Chapter Fifty-Five The Breach #3
“Christ.” Tommy shook his head, turning back to the screen. “I’m not sure why he thought she was cheating.” He nodded at Evie’s phone. “I looked through her and Alex’s texts. Every time she went for lunch with Aaron, she told him the details. Where and when and asked if he wanted to join them.”
“She was helping him stalk her without realizing it.” Thorn leaned over Tommy’s shoulder, resting his hand on the desk as he studied the screen. “Did he access any of the clients' systems?”
“Just one.” Tommy clicked on a folder, revealing dozens of saved video files. “The Honey Oven Bakery he had to admit; Evie had been spending a lot of time with Aaron.
There were one hundred and sixty-one videos taken within about three months, plus the first three.
Although, to be fair, there were thirteen days that had four videos, and eleven with six.
“Taking the first three videos out of the equation, it looks like he surveilled her and Aaron thirty-nine times in seventy-seven days,” Tommy said, pulling up a spreadsheet and entering the data, needing it to confront Alex, to show Evie and Aaron, for the internal investigation, and in case Evie wanted to get a restraining order.
“We need to find out who he had following them and fire them if they work here. Can I ask you and Nissa to get Aaron to come in and inform him and Evie of what we discovered, and have Harvey debrief them?” He glanced at the time.
It was already five in the morning, and he had a lot to do in the next few hours.
I’d talk to them myself, but I have to inform our legal team, confront Alex, then speak to the owner of the Honey Oven and tell them about the security breach. ”
“No problem.” Thorn stretched. “I will go bring Nissa up to speed and have her call Aaron in while I check on Evie, get the name of who told Alex about her and Aaron and send it to you. Vanessa and Harvey should be here soon; both said they would be here as quickly as possible when I spoke to them.”
“Is Vanessa well enough to come in?” Tommy glanced up at Thorn, concerned, both for her health and for the other employees’. Thorn nodded as he headed to the door.
“Her doctor cleared her yesterday afternoon. She was coming back on Monday.”
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When Tommy finished going through the videos, he was in shock.
He had no idea how Alex had found the time to do all of this.
Out of the one hundred and sixty-one videos on his computer, thirteen were taken from the Honey Oven’s security system, thirty-three were filmed on a cellphone either inside Sherlock’s Pub or following them as they walked to or from there, and the rest were from inside the elevators and lobby.
The sheer number of cellphone videos told Tommy that Alex had more than one person following them, because Aaron would have noticed the same person trailing them, sitting close enough to film, then leaving at the same time and following them back to the Tower.
Aaron, like Cole, sometimes trained the security guards in self-defence, so there was a good chance he would recognize anyone employed by them.
Tommy hoped Alex hadn’t pulled in employees, but he would have Vanessa check.
She could decide the fate of any guard who had followed Evie on Alex’s behalf.
If he or Thorn investigated it, they would fire everyone involved immediately, with no consideration beyond the fact that they had dared to follow her.
Shaking his head in complete disbelief, Tommy printed a dozen copies of the spreadsheet he had made, transferred the folder with all the videos to four different USBs and left Alex’s former office to start dealing with the fallout of Alex’s insanely bad judgment.
**********
He stopped by Vanessa’s office and filled her in on everything he knew so far.
Vanessa was flabbergasted that Alex would do something so stupid, because even if he hadn’t walked into Evie’s trap and accidentally admitted to using the security cameras in the Tower, everybody’s computers were monitored.
Random audits were conducted constantly, with each terminal checked at least once a quarter.
All employees knew about the audits, but they never knew when they would happen or how often their terminals would be targeted. They could be audited up to five times in one quarter, so Alex had been extremely lucky while he tempted fate.