn’t get much other than a background through the company documents on the case Jenna was working, I looked through security footage and correlated her timecard to where she appeared on the cameras. Then I followed her on the last day she was seen using CCTV technology.”
“Did you find her?” Mr. Stover asked, appearing pale. Bellamy moved towards the older gentleman and pulled out a chair, urging the man to sit.
“I didn’t.” Texas sounded frustrated by that fact. I could just imagine that he was too. All of this sounded rather advanced, but if it hadn’t gotten us to our goal—which was finding Jenna—then we were still in the dark. “But I did find a few places she visited before she was supposed to have returned home.”
Marv moved around the back of Texas’ chair and watched as Texas typed a few things in and scrolled across whatever he was looking at before clicking sharply and sitting back. “That’s her,” Marv said.
Grayson strode across the room and looked as well. “Is this time stamped correctly?” he asked.
Texas nodded and then turned the screen for the rest of us to see. It was a grainy still of a short, dark skinned woman in a business suit, holding a briefcase as she got into a dark towncar.
Knix released me and put his hands on the table, leaning over as he stared at the image. “Can you pull the license plate numbers?” he asked.
“Of course.” Texas turned the laptop back, clicked a few buttons, flipped to a new page in his notebook and scribbled something down before ripping it out and handing it over.
Knix took the paper and frowned down at the numbers. “Okay, Texas, you and I will take this and head back to the hotel. We’ll find the owner of this vehicle and track him down. Bellamy, can you stay here with Mr. Stover and as soon as they’re awake, call Clarissa and give her and Alex an update.”
Bellamy nodded and Mr. Stover looked wilted and tired. I felt bad for the poor man as he shakily tried to stand. “Jenna is a wonderful employee, but have you ever considered that she decided to go into hiding because of the threats?” he asked. “Or perhaps she was bought off and used the money to disappear.”
I frowned. “Bought off?” I asked.
Mr. Stover looked at me, his lips tilting down. I could tell he didn’t appear to like my presence and he proved it in the next moment. “I’m sorry, but who are you?” he demanded.
“This is my wife,” Knix said.
My whole body tightened at the announcement. Not that it wasn’t true, but was still so new to hear it. The word sent a ripple of pleasure through me—completely inappropriate in timing, but undeniable.
“And is your wife in any way qualified to deal with issues of this magnitude?” Mr. Stover inquired sharply.
My eyebrows shot up even before Knix answered. “She is a part of my team, Mr. Stover,” Knix replied. “And as far as I see it, we’ve done more to look for your employee than you have. If I deem she’s qualified, then she is.”
While I appreciated that Knix was standing up for me, the truth was I still hadn’t done anything in the way of looking for Jenna. I kept my lips sealed, though, and waited.
Eyeing me with a mixture of doubt and distaste, Mr. Stover’s lips curled, but he let the matter rest as he turned back to Texas. “I’d like for any and all information you have on this manner to be sent to me directly, Mister…?”
“Johnson,” Texas answered.
“Mr. Johnson, if you would be so kind as to send me everything you have.”
Texas glanced to Knix, and there was a brief pause of tension as I watched anger flare to life in Mr. Stover’s expression. Before anything could happen, Knix sighed and nodded. “Give it to him,” he said.
Texas nodded and clicked through a few things on the laptop. “Alright, it’s sent.”
“Thank you,” Mr. Stover said stiffly. “I think I can trust that you’ll see yourselves out. I’ll be returning to my office. Please keep me abreast of any further discoveries.”
