28. Can Move On
CAN MOVE ON
At six thirty, the doorbell went off, Paris moving toward the steel door and pushing it open.
Fletcher was standing on the other side.
He didn’t have any fear this woman was going to attack his girlfriend.
From what he’d discovered, Debra wasn’t violent.
She was more a pushover and maybe in over her head, but not dangerous.
“Thanks for coming to see me,” Paris said when Debra walked through the door.
Debra jumped and turned when she saw Fletcher standing there.
“Who are you?”
“Fletcher is the head of security here,” she said. “Come on back and let’s talk. I’m sure you know why you’re really here?”
Debra’s eyes moved to Fletcher and then back to Paris. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He’d told Paris to just play it cool. Nothing was going to happen to her. Not with him here.
“Have a seat,” she said, gesturing to the conference room table. “I know you had a letter delivered to my apartment yesterday. I also know that you had a dead rat sent here with another note. I’d like to know what is going on and why.”
Debra’s shoulders dropped, and she almost looked relieved. “How did you figure it out?”
“It wasn’t that hard,” he said. “The rat, no one was talking there.”
“Sorry about that,” Debra said. “I couldn’t do it myself.”
“Then the warning to stop looking. I was done, there wasn’t anything to look for.”
“But I knew you,” Debra said. “Or thought I did. I just hoped if I warned you off, that you’d dig in more.
I needed to make a statement. I’d heard someone talking at the office once that they got rats there for their pet snake.
I thought if they caught them alive, they had to catch them dead. You can pay for anything, it seems.”
“Why don’t you tell us why you did it,” Fletcher said. “And what is going on.”
“Am I in trouble with the law? I don’t want that. It’s why I did it that way.”
“I’m not the law,” he said.
“There is something shady going on at MHT. I’ve suspected it for over a year,” Debra said.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. It’s money related. They were doing so well, then they weren’t.
It’s like the cash flow just halted. I can’t put my finger on it.
One minute we are hiring all these people, giving them raises, having parties.
Then it all stopped. As if the money was cut off.
You saw it. People weren’t even working that hard half the time.
Most of it was because they were ticked all those perks were gone. ”
“So you think there is money coming in from another stream and it was cut off?” she asked.
“I’m not sure what I thought. I suggested the strategic consultant about six months ago when there were talks about maybe having to shut the doors.
It made no sense to me. How we went from thriving to possibly closing.
I didn’t see where we lost clients. I used to love my job and suddenly, it’s just nonstop fighting.
Staff are pissed that all their freebies are going away.
Some people were let go for no reason before you.
I didn’t want to lose my job, but I had no proof. ”
“There are whistleblower laws,” she said.
“I had nothing to say. No facts. Nothing. I mean that. I thought for sure if there was something, you’d find it. But you didn’t. Then when Rick got laid off and you said he’d made a comment about things and not talking about what he saw…”
“You thought you could frighten me to look more. Or to find answers?” she asked.
“I hoped.”
“Those calls from you asking advice. Or saying there was more going on? Was any of that true?”
“All of it,” Debra said earnestly. “I thought if I appealed to your morals that you’d worry that maybe you made a mistake.
I know you didn’t, but it’d have you going back to look again.
I mean it. I don’t understand why Rick was let go.
His team was actually doing well. Maybe I went about this all wrong. ”
“No maybe about it,” Fletcher said.
“Why did you send the letter yesterday to keep looking? Did you know for a fact I was again, or just hoped?”
“You tried to open that file,” Debra said. “I marked it to get an alert. But you didn’t ask me for the password.”
“What’s the password?”
“I don’t know. One night, I got the file off the server.
I don’t think I was supposed to know it was there.
It was in the finance section, but IT was cleaning things up when I was working late.
My computer was spinning while I was trying to access things so I just clicked on another department to see if they were having the same issue. ”
“You picked a file at random or were able to open things?” he asked.
“It’s a folder. I couldn’t open it. It was called New Folder. No one does that. I just thought it was a mistake and it’d be empty. That’s the only reason I clicked. But it was locked and with everything else that was going on back then, I just took a risk.”
