Chapter 42


    Like a detective on the case I had to admit that eating pizza with Aren in his super–fancy office was a


    peculiar experience. If anyone could ever look morous and captivating while shoving a pizza triangle


    in their mouth, it would be Aren. I had no idea how he pulled that off, but I should have expected that


    much. After all, his aura of dominance was as strong as ever, even when he was wearing a pair of


    jeans and a casual shirt instead of his elegant suit.


    He insisted that I go home, but I said that I wanted to stay in thepany and go through the


    surveince footage with him and Mr. rk. I was swaying on my feet, but it was also the most exciting


    and thallenging event I had ever been a part of. There was no way in hell that I would have missed it. Of


    course, I couldn‘t say it in front of Aren. I bet that he found nothing exciting about dealing with the huge


    number of problems that this hacker attack had caused...


    After I firmly stated that I wasn‘t going anywhere, Aren finally agreed for me to join the mole tracking


    squad. Unfortunately, it wasn‘t as exciting as I initially thought. Since I had narrowed down the time


    frame to an hour window, I assumed that we would find the mole quickly. What I didn‘t assume was that


    there were over twenty cameras around the department‘s corridor and entrance and that there was no


    camera directed at any of theputers in the nning department. That made everything much more


    complicated.


    An hourter, I was staring nkly at the monitor, trying to make a list of people that had a chance of


    getting closer to one of theputers. Having aplete list of employees from that department along


    with their pictures topare in front of me, I kept making notes, trying to determine a potential mole,


    but truthfully, I didn‘t feel like it was going anywhere. “Is there anything particr that we should pay


    attention to?” Mr. rk asked, taking a short break from watching his part of the footage.


    He and three other security department employees shifted their eyes from the monitors to me, seeking


    my guidance.


    –“Well... we could be looking for a sh drive which could look like... anything... But the mole could send


    the software from his phone, for example, through the Bluetooth connection.” I smiled wryly, knowing that


    my information wasn‘t helpful at all.


    “Don‘t look at the objects. Look at people instead,” Aren instructed as he stopped in between writing the


    hundredth email to manage the crisis. “We need to focus on finding the anomaly in human behavior.


    Look for anyone nervous, distracted, or oddly anxious, and put that person on the list,” he ordered.


    The five of us going through the footage nodded and got back to observing the screen with the new


    approach in mind. Unfortunately, every single face I saw on my monitor seemed equally normal or dull.


    Not a single out–of–ordinary gesture caught my attention until one person popped out on the screen–


    Davies. My heart started to pound, although it could have been normal that he was caught in the


    footage. After all, his department cooperated with the nning department rather closely. Nheless,


    I had this feeling in my gut that he wasn‘t there for any work–rted reason. He looked over his


    shoulder several times, and then I saw him calling out for one of the nners


    and stopping him in the middle of the corridor. The guy whom Davies stopped seemed a bit startled


    when Davies walked toward him. He said a few words to the nner and pointed at the nning


    department‘s open–space office. A minuteter, they both disappeared inside. A wave of wicked


    excitement rushed through me. I checked the timing mark on the footage–it said twenty past three. It


    wasn‘t the proof I wanted, but it was odd enough behavior to raise suspicion. I ignored the rest of the


    people I had put on my list before and skipped the footage on fast–forward until I saw Davies again.


    When he walked out into that corridor again, he was alone. It was ten past four. He seemed nervous– he


    kept wiping his palms on his pants and turning his head around to nce back at the office he had just


    exited from.


    “I think I‘ve found something,” I announced agitatedly.


    Aren and the others stood up and walked over to my desk to look at my screen. I showed them the parts


    of the footage where Davies entered and then walked out of the open–space office. As I watched it


    again, I became even more certain that I was looking at the mole. Was I prejudiced because I suspected


    him from the start? I suddenly started to wonder what if I wasn‘t about to use the wrong person...


    “Has anyone seen Davies in any of the other cameras‘ footage?” Aren asked, looking at Mr. rk and


    his subordinates.


    Everyone shook their heads. A sound of frustration left my throat. It was four in the morning, and we


    hadn‘t found anything solid.


