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He shrugged, almost but not quite agreeing. “It happened a while ago, but it’s still pretty painful. If you don’t mind, Bash, I’d really rather not talk about it.”
“No, of course. I don’t mean to pry.”
“I just thought,” Austin went on bleakly, “that if emergency response had been better coordinated with doctor communication and a real-time data collection and assessment tool… maybe things would have been different. And then when I started thinking about it, it seemed like a natural companion piece to the stoplight communication technology that launched Sterling Chase years ago.” Austin met my eyes with stark sincerity. “I realized just how many people we could help with something like this.”
“And I’m so glad you did,” I managed to choke out. I pushed to my feet. “Well. I won’t keep you any longer. I know you’ve got a celebration to get to.”
Austin stood and gave me a brave smile. “I do. And I’ll see you there later?”
“I have a few things to tie up here first,” I said vaguely.
The minute Austin cleared the doorway, I stood and paced the area in front of my desk. “Holy shit,” I muttered under my breath. “Holy shit.”
“What’s going on?” Kenji stood in the doorway, frowning at me. “Is everything okay?”
“Close the door,” I told him. Then, “Kenji, if two people told you the same exact story, and one of them was almost definitely lying, would you believe the man you’d worked with for years—someone you liked and admired andtrusted—or would you believe a guy you’d known for two days, who’d lied to you repeatedly, and who… who had every reason to lie to you again?”
Kenji sucked in a breath and then pulled out a chair and sat down. “I’m going to need more details.”
I filled him in on everything Austin had said, along with the story Rowe had told me.
“That would be an incredible coincidence.” Kenji pulled at his lip. “It could simplybea coincidence, Bash. I mean, how many cases of that heart thing occur every year in the United States?”
“But both Rowe’s sister and Austin’s friend had a heart defect that medical records would have notified EMTs about? This was the motivationbothof them had for coming up with their projects?”
“Okay, yes. That’s slightly more suspicious.” He nodded slowly. “You think Rowe’s lied to you again?”
It made the most sense. Maybe that was the logical conclusion here. After all, why in the world would a well-educated, experienced, successful businessman like Austin Purcell—with so much to lose—have stolen an idea from someone like Rowe Prince. But…
“No,” I whispered. “I really don’t. If you’d seen his face, Kenji…” I dropped heavily into my chair. “What do I do? How do I prove that Austin stole Rowe’s project?”
Kenji shook his head. “Bash, you’re three steps ahead of yourself. I’m not defending Austin,believe me, but you don’t even know for sure what Rowe’s project is—”
Except I did. I remembered, way too late, how excited he’d been last weekend when I talked about Sterling Chase working on a project that dovetailed with ETC. It had been on the tip of his tongue to tell me about his project then, and looking back, I knew it. But I’d let the moment go.
“Fine,” Kenji said, tapping on his tablet. “Step one, we go back to the initial documentation Austin submitted with this project. There are records of everything, and Clarissa must’ve reviewed it all. So, we’ll look through it and see if there are…clues.” He rolled his eyes. “And just like that, I’m Jessica Fletcher. Working for you people is never dull.”
I laughed and ran a hand over my eyes. “Christ. I think you’ll find therearen’trecords. Not all of them, anyway. Austin was just telling me he’s misplaced several key pieces of documentation from his early research.Oops.”
Kenji froze, his jaw hanging open. “He fucking knows better.”
“Yes, he does. Put that together with the fact that Rowe’s submission seems to have been misplaced—”
“Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m serious, Bash. There are legal issues at play here, okay? Patent issues, Human Resources issues, not to mention your reputation, Austin’s reputation, and the reputation of the company. Contact Legal before you do anything.”
I swallowed. “No, you’re right. I know you are. Okay, why don’t you do that. Quietly. Ask them to slow-roll the patents and beta testing until we get this squared away. And we need a background check on Austin. Find out where he grew up and see if we can confirm that his story about his friend is true.” Kenji nodded. “While you’re at it, get a deeper background on Rowe—not for stalking purposes.”
“On it,” Kenji agreed, standing up.
“I’m going to start checking through the remaining files on MRO.” I turned to my laptop. “I really, really hope you’re right and there’s a reasonable explanation for all of this.”
“Same. I, uh… take it you’re skipping Austin’s celebration lunch, then? If you want, I can go snag you a burrito before the festivities begin. I think they’re setting up soon.”
My head shot up and whipped to Kenji. “Say that again?”
“I said, I can go grab you a burrito…?”
I pushed to my feet. “Austin ordered his team burritos.”