“You weren’t afraid someone was going to catch you sending that file to me?” she asked.
“Or worry that it’d come back to Paris and maybe put her in danger if it was something?” he asked.
“I didn’t send it from my work email,” Debra rushed out. “I saved to a USB, then later that night I created a new email, close to my work one, and sent it. I hoped you wouldn’t have noticed the difference and I sent it with a few other files.”
“I didn’t,” she said. “I hate I didn’t see that.”
“People don’t always notice what they just assume is fine,” he said. And since the file was on her computer and not in an email, he wouldn’t have even thought to check himself.
Debra was smarter than he gave her credit for.
“So what is it you think is going on?” Paris asked.
“I really don’t know. I’m probably wrong and feel horrible. I just didn’t know what to do. I really meant you no harm. I just thought the rat would be gross and maybe make you think more.”
“Theatrics,” he said.
“They do that stuff on TV,” Debra said, shrugging.
And it worked.
He’d seen firsthand Paris’s reaction to it.
“Tell me in your words what is going on there,” Fletcher said. “What you think is different or off.”
“It doesn’t leave this room?” Debra asked.
“I can’t guarantee any of that.”
“Why didn’t you just leave?” Paris asked. “With the huge layoffs and restructure coming, you’re stressed. You use that as an excuse. You wouldn’t be the first person to walk and not be part of it.”
“I wanted to be wrong,” Debra said. “But also, if something happened, I thought the first place they’d look is someone who left when it came out. If I stayed, maybe they wouldn’t think I’d be part of it.”
He shook his head. That logic made no sense.
“Those who stay are always looked at just as much as those who leave. Everyone will be. Make no mistake. If something shady is going on and law enforcement has to be involved, everyone is a suspect until they are cleared.”
Debra sank into the chair some. “I don’t want to be any part of this.”
“But you are,” she said. “And your actions made you more involved. It’s best if you just tell us what you know.”
“Maybe I need an attorney.”
He looked at her. “Would it help if I had my attorney here?”
“But he wouldn’t be for me,” Debra said.
“You can trust me,” Paris said. “I mean it.”
“If you truly think there is something illegal going on, this is the next first step,” he said.
“I... I guess so. If you can get him at this time of night.”
“He’s still upstairs,” Fletcher said. “He knows what is going on and I asked him to stay.”
He didn’t miss the flash of annoyance over Paris’s face that she wasn’t brought into that.
He didn’t have to tell her every step he was doing.
She called Spencer, asked him to come down, then for the next hour, he listened to everything Debra had to say.
Nothing was enough for anyone to look into anything.
Nothing but her words alone.
But when everyone left but Fletcher and Paris, he called Avery, got her voicemail and left a message.
“Who was that?” she asked.
“An analyst who worked for me prior. I gave her the file. I’m pretty sure she can get into it. But there is a lot going on right now at the Bureau and I said no rush.”
“You think it’s a rush now?”
“I think that if nothing is on that file, we’ve got nowhere to go. Either way, we know who sent you the notes. We know it will end. You can move on.”
She reached her hand over. “I’m glad for that part. But what does moving on mean for us if you’re not my shadow anymore?”
His hand landed on hers. “I’ve never been your shadow.”
“Maybe I liked it though.”
Maybe he did too.
But he wasn’t about to admit that to anyone.
“Not much changes with us. Other than there wouldn’t be a way to keep it a secret. We don’t have that cover anymore.”
“I don’t want it to be a secret,” she said. “Are you okay with that?”
“I think if I wasn’t okay with it, you wouldn’t care either way.”
She laughed. “That’s not true. I care what you think. I care how you feel. Maybe more than I should have just let on.”
“I care too,” he said, his voice low enough he wondered if she’d heard it.
“It’s scary, isn’t it?”
He nodded his head. “Not like dead rat scary.”
She inched her chair closer to him, put her head on his shoulder and sighed. “The thing is, when I’m with you, I’m never scared. Maybe annoyed. Definitely aroused. But never scared.”
“Then I guess that’s a sign I need to be around you more.”