13. Chapter 13
Levi was sitting in his temporary office scrolling back through the security footage for the few days before Melanie started receiving the letters. There wasn’t anything for him to do with his new job until next week when they could start with some training stuff. Nothing would take off full force until they could move into their new workspace. That left him plenty of time.
He hated going through security footage when he didn’t know what he was looking for. Especially this kind that was just the hallway leading to her office. She didnt have many visitors. Some days, no one even came by at all. Melanie also worked long hours. Most of the time she was there by seven in the morning, sometimes earlier, and rarely did she leave before six. A lot of nights she was there until eight or nine. She wasn’t wrong when she said her life was work and home. It seemed lonely to him.
And because there was nothing to keep his attention with all the hours of nothing going on with the footage, it was easy to let his mind wander. Most prominent were the memories of them in bed together last night. The way she moaned as he worked her with his tongue was one of his favorites. She was quiet in bed. Or at least she had been last night. But the few sounds that escaped her were beautiful. It made him wonder what he would have to do to get her to be louder. Quiet was good too, but something in him wanted to make her cry out for all the world to hear.
He still wasn’t sure how that had happened. He’d heard her crying in the bedroom. When he got up to check on her, he had no intention of taking it any further than trying to comfort her. He didn’t want her to have to cry alone. That kiss had been amazing though. Then when she put her leg over him and pushed against him, God, it had taken everything he had to control himself. He shook his head. He had to stop thinking about it. His only prayer was that more sex was in their future. Once this whole stalker business was over, he was going to take her on dates and woo her until she had no doubt in her mind that they were making the right decision by giving this a shot.
On screen she exited her office. He cued up the footage for the cameras to follow her out of the building at the same time. He flipped from camera to camera as she progressed. Inside the parking garage, she paused and turned like someone had called her name. Levi turned the audio on but their voices were too quiet to hear. He scanned through other angles until he could see the guy. Thank God Andrea hadn’t skimped on new cameras when they fixed the parking garage after the explosion. Even after zooming in, he couldn’t see the guy well enough because he had on a hat. The time stamp said it was 8:30 at night, a week before the first letter arrived. This guy had potential.
On screen, she waved him toward the elevators. They rode back up together. He followed her to her office. The damn hat blocked the guy’s face the whole way. There was a logo on it, Levi just couldn’t make it out. They were in the office for ten minutes before they trekked back out to the parking garage. Through the speaker Melanie said, “Have a good night.” He watched the guy watch her pull out before he walked out of the garage, holding a stack of papers she must have given him. That was strange enough to make it questionable all on its own. From the camera views on the outside, the guy walked down the block and out of view.
Levi flipped to the next day after making some notes. At ten am a guy with the same build walked into the hall her office was on and knocked. This time he wasn’t wearing a hat. Levi cued up the other cameras and watched the guy come in through the parking garage. It was weird because he should’ve come in through the main lobby. The camera in the elevator got a good picture of him, and he grabbed the image off the screen. He sent it to Victor and Scarlett asking who he was. He hit play on the footage again. The guy was in Melanie’s office for half an hour before he came back out. Levi watched him go through the building without an escort again. He made a detour into the bathroom on the first floor that lasted ten minutes.
But when he came back out into the lobby he had on a fresh shirt and his bag was gone. Who the fuck was this guy? He went over to the security desk and said something to the guy working there. Then he walked out the front door. The outdoor cameras lost him when he turned further down the block.
Levi closed his computer and went down to the first floor. In the elevator, his phone went off with a message from Scarlett.
No clue.
Well, that wasn’t good. If he came in the building twice and the Number Two didn’t know who he was, they had a problem. Levi went into the bathroom in the lobby and looked around. It was just two stalls, two sinks, and a urinal. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, but it had a drop ceiling while most of the building didn’t. Climbing up on the toilet of the right stall, he pushed the tile up and looked around. There was a small laptop setup with two cables connected to the camera communication lines of the building. This fucking guy was monitoring the DeLaney security cameras. There was also the small bag the guy had been carrying. Inside of it was his shirt. He must’ve gotten dusty while installing the stuff in the ceiling. That he brought a change of clothes spoke to how organized this guy was. It was a major problem.
His phone went off and he pulled it out of his pocket. It was Victor.
Looks like the IT guy we fired. His hair is different.
Scarlett shot back.
Yeah, maybe but I don’t think so. Ask Andrea.
He rolled his eyes and snapped a couple of pictures of the setup in the ceiling and sent them to the group.
We’ve got a problem. Meet me in the lobby.
Then he put the ceiling tile back in place and walked out of the bathroom. He also sent the picture to Andrea.
Do you know who this is?
While he waited, he sat on a bench by the elevator, trying to think of what the game was here. None of it made any sense. Andrea replied.
Kenneth Grand. I fired him for using our equipment for personal business. Talk to Katie in Control. She knows the story.
He shook his head, wishing he had that kind of facial recall. After he showed Victor and Scarlett their newest problem, he would talk to Katie.
The duo stepped off the elevator together and Victor said, “Tell me you aren’t about to make me look like an idiot, kid.”
“You’re not an idiot,” he said and waved them to the bathroom. “I would’ve never found it either if I hadn’t noticed the guy spend too long in here on the cameras.” He got on the toilet and pushed the tile back, then stepped down.
Victor stepped up and looked. “Well, fuck.”
