Chapter 30
CHAPTER 30
O live stared at Jason, wanting to believe him. He appeared to be telling the truth.
But if he was . . . that meant someone really had set him up.
“Do you believe me?” Caution still edged Jason’s voice.
She swallowed hard as she considered her words. Then she nodded. “I do.”
“Good. Then I won’t ask you to explain where you got that video.”
She hadn’t planned on explaining anyway. But she didn’t say those words aloud.
It was clear someone was trying to set Jason up. Now she needed to figure out who.
Adriana had quickly moved up on her suspect list.
Olive licked her lips before asking, “When did you say Adriana is supposed to return home from her trip?”
“Tomorrow morning.” Jason stared at her, an unreadable look in his eyes.
“Are you picking her up at the airport?”
“No, she’s going to take a cab back to her apartment. Then we’re supposed to meet for lunch.”
Olive nodded slowly as she thought through his words. “I think you should keep that lunch date and try to feel her out.”
Jason didn’t say anything. Instead, he just stared ahead stoically.
“Where does she live?” Olive continued to press. Her question might be insensitive, but she could hear the timer ticking in her head. She couldn’t afford to be too polite.
He rattled off Adriana’s address, which wasn’t terribly far from Olive’s place in downtown Chicago.
“Why are you asking?” Jason’s eyes flickered to meet Olive’s as he finally returned to the present. However, suspicion lingered in the depths of his gaze.
“Someone should check out her place and see if she’s really been out of town or if that was just a ploy.” Olive blanched at her blunt words. “When I say someone, I don’t mean you. You’ll be too obvious. If Adriana’s using you, then there’s a good chance she’s had someone watching you.”
His gaze darkened. “I don’t want to admit that’s true, but it might be. However, I don’t think you should go to her place either. You’re not equipped for these types of situations.”
Olive wanted to insist that she was far more equipped than he realized. But she didn’t. She couldn’t blow her cover.
“I can figure something out,” she finally said. “Or between the two of us we can.”
Silence fell for a moment, then Jason shook his head and rubbed Loki’s head again. “I just can’t believe this.”
Olive couldn’t tell if he was still angry with her or not. Probably a little—and she couldn’t blame him. But his grief had mingled with his irritation.
It would take time for him to sort through all his emotions.
Olive shifted. She still had more questions, more answers she needed. She couldn’t take a break just because of his heartache. But she hated how callous that felt.
“Why did you come home from work so suddenly, Jason? I asked Sonny, and he said you had an emergency.” She glanced around. “I don’t see anything on fire.”
“My dog sitter called,” he admitted, his voice stiff. “He said something was wrong with Loki, and he didn’t know what to do. He said Loki was having some type of seizure.”
Olive flinched. She hadn’t expected that. “And?”
“I got here, and Loki was fine, and my dog sitter was nowhere to be found.”
“Did you call him?”
“I did, but he didn’t answer.”
Her thoughts raced. “I noticed you have a security camera out front. Did you check the footage to see when this dog sitter left?”
“Of course.” Jason almost sounded insulted at her question. “According to the camera at the front of my house, Damon hasn’t been here all day.”
Olive grunted. “Is he usually responsible?”
“He came highly recommended by another neighbor. With me working long hours, I knew if I got a dog that I’d need someone to stop by every day to let him get some exercise.”
Olive nodded. Was the dog sitter in on this? Or was the dog sitter another victim and somehow in danger now too?
Another question caught her attention even more.
Could Jason have been purposefully lured from the office? And, if so, why?
What was someone hoping to do while he was gone?
Olive didn’t plan on simply returning to her normally scheduled day and going through the motions as if nothing had happened.
Instead, she continued to question Jason. “Do you know this guy’s address? Damon, you said his name was.”
“I’m sure it’s on my paperwork somewhere. I had him sign a contract.”
“We should go pay him a visit.”
Jason tilted his head as he studied Olive. “I was thinking the same thing, but I didn’t want to drag you into this.”
“So you were just waiting for me to leave so you could take off? I want to go with you.”
He quickly—and adamantly—shook his head. “That’s a terrible idea.”
She stood and popped a hip out, giving him the stare down. “Look, I know you think I’m simply a computer-surfing corporate investigator. But I can handle this. I promise you I can.”
Jason stared at her another moment as if trying to figure out if he believed her. Then he nodded curtly. “Fine. But I’m bringing Loki with me too. If that’s a problem then?—”
“It’s not a problem.”
