Chapter 9 #2
“This had to be you or someone else at Zodiac. I don’t know who, but I will find out,” Slade said. “You’ve been warned. I will get you for this, Billy.”
“No need for threats. You’re not the only ones with security and cameras.”
Slade clenched his fists and then let them relax. He could feel Quaid move up behind him, putting his hand on his shoulder in support.
Quaid knew he had to be close to the edge. His temper was something he’d always struggled with.
Turning without another word, Slade strode out of there.
“Fucking bastard!” he yelled as soon as they were in his car. He slammed his hand on the steering wheel. “Why the fuck would he try to blame Indie?”
“She does have access to the apartment,” Quaid offered calmly as he tapped on his phone. “And you kept a back-up of the bid on a pen drive there.”
“So? She’s had access since it was built and we moved in. She’s never stolen anything from us. And the pen drive was kept in my safe. How would she even know that I kept back-ups in it?”
“Think back,” Quaid said. “Have you ever put stuff away in the safe while she was there?”
“God, probably. And my dad was always going on about keeping back-ups at home and at the office in case of fire or theft. Fuck. But that doesn’t mean she could access the safe.”
“What’s the code to get in?” Quaid asked.
Slade breathed in deep and let it out slowly. “Her birthday. There’s no way, Quaid. She’s ours.”
“No, she’s his,” Quaid replied.
“She wouldn’t do this. It could have been someone else. She’s not the only one with access to the penthouse,” Slade argued as Quaid ended the call.
“Billy could have pressured her into it,” Quaid told him.
He didn’t want to believe it. She wouldn’t.
Would she?
Slade hated that doubt was stirring. He drove back home as Quaid worked on his phone. When they reached the penthouse, he walked straight into his office, going to the safe while Quaid sat at his computer, bringing up the security footage.
There was the pen drive. He let out a sigh of relief.
“She could have copied it,” Quaid pointed out.
Rock walked in, silent as usual. His face stony.
“Billy implied it was Indie,” Slade told him.
“I’ve updated Spencer and Rock,” Quaid told him as Spencer raced in, breathless.
“She wouldn’t do this,” Spencer said.
The three of them glared at Quaid who sighed and pinched the top of his nose. Which was a big display of emotion for him.
Slade’s phone buzzed. A group message from Rock.
Rock: Why would she do this? It makes no sense. She has no reason to betray us.
“Exactly,” Spencer added. “It makes no sense.”
“Unless Billy has corrupted her,” Quaid said. “He implied she did it for money, that she’s more like her mother than we realized.”
“Nice thing to say about the woman you supposedly love.” Spencer groaned as he sat, resting his head in his hands. “I don’t want to believe it.”
None of them did.
Rock stood there, watching them all arguing over whether Indie could have done this. Whether she could have used them, stolen from them, to help Billy.
Fucking twat that he was.
Rock had always hated him. He was a smug, up-himself bastard. But mostly he hated him because he had Indie.
And you want her .
He refused to believe she’d done this.
“So she had access to the penthouse. Access to the safe. She might have known that Slade kept back-ups in there,” Quaid said. “All we have to do is put her in the penthouse without us here in the last few days.”
Spencer leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. “Fucking Billy.”
“Fuck. Here it is,” Quaid said.
They all crowded around the computer as Rock stared at the video of Indie walking toward their front door several days ago.
“What about leaving?” Slade asked.
Quaid moved it forward. About thirty minutes later, she walked out.
Fuck.
Nope. This didn’t feel right. They could barely see anything of her face. What if it wasn’t her? What if Billy had done something with the computer footage? Rock reached for his phone.
Rock: Could be doctored. How do we know Billy didn’t somehow do this?
Quaid nodded. “I’ll have Shepherd look at it. But to my knowledge, Billy isn’t some computer genius or hacker.”
Shepherd was a guy that they’d gone to school with who now owned his own security firm.
“He could have had help,” Spencer offered weakly.