“The way it’s setup looks like it’s just a relay to me. He can’t change anything, its just transmitting out.”
Victor waved for Scarlett to look. “I don’t climb on toilets unless my life’s in danger,” she said, pointing to the heels she was wearing.
“Or there’s a mouse,” Victor said under his breath, earning him a strong glare. Levi thought it was funny though.
“I saw the pictures. So what do you want to do with it?”
“First, I want to talk to Katie and get the story of why he was fired. Andrea said to talk to her. Then, I think we should tell Melanie and use it to provoke him.” It might not have been the smartest thing to do, but he didn’t want to just shut the feed down and wait for him to show back up. If they could use it to draw him out, that would be better.
“Provoke him how?” Victor asked.
“I’m still working on that.” He had an idea, but he wanted to talk to Melanie first.
“Oh God, he even sounds like her.” Scarlett rolled her eyes and walked out. “Next time we have a meeting let’s do it somewhere better than a bathroom. Let’s go talk to Katie.”
This was the first time he had actually been in the Control Room and it was exciting to see it all in action. “Two and Four are in the room,” someone announced as they walked down an aisle of computers toward the main desk. Katie stood up when they got closer.
“Katie, this is Levi,” Scarlett said, pointing at him. “He’s going to be head of the Intelligence division.”
“As you know, his call sign is Seven,” Victor added.
“Noted,” she said as she reached out a hand for him to shake. “Good to meet you.”
“You too.”
“What can I do for you?” she asked, glancing over to the wall of screens and back.
“We have some questions.” Victor turned to look at the wall too. “Have Jim take over for a few minutes. It looks calm for now.”
Katie nodded and waived over a guy from a neighboring row of computers. “Take over for five. I’ll be right back.”
“Yes ma’am,” Jim said and took her place.
They walked out of Control and down to the next door on the left. It was a small break room that no one was occupying. “Did something happen to my husband?” she asked when the door closed.
Victor shook his head. “No. Sorry we should’ve led with that. He’s fine.”
Scarlett moved over to the coffeepot, pouring a cup while Levi spoke. “We want to ask you about Kenneth Grand.”
“Ok. What about him?”
“Why’d he get fired?”
She looked between them. “The Boss told me to keep it to myself,” she said nervously.
He pulled out his phone to show her the text from Andrea. “She wants you to tell us.”
“Alright. Well, I noticed there were some trackers missing from the inventory along with an unusual spike in logins from his username at times when he wasn’t in the building.” She shifted and pulled out a chair to sit beside Scarlett. They all sat down at the table. “I was investigating it one day when the Boss came into Control. She said she read my report and wanted to follow up with me. I showed her the mirror image of the computer he was using at his house.”
“What report?” Victor questioned, looking miffed.
“One that we obviously ignored,” Scarlett said and waved her hand at him. “Go ahead. We’ll discuss that later.”
“He was using the borrowed trackers to monitor movements of people. They weren’t labeled, but he was actively watching them. There were only two.” She took a breath and looked at her hands. “Long story short, the Boss told me to kill the trackers because they were in Prowler territory and she didn’t want to start anything with them because Kenneth was an idiot. But when she called him in to work, he wouldn’t tell her what he had been doing. She fired him.”
“When was all of this?” Levi asked.
“Almost three months ago. We revoked his access and took all his equipment back.” She looked at Victor. “The Boss had me write it all up and send it with the daily report the day it happened.”
“Well fuck,” Victor mumbled and stood up to get some coffee too.
“To your knowledge did he have any sort of relationship with Melanie?” Scarlett asked.
Katie shook her head. “But he liked her. One time I heard him telling one of the guys that he was going to ask her out. I don’t know if he did. Is he the one bothering her?”
“We aren’t sure,” Levi said and turned his phone for her to look. “This is him, right?”
“Yes, that’s him.” Katie pulled her phone out and scrolled through something then gave it to Scarlett. “His pin tried to access a locker room two months ago, after we fired him. I flagged and reported it, but that’s the last activity I’ve seen.”
Scarlett gave the phone back. “Thank you Katie. Please add Levi to the distribution list for the Control Room reports and inform the others to include him on their days.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You can go back to work now.”
She stood up and left after pushing her chair in.
Scarlett turned to glare at Victor. “You haven’t been reading the Control Room reports?”
“No. I thought you were. I figured if there was something I needed to know you would tell me. I’ve been busy with the other stuff!” He sat down and ran a hand over his chin. “Apparently the Boss is the only one that’s been reading them.”
“Fuck my life,” Scarlett said with a groan. “Ok well, start fucking reading them and I will too. We should’ve known all this happened.”
Levi couldn’t help but smile while he looked between them. “When did you stop reading them?”
“About a year ago,” Scarlett said with a shrug. “Everything’s been going well, and I thought Victor was reading them.”
“Couple of months ago when I started training the new people. There just wasn’t enough time.”
“You know she’s going to know after this, right?” Levi said, standing up from the table.
“No doubt she already does.” Scarlett flipped him off. He took that as a good sign. If she didn’t like him, then she wouldn’t be mean to him. “So what’s next in your investigation, Superstar?”
“I’m going to find out if Kenneth asked Melanie out. Then I’m going to set a trap. I’ll keep you in the loop,” he said and headed for the door.
Right before it closed he heard Scarlett say, “We’ve gotta get our shit together old man.”
It made him smile.