“Good.” He rose and clicked his tongue for Loki to rise also. “Then we should get going.”
“I’m ready when you are.”
A few minutes later, they stepped outside. Darkness had fully fallen around them.
It seemed especially deep right now, almost as if the night sky were closing in on them.
She shoved the thought aside as she climbed into Jason’s Range Rover. He started the vehicle and plugged the address into his GPS.
Once they were on the road, Olive asked another question she’d been wanting to voice aloud. “Why would someone want you to come home? Or maybe I should say, why did someone want to get you away from the office?”
Jason’s jaw visibly tightened. “I’ve been trying to figure that out also, and I’m not sure. I have a very competent team at Conglomerate. They can handle things when I’m not there. They do every day, but today I just happened to leave two hours early.”
“But why today? Was there some kind of event happening I’m not aware of?”
“No, it’s just a normal day. There are no special meetings or guests scheduled.”
Olive thought about it a moment. “Did anything happen in the two hours you’ve been gone? Any incidents you’ve been made aware of?”
“No. If something had happened, I would have heard about it by now. I haven’t gotten any alerts of any kind.”
Olive leaned back and crossed her arms. “The whole thing is strange. There’s obviously a reason someone did this. You don’t think your camera somehow missed Damon coming and that Loki really did have a seizure, do you?”
He glanced back at his dog as the canine panted happily in the back seat. “I checked Loki out, and he appears fine. My security system is top of the line. I’m nearly certain Damon wasn’t there all day. Besides, I would have gotten a notice on my smart lock as well.”
This was one of those instances where technology could be a friend instead of a foe. Sometimes, Olive wasn’t sure where it fell. The ambiguity was too unsettling—like in the case of this smart dust.
Her thoughts continued to race as they headed down the road.
“What are you thinking?” Jason stole a glance at her as he gripped the steering wheel.
“I keep thinking about this smart dust. If it really is as dangerous as Bennett said, and if there truly is concern about it getting into the wrong hands, then why not lock the specs away so it’s not able to be accessed? So no one can get their hands on it?”
“That’s why the company stored it in the SCI corridor.”
“But the information is still able to be accessed there. All the executives can get into that corridor whenever they want. So can Alex. Maybe even you.” Her throat burned as she added that last part.
However, she knew her words were the truth. She wanted to see Jason’s reaction.
But he hardly reacted at all. In fact, he appeared unaffected by the statement. “That’s all true. But in order to get on the computer network in that area to see any of those specific plans, you need a special code.”
“Execs have one code . . .” Olive said.
“And so does Alex,” Jason finished.
She let that information sink in. “The company certainly has placed a lot of faith in Alex, haven’t they?”
“Yeah, I guess you could say that. But he was an intelligence officer with the FBI before he was with us, so I’d say he’s qualified.”
“And trustworthy?”
Jason glanced at her. “Is anyone truly trustworthy?”
Olive’s throat swelled at his statement. She couldn’t argue with his words. They were the truth.
Everyone she’d ever trusted had let her down, with the exception of her sisters. They’d been too young.
Okay, maybe Jason hadn’t let her down. She’d been the one to leave, though it had been against her will. But he would eventually let her down. It was just a part of life . . . but it was a part of life she didn’t like.
Back when her father had been a pastor, he often said that people would let them down, but God never would.
The thought was nice, but Olive wasn’t sure she believed it.
She’d struggled with her faith for a long time. She wanted to believe, but sometimes she felt like church was the biggest con of all—a gathering where naive people believed what they wanted to believe.
She still wasn’t even sure her dad’s faith had been real. Maybe he’d only pretended to be called to the ministry, but he had ulterior motives. Had he funneled money from the offering plate? Or maybe he’d just enjoyed the control given to him by people so willing to follow? The people who’d put him on a pedestal.
She still didn’t know, and the uncertainties haunted her.
They pulled up to Damon’s townhouse. It was located in an old part of town, one with broken-down cars lining the streets, trash cans permanently sitting on the curb, and items from those trash cans strewn across the dirty sidewalks.
The townhouses were dilapidated with faded shutters and doors, missing screens, and unattractive, unofficial lawn ornaments like car motors and broken patio furniture.
As she glanced at Damon’s townhouse, Olive saw that his door was wide open.
Her breath caught.
That was never a good sign.
She braced herself for whatever trouble they might find.