Chapter Fifty-Six Aftershocks
Thorn
Thorn knocked on Harvey’s office door and let himself in when he was told to enter. The tall, slender man stood as Thorn came in and inclined his head in greeting.
“How was your drive?” Thorn asked as he took a seat. Despite their different backgrounds, service records, and ways of reacting to situations, there was a deep mutual respect and friendship between them.
“Long.” Harvey sat, running a hand through his short steel grey hair. “Driving through the Catskills at night is a pain.” He looked at Thorn, weary resignation in his eyes. “So? Fill me in on things here.”
Thorn stretched his legs out, crossing his ankles.
“According to Evie, Alex has been short-tempered and moody with her for about two months. Last night, while she was getting ready to come to my apartment to watch a movie, he confronted her about how much time she has been spending with Aaron Denton.”
Harvey raised an eyebrow. “The guy from Consulting who sometimes trains the security guards?”
Thorn nodded. “Yes. And they have been spending a lot of time together.” He still found that surprising.
Evie used to complain about how annoying Aaron was.
“They like the same types of shows, movies and books and enjoy discussing them. Anyway, another Security Services employee, Crystal Furlong, has apparently been interested in Alex for a while. She told him she noticed Evie spending time with Aaron and sent him three videos as proof.”
“Do you think Evie was cheating on Alex with him?” Harvey leaned forward, steepling his fingers. Thorn frowned and rubbed his jaw as he considered it. His first instinct was to defend Evie, but he knew he had to stay objective.
“No.” He shook his head after a moment. “She is very physically affectionate with people she is close to. She loves to hug and cuddle, and she does not do that with Aaron unless she is comforting him, which tells me she does not feel close to him in that way. Evie needs to feel close to someone to be with them intimately.”
“I think it was more a matter of finding someone she could talk to about her interests without feeling like she was being tolerated, and someone who was not pressuring her for anything more than friendship.”
Harvey nodded, looking satisfied. “Do you think Aaron was trying to steal Evie from Alex?”
Thorn shook his head slowly. “Aaron’s wife, Paula, was killed in June. Their relationship was very self-contained, and I think he is lonely. He has since gravitated more to the women in the office, but he has the most in common with Evie.”
“I think Aaron is physically attracted to Evie, but she is very different from his wife. I do not think he would handle Evie’s need for physical affection well, especially if it did not lead to intercourse.
” He paused, thinking it through. “It seems more like proximity and comfort than romantic intent.”
Harvey made a note on the legal pad beside him. “What happened when Alex confronted Evie?”
“She broke up with him. She was tired of his moods and what she felt was manipulative behaviour.” Thorn allowed himself a small, proud smile.
Evie had come a long way in asserting herself.
He still felt she gave too many opportunities for change and saw minor improvements as bigger accomplishments than they were, but she had her limits, and she held them.
“How did she find out he was using the cameras to watch her?”
Thorn chuckled, remembering how proud she had been. “Evie is especially good at eliciting information using conversational traps. She will be able to explain it better than I can.”
“And then you told Tommy what she said.” Harvey made a few more notes. Thorn nodded, pulled the folded spreadsheet and USB from his pocket, and passed them over.
“Yes. It would be one thing if he were only accessing the Tower’s security cameras, but knowing what I know about Alex’s personality, I knew he would do anything he could to find proof.”
Harvey plugged in the USB. When the folder opened, his eyes went wide at the number of videos. “Jesus Christ. All these in two months?”
Thorn nodded. “Yes, but most of them are short clips from the elevator or lobby.” He tapped the spreadsheet.
“He accessed the security cameras of one of our clients, Honey Oven Bakery and Cafe, on thirteen occasions to monitor her when she was there with Aaron, and there are thirty-three videos filmed on cell phones. Eleven were inside Sherlock’s Pub, the others were from following them to and from the pub. ”
Harvey let out a low whistle. “How did he know when she’d be there?”
“She would tell him.” Thorn shrugged. “Every time she went to the bakery or pub and was going to be alone with Aaron, she would text him with the time and invite him to join them. He was also tracking her car with an OBD-II tracking module. Aaron lives in Astoria, so I think he was trying to catch her going there.”
Harvey picked up the spreadsheet and looked it over.
“She wasn’t spending that much time with Aaron.
