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“Ooh, yikes.” No manager wanted to be put in that situation. At least Patrick seemed to have moved on. Other than his irritation that Cole had brought Joey into the group without his input, Patrick only spoke with admiration, as far as Joey could tell.
Ben shuffled into the breakroom. Joey and Cheri exchanged a look as he got a soda from the vending machine before shuffling back out. As he reached the door, he grumbled at Joey. “Your phone keeps ringing. I unplugged it.”
Beside her, Cheri choked on her coffee.
Joey opened her mouth to respond to Ben’s ridiculous rudeness, but he was already gone.
“Wow,” she said instead.
“You’re Joey, right?” Cheri leaned back against the counter, kicking one heel over the other.
Joey smiled broadly and held out her hand. “Oh, sorry. Yeah, I’m Joey. I’ve only been here two weeks or so. It still feels like I have so much to learn.”
Cheri laughed. “Well, don’t let Ben get under your skin. He’s like that with everyone.”
She shook her head. “I’ve worked with some pretty eccentric computer guys over the years. Rarely are they quite that bad.”
With a wave of her cup, she said good-bye to Cheri. “I guess I better go plug my phone back in. It was nice chatting with you.”
“You too. Good luck, Joey.”
Back at her desk, Joey flipped through her caller ID and saw that Ryder had called her twice. Curious, she called him back, speaking in low tones from her cubicle.
“Hey, I saw you called.”
“Can you talk?”
“Sort of.”
“Roger that. I wanted to let you know as soon as I found out. But you know that blind trust you asked me to look into? It turns out that Kensington is the only contributor. And the beneficiary? The Honorable Theresa Martin, a judge in the 4thCircuit.
“What?!”
Joey felt the eyes turn to her with the exclamation. She smiled and then ducked her head. “Are you sure, Ryder?”
“Oh, I’m sure. It wasn’t easy, but I went to Salem and asked around. Apparently, Judge Martin’s husband has been disabled and in full-time care for nearly twenty-five years.”
Joey raised her eyebrows. That would make her an easy target for bribery. Those kinds of expenses weren’t exactly easy to cover. And twenty-five years? A federal judge made good money, but at the start of her career, she was probably just like any other struggling caretaker.
“Do we have any idea why he’s bribing a federal judge?”
“I’m still working on it,” Ryder said.
“Okay. Keep digging.” This was a big break. Something like this, even Flint couldn’t deny.
“Hey, Jo?”
“Yeah?”
“Watch your back.”
“I will,” she reassured him quietly before disconnecting the phone.
“Who was that?”
The gruff voice caused her to turn and look up at Ben, who was standing in his cubicle, peering into hers.
“Oh, umm… It was just a friend.”