    “Please, Ms. Bell, don‘t beat yourself up. You‘ve found enough for us to make use of it,” Mr. rk said.


    K Sald.


    “How is that enough?” I argued. “You gave us a reasonable suspect, and judging by hisck of


    composure, he would be easy to break during the interrogation,” he exined, his eyes dangerously


    darkening. I swallowed and looked at Aren. He smirked and patted my shoulder.


    “Mr. Ronald rk used to be a police detective, and he‘s highly efficient in cases like this one, ‘” he


    assured me.


    I smiled nervously at both men. They seemed confident about getting Davies to confess. I truly hoped


    that it was possible. Aren told his employees to go home and get some rest. He and Mr. rk nned to


    ambush Davies in the morning, as soon as he showed up at work.


    Belonging ? N?velDram/a.Org.


    “I texted Marcus. He will take you back to the penthouse. You need to go to sleep. I will stay here and


    sleep in the office as soon as I‘m done sending instructions to the managers who handled the


    intercepted project,” Aren said.


    This time I had no strength to argue. I nodded weakly and started packing my equipment. My brain was


    overloaded with information and needed a few hours of sleep to process everything. Nheless, I was


    highly unsatisfied with how little we had found.


    “Can I take the rest of the footage home?” I asked. “I just want to check something one more time when I


    wake up...”


    Aren smiled and walked over to me to ce a soft kiss on my forehead. “Of course,” he replied, and told


    someone to d******d the whole material to my sh drive.


    I couldn‘t remember the exact moment I fell asleep. It must have been about two seconds after my head


    landed on the pillow. I truly hoped that Aren took some time to sleep as well. He worked relentlessly for


    hours with little regard for his health. I might have been merely his contracted liancée, but I felt as if it


    should have been my responsibility to take care of him... or at least to make sure that he would take care


    of himself. Since, at that moment, I could do neither of those things, I decided to go to his office to check


    on himter. There was one thing that I needed to do first…


    I made myself a mug of coffee, turned on myputer, and yed the recorded footage that wasn‘t


    mine to check. There was one camera directed at the open office‘s ss door. It was the footage from


    that camera that I had to see.


    I wasn‘t certain what I was hoping for because it wasn’t possible to see any desk orputer from the


    angle of the recording. I was just about to turn it off when two people opened the ss door and kept it


    open for a while by standing on the threshold. As I looked closely, I saw an image reflected by the ss.


    “It looks like Davies...” I muttered, zooming the reflection in the recorder frame.


    Once I cleared the picture, my heart started to hammer against my chest. The chances were little to


    none, but I found the footage of Davies sitting by theputer in the nning department‘s office and


    typing something. As I thought that it couldn‘t get any better, the next few seconds of the recording


    registered him removing a sh drive from theputer’s USB port and putting it into his pocket.


    A happy scream left my throat. It was the evidence that could be used against him. It wasn‘t ideal, but it


    was like proving that he was at the crime scene at the exact time the crime took ce! Before I knew it,


    my hand was on the phone, and I was picking Aren‘s number. “Good morning, beautiful,” he answered


    with a hoarse, slightly sleepy voice. I smiled uncontrobly at the sexiness of his tone. “Good morning,


    handsome. How‘s the interrogation going?” I asked, trying to sound serious, even though the level of


    excitement was almost making me explode.


    “Not so good for now...” Aren sighed in frustration. “Ronald is pushing him, but Davies sticks to his


    version. He ims that he visited the nning department only to offer tickets for the next Yankees game


    to a friend he had there. He ims that his friend refused, and he got back to his office.”


    “Did you check that so–called friend‘s version?” I inquired.


    “We did right away,” Aren said. “His name is Jonathan Warwick. He was the person from the footage


    standing with Davies. He confirmed Davies‘s words. Furthermore, Davies says that he didn‘t even touch


    any of the nning departmentputers that day. Mycency grew by the second. “He says that


    he didn‘t touch any of theirputers all day, huh?”


    “My fiancée seems to be in a good mood I hear.” I could hear the smile rising in his voice. I chuckled.


    “You need to keep dear Mr. Davies locked up until I get there because your amazing