Chapter 31
Ari cocked his head, then ran to the front door and began to whine.
Billy glanced out the window. “Someone’s here.”
Ronan joined him. “That’s Emma.”
They went outside, Ari rushing in front of them to greet Emma as she climbed out of her vehicle. After a reunion of pets and hugs, she headed over to where Billy and Ronan waited.
“Are you all right?” Ronan asked.
“Do I look all right?” she asked.
“You look annoyed.”
“Which is exactly what I am.”
As they walked inside, Emma said to Billy, “You’re the one who sent Herb to help me?”
“I am,” Billy said. “And I take it from the fact that you’re here, he was able to.”
“He was. Thank you. If he hadn’t been there, I’d probably be locked up now. The police think I killed Katy.”
“Which is ridiculous,” Ronan said.
“Ridiculous isn’t a strong enough word for it.”
“Outrageous?”
“Closer.”
“If it eases your mind, I have the impression that not everyone at the department thinks you did it,” Billy said. “In fact, I believe the only one who does is Captain Wilson.”
“I do not like that guy,” Emma said.
“I’m willing to bet you’re not the only one.”
“Herb told me they showed up to search my house.”
“They tried,” Ronan said. “But the warrant was canceled before they went inside.”
“Just thinking about anyone touching my stuff without my permission makes me crazy.”
“The only one who did that was Marty,” Billy said.
Her eyes narrowed. “Can you show me exactly where he was?”
“I’d be happy to.”
They relocated to Emma’s workshop, and Billy stood in the spot he’d caught Marty in.
“He was looking through that stack,” Billy said, indicating the pile of papers on her desk.
Emma flipped through the sheets. “There’s nothing here he’d understand. Was there anything else he looked at?”
“That’s all I saw, but I don’t know how long he was in here before I arrived.”
“Let’s find out.”
She sat in front of her computer, and within a few moments had her security system portal open.
“You have cameras in here?” Billy said.
“I have cameras everywhere,” she replied.
“I approve.”
She found the footage of Marty’s intrusion into her workshop and let it play.
After a quick look around, he stopped at her workbench and started going through her papers. Billy arrived while he was still trying to decipher what was on them.
“That jerk,” Emma said.
“At least he didn’t touch anything else,” Ronan said.
“Do you have any idea why he might want to look through your stuff?” Billy asked.
Emma and Ronan shared a glance.
“I take it there is,” Billy said. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. But know that I only want to help.”
Emma looked unsure of what to do.
“It’s okay,” Ronan said. “You can trust him.”
“You’re sure?” she said.
“I am.”
She said nothing for a moment, then nodded to herself, seemingly satisfied, and asked Billy, “How much detail do you need?”
“Give me the abridged version now. If I need more, I’ll let you know.”
“All right.”
She picked up a paperback-sized black metal box from a shelf and handed it to him.
He flipped it around so he could look at every angle. Other than a couple of connection ports on one end, the surfaces were unmarred.
“What is this?” he asked.
“The Fluxy,” Ronan said.
“It is not the Fluxy,” Emma said.
“Sorry, the Fluxibrator.”
“It’s not the Fluxibrator, either,” she said, getting more irritated.
“We’re still working on the name,” Ronan stage-whispered. “But I think Fluxibrator is perfect.”
Emma glared at him, then said, “It’s a specialized field calibrator.” She then told Billy about its intended use and how it would likely affect the wind turbine industry.
“I’m no expert, of course,” he said, “but it sounds like it could be worth a lot of money.”
“It will be,” she said, not bragging, but only stating the truth.
“Is this something you’re developing yourself, or does your company own a piece of it?”
“It’s all mine. I’ve been working on it since grad school. I even have it in my contract that projects I come up with on my own time are solely mine.”
“That was quite generous of them.”
“I wouldn’t have taken the job otherwise. And they really wanted me, so…”
“She’s top of her field,” Ronan explained, with more than a little pride.
“I’m sensing that,” Billy said. “Does Marty know what’s in your contract? If so, it might have made him curious about what you’re working on.”
“I don’t see how. I never told him.”
“Perhaps someone at the company did?”
“The only ones who know are the president, the head of HR, and the outside counsel who drew it up. None of them would have said a word.”
“Did you happen to take any notes to work that he might have seen?”
“Never, to avoid the exact situation you’re inferring.”
“Could he have overheard you talking about it?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Actually,” Ronan said, “that very well might be it. You’ve talked about it to me on the phone several times while you were at work.”
“I have?”
“You have.”
“Then I think it would be safe to assume that’s how he found out,” Billy said.
Jaw tensing, Emma closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.
“It’s okay,” Ronan said. “He didn’t find it even though it was sitting right there.”
Her eyes snapped back open. “That’s not the point.”
