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"That would mean the killer was directly involved with Edge?"
"It would, yes," Connor agreed.
Malcolm shook his head. "Not possible. I'm sorry, but I don't accept that one of our techs would have done such a thing."
"You're sure?"
"I know my people. And they're good people. They are all vetted, they all have references, they all have training, and they're all paid well."
"What about a disgruntled employee?"
Malcolm shook his head again. "I've been in this business for a long time. Techs come and go all the time, that's true. And there are people who don't stick around for very long, but I don't have any disgruntled people. Everyone likes it here because I run a tight ship, and I treat everyone fairly."
"What about ex-employees? Would any of your former workers have had a grudge against you?" Connor probed.
Malcolm frowned.Now, Cami thought, Connor's words had triggered something—some memory, some association.
He moved straight over to one of the desks. Walking behind it, he sat on the leather director's chair, and tapped a few keys on the computer keyboard.
Cami's ears pricked up. She couldn't help it. A hacker at heart, she was always on the alert for what she could pick up about passwords. This one looked to be a complex password that contained not only letters, but characters, numbers, and caps too. He was hunting over the keyboard, pressing the shift key, focusing on getting it correct. The password contained ten digits, she saw.
It wouldn't be easy to crack it. This company seemed to have good basic security in place.
"I'm looking up the client reports," Malcolm told them. "I'm going to see who worked on these two clients at the time of the installation."
Cami felt a flare of excitement now, because from the way he spoke, his voice was no longer flat with denial. Instead, it seemed as if he did have a possible idea or theory in mind.
"Well," he muttered to himself, staring down at the screen. Cami's gaze intensified. Without a doubt, Malcolm had discovered something.
He turned to Connor. "I had an ex-partner in the business. He wasn't someone I liked working with, and we had different ideas on the way to run a company. I bought him out last year, and he went and started his own rival firm. But he did many of the installations before he left and that includes these two."
"Did he work alone?"
"He would have had a technician with him. But I see that two different technicians were used on these jobs. The only common person was him," Malcolm admitted.
"You sound as if there were problems with him?" Connor probed. Cami was glad that he'd asked that. She was picking that up too.
Malcolm frowned, then hesitated. "Strictly off the record, we had a lot of accounting anomalies when he was working for us. I suspected that he was skimming off the top, but I couldn't get any proof. I stopped trusting him. I didn't think he was working for the good of the company, and I didn't think he was the kind of person I wanted to be in business with, ever."
"And who is he? What's his name?" Connor asked.
"His name's Scott Ledger, and he started a company called Global Security. Their offices are just down the road. Scott runs his business from three blocks down," Malcolm said, pointing.
"We'll be on our way," Connor said. "Thanks for the information."
But Malcolm shook his head. "I'm not sure how helpful it will be. If you're going to walk into Scott Ledger's business and start questioning him about crimes, be prepared for pushback, that's all I'm saying," he warned. "In fact, not just pushback, but actual counter-attack. That's who he is. You need to be careful."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
An untrustworthy ex-partner? Cami couldn’t wait to get to the nearby offices of the competing Global Security firm.
At the same time, Malcolm's warning made her nervous. Scott sounded like a difficult person, and it seemed as if he was no pushover when it came to defending his interests.
Connor, of course, didn't show that he was nervous at all. He simply headed out, after thanking Malcolm, and they got into his car.
Peering through the window as Connor drove, Cami saw immediately when Global Security's offices came into view. The offices were so well sign posted, with bright crimson, aggressive branding, that she wondered immediately if Scott was embarking on a signage war with his ex-partner.
The parking lot was surrounded by a stark, gray painted wall. It was manned by a security boom. When Connor showed his FBI credentials, the guard unsmilingly raised the boom. But he didn't look happy about it.
