glad that she still could. “It’s not as if she doesn’t have permission to look at data. She owns the company. She can look at any data that she wants. But she doesn’t. That’s not her job.”
“Did you ask her about it?”
“No. But I ran a report of all the other screens that she’d recently viewed. There were twelve of them. Every screen was related to this one product.”
“So then you went to your stepmother?”
“No. Maybe I should have. But you have to know Claudia Linder. There’s always been something about her that made me uncomfortable. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I didn’t really care when she was simply the CEO. I started to care more after my father fell head over heels in love with her.”
“But you said that someone else also accessed the screens.”
“True. And it’s possible that Marcus would have needed to do it for his work. He’s the analyst supporting a couple of the engineers who are working on this project. There’s really no reason for him to be looking at the screens, but maybe he was troubleshooting a problem. I just don’t know. I do know, however, that he was recently really upset at work. He applied for a promotion and didn’t get it. I really thought he would go get another job somewhere else. He’s very talented. But he stayed.”
“Stayed with bad intent, perhaps?” Ethan offered. “Your stepmother or Marcus White. Two choices.”
“Yes, I would think that Marcus would have been aware of our new ability to track viewing. Probably not Claudia. That’s sort of in the weeds for a CEO. Anyway, I was trying to decide what to do when I realized that there was some hidden code. Code that I hadn’t written. But somebody had, creating a program that ran in the background. I think it was basically an early warning system, designed to let somebody know that somebody else had accessed the screens. I got the heck out of the system but realized that if they were savvy enough to have set up that program, then they were likely savvy enough to track my IP address―my computer address,” she added.
“I assume Marcus White would know how to set that up. Would your stepmother?”
“She could have asked another analyst to do it for her.”
“Did you tell anybody?”
“No. I shut down my computer, grabbed my purse and my backpack, and was halfway back to my apartment when I decided to come here. And if I’m right about what happened tonight, I think that somebody tracked the activity back to my computer and maybe realized I’d figured out what’s going on.”
“Your company was designing this product for the government, right?”
“Yes.”
“If you’re right and this information was sold, that’s treason.”
The silence hung heavy in the air.
“Worth killing for,” she said finally.
“I’d say so,” he answered. “Your stepmother would have known about the cabin. Would Marcus White have known?”
“I’m not sure. I may have mentioned it to him. We’ve worked together for over five years. His parents live in Grand Junction, which is quite a ways west. Still, he probably knows the general area. Would certainly have traveled Interstate 70 between Denver and Grand Junction many times. Plus, if the Help Desk had deactivated the administrative assistant’s username, which they are pretty good about doing quickly after someone leaves, Marcus would have had the capability and access to reactivate it.”
“Okay. Earlier you said that you grabbed your purse and your backpack. You didn’t get out of the car with them.”
“I know. They’re still in the car. I probably should have tried to grab them when I exited through the backseat but I was too scared that a wrong movement would tip the car.”
“You did exactly right,” he said. “You got out safely. That’s always the first priority.”
She turned to him. “What’s going to happen when the authorities find my purse and other things in the car and I’m not there?”
* * *
T
“Did you ask her about it?”
“No. But I ran a report of all the other screens that she’d recently viewed. There were twelve of them. Every screen was related to this one product.”
“So then you went to your stepmother?”
“No. Maybe I should have. But you have to know Claudia Linder. There’s always been something about her that made me uncomfortable. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I didn’t really care when she was simply the CEO. I started to care more after my father fell head over heels in love with her.”
“But you said that someone else also accessed the screens.”
“True. And it’s possible that Marcus would have needed to do it for his work. He’s the analyst supporting a couple of the engineers who are working on this project. There’s really no reason for him to be looking at the screens, but maybe he was troubleshooting a problem. I just don’t know. I do know, however, that he was recently really upset at work. He applied for a promotion and didn’t get it. I really thought he would go get another job somewhere else. He’s very talented. But he stayed.”
“Stayed with bad intent, perhaps?” Ethan offered. “Your stepmother or Marcus White. Two choices.”
“Yes, I would think that Marcus would have been aware of our new ability to track viewing. Probably not Claudia. That’s sort of in the weeds for a CEO. Anyway, I was trying to decide what to do when I realized that there was some hidden code. Code that I hadn’t written. But somebody had, creating a program that ran in the background. I think it was basically an early warning system, designed to let somebody know that somebody else had accessed the screens. I got the heck out of the system but realized that if they were savvy enough to have set up that program, then they were likely savvy enough to track my IP address―my computer address,” she added.
“I assume Marcus White would know how to set that up. Would your stepmother?”
“She could have asked another analyst to do it for her.”
“Did you tell anybody?”
“No. I shut down my computer, grabbed my purse and my backpack, and was halfway back to my apartment when I decided to come here. And if I’m right about what happened tonight, I think that somebody tracked the activity back to my computer and maybe realized I’d figured out what’s going on.”
“Your company was designing this product for the government, right?”
“Yes.”
“If you’re right and this information was sold, that’s treason.”
The silence hung heavy in the air.
“Worth killing for,” she said finally.
“I’d say so,” he answered. “Your stepmother would have known about the cabin. Would Marcus White have known?”
“I’m not sure. I may have mentioned it to him. We’ve worked together for over five years. His parents live in Grand Junction, which is quite a ways west. Still, he probably knows the general area. Would certainly have traveled Interstate 70 between Denver and Grand Junction many times. Plus, if the Help Desk had deactivated the administrative assistant’s username, which they are pretty good about doing quickly after someone leaves, Marcus would have had the capability and access to reactivate it.”
“Okay. Earlier you said that you grabbed your purse and your backpack. You didn’t get out of the car with them.”
“I know. They’re still in the car. I probably should have tried to grab them when I exited through the backseat but I was too scared that a wrong movement would tip the car.”
“You did exactly right,” he said. “You got out safely. That’s always the first priority.”
She turned to him. “What’s going to happen when the authorities find my purse and other things in the car and I’m not there?”
* * *
T
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