She pulled out her phone.
“Who are you calling?” Ronan asked.
She said nothing until the call was answered. “Lily, it’s Dr. Perez. I need to speak to Marty.” She listened, her frown intensifying. “He’s still not back?…You did try reaching him, right?…Okay. Thank you.”
She hung up and immediately made another call.
It rang over and over until voicemail kicked in.
“Marty, it’s Emma. Call me as soon as you get this message.” She hung up.
“I take it he’s not at work,” Billy said.
“He hasn’t been back in the office since he left to bring Ari here,” Emma said.
“Maybe he really did have a meeting somewhere,” Ronan said.
“Not a chance. I would have known about it. Plus, I saw him leaving the parking lot with someone when Herb dropped me off.”
Billy frowned. “But didn’t you just say he hadn’t been back to the office since he left there with Ari?”
“He only made it as far as the parking lot. He didn’t go inside.”
“That’s strange. Do you know who he was with?”
“No, but Herb said the driver looked like someone he’d seen at his hotel.”
“What kind of car were they in?”
“It wasn’t a car. It was a motorcycle.”
The motorcyclist had to be the same one who’d followed Marty from Emma’s. Billy knew to think otherwise would be folly.
It would have also been folly to ignore the Popov connection.
Billy had no doubt the man he’d seen from Emma’s window was connected to the Belarusian. He also knew that Herb, like Popov, was staying at the Mountain View Spa & Resort, where, Herb had said, he’d seen the motorcyclist who’d driven off with Marty or someone who looked like him.
“Do either of you know someone named Victor Popov?” Billy asked.
Emma shook her head. “Never heard of him.”
Ronan, on the other hand, thought for a moment before saying, “The name sounds familiar.”
“Maybe because he was at Damian’s party?” Billy suggested.
Ronan’s eyes lit up. “That’s it. He was on the list.”
“Is he a friend of Damian’s?”
“I don’t think Damian had met him before Saturday.”
“Then how did he get an invite?”
Ronan paused again to think, then shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I can find out if you need me to. Why?”
“It’s probably nothing, so I’d rather not say right now. But if you could check, I’d appreciate it.”
“Consider it done.”
“There’s something else you both should know,” Billy said.
“What?” Emma asked.
“When Ronan and I first came inside, I’m all but positive that Marty saw the code Ronan used to disarm your security system.”
“He what?” Emma asked.
After Billy described what he’d seen, Emma found the video clip of Ronan, Billy, and Marty’s arrival.
Unfortunately, the angle was off, and it was impossible to tell if Billy’s suspicion was correct or not.
“Is there another camera angle?” Billy asked.
“Not of that area,” Emma said, clearly angry. “It’s fine. I’ll make him confess.”
“I doubt he’d admit it,” Ronan said.
“Then I’ll fire him.”
“On what grounds?”
“On the grounds of…” She trailed off, unable to come up with an answer.
“What we can do right now is change my code so that he can’t disarm the system,” Ronan said.
“Good idea,” Emma said, tapping at her keyboard again.
“Before you do that,” Billy said, “may I make a suggestion?”
She raised her fingers off the keys and looked at Billy expectantly.
“Instead of deleting Ronan’s code, leave it be and create a new one for Ronan to use.”
“Why would I—” She cut herself off and looked away as she considered what he said. It took only a moment before her eyes lit up. “I get it. If I get a notification that the original code has been used, I’ll know it’s Marty and have him arrested for breaking and entering.”
“I couldn’t have summed it up better myself,” Billy said.
A smile creeped onto Emma’s face. “Mr. Barnett, you are very devious.”
“Please, it’s Billy.”
“That doesn’t change what I said.”
“In that case, I’ll take it as a compliment.”
“But what if he sneaks out with Emma’s device before he’s caught?” Ronan asked.
Billy picked up the black box again. “How many of these do you have?”
“Just the one,” Emma said.
“Any spare parts?”
“Of course.”
“Enough to create something that looks like this?”
“The outside, yes, but not inside.”
“The inside only needs to look real.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“That if someone took a quick look under the housing, they’d think the device worked.”
“I don’t know. A decent engineer might see right through it.”
“Let me rephrase,” Billy said. “If Marty looked at it.”
“Ooh,” she said. “Yeah. That should be easy.”
“Then I’d suggest putting this one somewhere safe that’s not here,” he said, nodding at the box in his hand.
“How about at my place,” Ronan said. “He won’t go there.”
“Perfect,” Billy said. “I would put the fake one in the middle of your workbench where he won’t miss it.”
“You’re not just devious, you’re diabolical.” Emma grinned.
“Let’s just say I’ve had to dabble in deception now and then.”
“The entertainment business must be even crazier than I thought.”
“You have no idea.”