” After a moment, he set it down. “It looks like a lot when you see the numbers.
Thirty-nine out of seventy-seven days sounds high.
But in reality, most of these were lunches, so they were together for maybe an hour and a half.
And Nissa joined them almost half the time.
Even at Sherlock's, it looks like it was dinner, and she was usually back in the Tower within two hours.”
He glanced at the clock. “She should be here soon. Is there anything else you can tell me?”
Thorn rubbed his chin. “With the number of videos filmed on a cell phone, we are concerned that Alex used multiple Security Services employees to spy on them. Aaron would have noticed the same person following them or sitting near them. Vanessa is looking into it, but she may need assistance.”
**********
Evie
“Evie.”
Evie slowly opened her eyes and looked around in confusion.
Her last memory was being cuddled into Thorn’s side while watching the Trolls movie.
Now she was in her bedroom in Tommy’s penthouse.
She turned over and pressed her face into the pillow.
Thorn must have brought her down to bed after she passed out.
“Evie.” A small hand touched her shoulder and shook gently. “Come on, Honey, you have to get up and shower. You have a meeting in an hour.”
“Nissa?” She turned her head and saw the petite woman sitting beside her. “What do you mean, I have a meeting? It’s Saturday.”
“I know. A lot happened last night.” Nissa stood. “Get up, shower, and get dressed. I’ll explain over breakfast.”
Twenty minutes later, feeling more awake after a shower, Evie joined Nissa at the breakfast table. Her stomach rumbled at the smell of French toast and maple syrup.
“What happened last night?” she asked as Nissa set a glass of apple juice beside her plate and sat down.
“After you told Thorn that Alex admitted to watching you on the Tower’s security cameras, he became concerned that Alex might have accessed clients’ systems to watch you while you were there. He came down and told Tommy. Tommy looked into it, and what he found was… disturbing, to say the least.”
Evie frowned as Nissa slid a piece of paper toward her. She picked it up, eyes narrowing at the spreadsheet full of dates, times, and locations. “What the hell…” She scanned the rows. Sherlock’s Pub. Honey Oven Cafe. The only places she went when she wanted out of the Tower.
She looked up at Nissa, holding up the paper. “What’s all this?”
“That’s a spreadsheet of every time you and Aaron went to Sherlock’s or the Honey Oven in the last two months.
” Nissa reached out and laid a hand on her arm.
“Alex wasn’t just watching you on the Tower cameras.
He was having you two followed to Sherlock’s, and he accessed the Honey Oven’s cameras from his office whenever you were there. ”
Evie rolled her eyes and tossed the spreadsheet onto the table with a scoff.
“Of course he was. Because why talk to me like an adult? What would that accomplish?” She folded her arms, slumping back.
She had never felt so violated, so angry, and so embarrassed in her life.
Even Oscar selling her horse after “stumbling” onto bestiality porn because he thought she might be tempted hadn’t felt like this.
“Yeah.” Nissa rubbed her arm soothingly. “I’m sorry, Honey. Tommy just left to fire him.”
Evie shrugged. Despite everything she felt, the only thing that truly surprised her was that he’d accessed the Honey Oven cameras. He had to know that was an automatic firing and a lifetime blacklist from security work. “Good,” she muttered. “Is he tossing him out of my apartment, too?”
“Unfortunately, because he signed a lease, you have to give him the thirty days. Tommy and Thorn restricted his access to the rest of the Tower, though. He has to be escorted by a guard at all times. If he wants to leave the apartment, he has to call the security desk and ask for someone to ride the elevator with him.” Nissa smirked.
“Tommy’s hoping to shame him into leaving quickly. ”
Evie snorted, a small smile lifting her mouth. “Gotta love how Tommy’s brain works sometimes.”
“Right?” Nissa giggled, then her expression turned sympathetic again.
“Anyway, because of your high security clearance and because Alex violated a customer's contract and was stalking you, there has to be an investigation to make sure he never accessed anything he shouldn’t have. And unfortunately, that means we have to suspend you, with pay, until the investigation is done.”
Evie stared at her, feeling like she’d been stabbed.
“You think I let him access information?” Her lower lip trembled as she blinked back tears, hurt that Tommy, Thorn, and Nissa might think she would ever allow that.