Chapter Fifty-Six Aftershocks #2
“No, no, no.” Nissa shook her head and wrapped her arms around her, rubbing her back.
“Of course not. But he could have accessed things without you noticing. You can log into your Sloane Consulting account from your computer at home, and if you forgot to log out even once, he could have taken advantage of that.”
She pulled back and held Evie’s shoulders. “Thorn and Harvey also have to assess how much of a threat he is to you and Aaron. So suspending you is also for your safety. You’ll be staying here with Tommy and me or with Thorn until this is over, okay?”
Evie nodded miserably. She wished she’d never met Alex. “God, what was he thinking?” she groaned, leaning forward and putting her head on Nissa’s shoulder.
“I don’t know what he was thinking, but I think he was jealous you had more in common with Aaron than you did with him.” Nissa brushed Evie’s hair off her face. “Come on, you have to be in Harvey’s office at ten, and I have to meet with Aaron and fill him in.”
**********
Evie entered Harvey’s office nervously, feeling like she’d been sent to the principal's office. Harvey and Thorn both stood up and smiled as they greeted her.
“Don’t look so worried, Evie,” Harvey chuckled as she sat down in the chair Thorn had been sitting in.
“I’m just asking a few questions to help us figure out if you need a protective detail until all of this is over, and to make sure Alex hasn’t been into things he shouldn’t be.
” He nodded toward where Thorn was sitting quietly to the side.
“Thorn is going to stay, both for your comfort and to provide insight.”
Evie nodded, clasping her hands in her lap. “Sounds good.”
He set a small recorder on the desk and switched it on. “Okay. Can you go over what happened last night with me?”
Evie nodded and launched into everything she remembered from the confrontation with Alex.
When she got to the part about tricking him into admitting he was watching her on the cameras, Harvey’s lips twitched into a slight smile, but he didn’t interrupt.
When she finished, he made a small note on the legal pad next to him.
“What made you think he was watching you?”
Evie chewed her lower lip, trying to pinpoint it.
“Because he wasn’t just upset or angry,” she said slowly.
“He was frustrated. He didn’t accuse me of cheating; he didn’t say I know you're screwing around. He asked what was going on between Aaron and me, like he couldn’t figure it out. ” She shrugged.
“He said someone told him there was more than Aaron and me just getting lunch together, but then, when I asked if that was why he’d been acting like a pill, he asked how he was supposed to act when his girlfriend is getting cozy with another man. Like he’d seen me with him.”
“You have good instincts.” Harvey smiled. “Before last night, did you think he might be monitoring or tracking you? Did he ever know where you were without you telling him?”
Evie shook her head. “No. I didn’t think I gave him a reason to. If Aaron and I were getting lunch together, just the two of us, I’d tell him and ask him to come with us. Did I know he was going to turn me down? Yes. But I still made the offer.”
Harvey tilted his head slightly. “How did you know he’d turn you down?”
“Because he came out with us once back in November and didn’t enjoy it,” she explained, and when Harvey raised his eyebrow, she elaborated.
“Alex is very friendly and outgoing, and he has thousands of ‘friends’ on social media. He loves huge parties, clubbing, concerts, and then on the opposite end of the scale, he spends three weeks every summer hiking alone.”
“He can’t do deep conversations and discussions. He can talk about work, he can tell you little anecdotes about hiking, and he is the absolute king of small talk. Put him one-on-one or in a small group, when he runs out of things to talk about, he just goes quiet and gets bored.”
Evie shifted, crossing her legs. “And when Aaron and I hang out, we talk about things Alex doesn’t understand or enjoy. And at that time, he told me he was happy I had Aaron to talk to about those things because it meant I wouldn’t bore him with them anymore.”
“I wonder what he thought would happen.” Harvey shook his head and huffed. “Right, well. Did he ever make you feel unsafe?”
“No,” she shook her head, and then she remembered the way he acted in the bedroom. “He sometimes made me uncomfortable by pushing boundaries in the bedroom, but he backed down when he was told to. But for the most part, Alex is a teddy bear. He’s kind, considerate, and very loving.”
Running her fingers through her hair, she let out a sigh.
“Nissa once told me he seemed like a boy who wasn’t told no enough growing up, and after meeting his parents, I can confirm.
He’s an only child and the only boy in his extended family.
He’s spoiled and used to doing whatever he wants without consequences. ”
Harvey made another note. “Okay, I think that gives me a good idea of the relationship dynamics and who he is. Has he ever had access to your devices?”
“No,” Evie said firmly. She knew for a fact that Alex had never been able to access her things, and it wasn’t just because she worked for a secretive company or because she grew up with Tommy teaching her about computers and technology.
Both her mother and her father had demanded full access to her computers as she grew up, so she’d learned early how to hide her activity and protect her privacy.
“You sound very sure.” Harvey raised his eyebrow. “How come?”
“Because every time I step away from my computer to use the bathroom, get a drink, or talk to someone, I lock it. If I’m done for the day or know I’m going to be away for longer than fifteen to twenty minutes, I turn it off completely.
And I’ve been doing that since I was a teenager; it’s muscle memory at this point.
I don’t even think about it,” she explained.
“And with the exception of my phone, it’s the same with all my devices. ”
“Could he access your phone?” Harvey made another note.
“He could, but he couldn’t access anything work-related on my phone. It’s in a locked, hidden drive.” She hesitated, glancing at Thorn, not sure if Harvey knew about HELIX or not.
“Besides, I have a foolproof backup that prevents him from accessing my devices when I’m not home.”
Thorn cleared his throat. “I can confirm she does, but you will have to talk to Tommy for more information about it.”
Harvey nodded, his eyes flicking between them, but if he was curious about what they were talking about, he didn’t comment. “Okay, last question. Did you and Aaron discuss anything related to Sloane Enterprises or your jobs when you met up?”
“If something funny or weird happened, sure, like the raccoon incident. But nothing related to our jobs.” She shrugged. “We hang out to talk about Doctor Who or the latest Marvel movie, not work.”
Harvey glanced at the clock. “We have a few minutes before Aaron comes in. The raccoon incident?”
Evie grinned and let out a giggle. “Yeah, a raccoon somehow managed to get into the stairwell, probably from the parking garage or the loading bay, and got stuck. According to the security feeds, it was in there for at least three days. Not many people use the stairwell from the lower floors; the elevator is faster, but sometimes on the upper floors, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, it can take a while. ”
“Aaron was on the eighty-fifth floor and decided to take the stairs to the eighty-second. When he opened the door, the raccoon shot between his legs and disappeared. Aaron immediately shut the door and ran down to tell Nissa to call animal control. Thorn and I were curious and went up to see if we could find it, and in the fifteen-ish minutes between it getting into the Dorm and Thorn and me getting upstairs, it had gotten into the fridge and eaten everything it could tear open.”