But at this point, Rock could see that all three of them were starting to doubt Indie.
There was even a kernel of doubt in his mind. But his gut said to trust her. They all debated back and forth for a while until Quaid’s phone rang.
“Shepherd, yeah, you saw it? Wait, I’ll put you on speaker.”
“I just watched the footage you sent me of Indie coming in and out of your penthouse. That puts her in the penthouse at the right time. None of you were home then? ”
“I haven’t seen her since that fucking lunch at dad’s place,” Slade said.
“Same,” Spencer said.
“None of us were here,” Quaid said, looking up at Rock who nodded reluctantly.
He’d love to give her an alibi, but he couldn’t.
“Can you tell if it’s been doctored?” Slade asked.
“That was my first thought,” Shepherd said grimly. “But I put a watermark in the system. And it’s in this video footage. It’s real.”
Rock could barely breathe. It wasn’t like they’d seen her take the pen drive from the safe. But this was getting worse and worse.
“We should just fucking ask her,” Spencer said. “Text and ask her.”
Rock didn’t know if he could take much more. He moved back to leaning against the wall by the door.
“She barely replies to me anymore,” Slade said. “I was shocked when she said she wanted to come stay with us. She’s been so distant lately.”
“Because she knew she was going to steal from us?” Quaid suggested. “Is that why she’s been pulling away and acting weird?”
“I don’t want to believe it,” Spencer said, shaking his head. “But it’s right there in front of our faces.”
“Sorry guys,” Shepherd said. “Want me to do anything else? I’m still trying to find who is actually behind Zodiac Construction. They’ve hidden their identity well.”
“We’ll just need to change our personal security codes for the penthouse,” Slade said. “I’ll change the safe one. But no, thanks.”
The call ended and they stared at each other.
Rock: I want to ask her.
“I can’t see her,” Quaid said.
“Message her,” Slade replied. “Ask her. ”
Rock realized he was shaking slightly as he typed out a message to her. This was it. The final thing that might put a nail in the coffin of her guilt. How did he word this? Anything he thought of sounded like an accusation.
Suddenly a message appeared in a group chat that included them all, including Indie. From Quaid.
He glanced up at him.
Quaid shrugged. “I didn’t think you would ask her straight out. And we need to be clear.”
Quaid: Indie did you take some information off a pen drive in Slade’s home safe and give it to Billy?
That sounded too accusatory.
Rock glared at him.
“We can’t be soft with her, Rock. We’ve give her the benefit of the doubt over and over.
To his surprise, a message came back almost straight away.
Indie: I think it would be best if you didn’t contact me anymore.
Fuck. It wasn’t an admission of guilt exactly. But it wasn’t denial either. Wouldn’t an innocent person have just said no?
Glancing around, he could see the sting of doubt on the others faces. And if he was honest with himself, he felt that kernel of doubt inside him grow bigger.
But why would she do this to them?
“There’s no forgiving this,” Slade said, trying to hide his devastation. “She’s out. ”
Quaid nodded immediately, the way he knew he would. His best friend was always with him on everything. He’d been the hardest for Indie to win over. And he could now become her greatest enemy.
He looked to Spencer. Of them all, he had the biggest heart.
Spencer appeared miserable as he nodded. “I still have trouble believing it, but . . .”
“The proof is right there.” Slade pointed to the screen at Indie standing by the penthouse door.
He ground his teeth together which wasn’t going to help his headache at all.
Spencer nodded. “I know. I just . . . she was meant to be ours. I’ve waited for fucking ever for her to be ours.” Getting up, he walked out of the room
Slade turned to Rock.
Rock just shook his head, whatever that meant. Normally, they were good at reading him. But not this time.
“Rock,” Slade said slowly.
He grabbed out his phone and sent them a message.
Rock: I get it. She betrayed us. I just can’t be happy about losing her. Not when I’ve wanted her this long.
And then he left the room too.
She’d fucking destroyed all of them.