“Jesus, this is crazy,” May said once Calder had left the room. “After my father died, Marbury just walked in and took over.”

“It’s no surprise,” Jessup said.  “Everyone knew Marbury was your father’s attorney and everyone knew your father had investors. Your father ran everything himself. He had no clear second in command. When he died unexpectedly Marbury knew there’d be confusion. He swept in and took advantage of the situation.”

May nodded, “And it helped that the other investors all supported it.”

“True,” Jessup agreed.

“I’m not sure what to do now,” May admitted. “I had a plan, but it involved reading through my father’s emails. I thought I could reconstruct what he was thinking in his final days. We must do something quickly. Dollars to doughnuts Miss Calder is already on the phone with Marbury running things down to him.”

They heard a knock. Through the glass door they saw a heavy-set man, mid-thirties, with curly brown hair and an unkempt beard standing by the door. He had a sheepish look on his face. He wore an oversized sweater and jeans. A plaid shirttail was visible, hanging below the bottom of the sweater.

May waved him in. He opened the door and tentatively ambled through.

“Hello, Miss Major,” he said. “I’m Jason Nelson, the IT guy.”

Jessup smiled and extended his hand first, “Jorge Jessup. So… this is what a Chief Technical Officer looks like?”

“I… I… I’m sorry,” he replied. “I didn’t realize that anyone…”

“Relax Jason,” May interrupted. “I’m May Major. Today is my first day as CEO.”

“That’s what Ray Tostum told me,” he said, his voice breaking. “Am I being fired?”

“What on earth gave you that idea?” May asked.

“Ray said you were asking about your father’s emails,” he replied.

“That’s right,” Jessup interjected. “Can you retrieve them?”

“No,” he said. “My specific instructions were to move all his emails to a server and wipe the server clean. I did that. I’m so sorry.”

“You were following your orders,” Jessup said. “No one blames you.  What about retrieving emails from the in-boxes of employees he communicated with?”

“Also gone,” he said. “I inserted an electronic worm through the company server that extracted all of Mr. Major’s emails sent to company email addresses. The worm deleted those files too.”

“Were you specifically asked to do that?” Jessup asked.

“Yes, by Mr. Marbury.”

“Didn’t that strike you as odd?” May asked.

“Yes, but I knew Mr. Marbury was the corporate attorney, and he said something about a violation of attorney-client privilege if a third party retrieved those emails. I did what he told me.”

May sighed, “And there’s nothing you can do?”

“I’m afraid not,” he said. “I know I screwed up. It didn’t feel right, but I didn’t think I had a choice. If I could reverse it I would, I swear.”

“That’s ok, Jason,” May said. “Going forward, please accept no direction from Marbury or any of the other investors without my explicit permission. And if they contact you, let me know immediately.”

Jason nodded, “I understand. Can I go now?”

May nodded.  Jason stood, gave a small wave and left.

May sighed in exasperation, “I think we’re really screwed. I wonder what was in those emails that Marbury was so worried about getting out?”

“It must be something big,” Jessup said. “He went to a lot of trouble to cover his tracks.”

May’s cell phone rang. The display read “number unknown.”  She answered.

“Miss Major, it’s Officer Singer. Do you have a minute?”

“Yes, Officer,” May responded. “Jessup is here with me now. I’ll put you on speaker.”

She pushed the speaker button and continued, “Do you have anything new for me?”

“Not a lot,” he said. “We checked all the emergency rooms in the area. From the injuries described we expected to find out that two men were admitted with a broken finger or nose. No such luck. We also checked the street cams for a dark SUV. We found a car that was a good prospect but it was too dark and we couldn’t catch the license plate number. The car disappeared into a wooded area with no cameras. It was a dark gray Honda RAV4. There are thousands like it out there. I ran a search for a Honda RAV4 in the three-county area registered to a man with the first name, Stan. I got two hits: one was a black man and the other was over eighty-years-old. No luck.”

“Damn,” May said. “Did you question Marbury?”

“Just got finished,” Singer said. “He’s denying everything.”

“No surprise there,” Jessup said.

“I don’t understand, Officer,” May said. “If you have nothing to report yet, why did you call me?”

“Because Mr. Marbury seemed extremely agitated when we questioned him about a connection to the assault. He was over-the-top pissed.  I thought you should know.”

“Thanks Officer,” Jessup said. “Anything else?”

“Yes, we did a search looking for any known associates of Marbury’s named Stan,” Singer said. “We didn’t get a hit on the name Stan, but stumbled on something very interesting.  It gives your story credibility but it’s not proof.”

“You have your attention, Officer Singer,” Jessup said. “What is it?”

“It seems before Preston Marbury was a corporate attorney, he was a criminal defense attorney, and a damn good one at that,” Singer said.

A confused look formed on May’s face, “I don’t think I understand the relevance.”

“I’m getting there,” he said, “bear with me. The information goes back eleven years, and I almost missed it, but Preston Marbury was involved in some pretty shady business at one time with two clients he got off.”

May’s eyes widened, “What happened?”

“There was an attempted murder,” Singer said. “It turns out the man who survived was a prosecuting attorney who had gone up against Marbury in a trial.  He claimed Marbury falsified evidence to get his client off on a murder trial.”

“Holy crap!” May exclaimed.

“It gets worse,” Officer Singer said. “Police later found the body of the man who survived the murder attempt. The murderer stabbed him multiple times. A full-blown investigation ensued but the DA could never put together a case and Marbury walked. The firm he worked for fired him over it. Two years later, he became your father’s corporate attorney.”

“So, what can you do, Officer?” Jessup asked.

“I have no evidence. I don’t know these men who intimidated Miss Major and can’t tie Marbury to the crime. At the moment, all I can do is give you a warning—you are dealing with a very rough customer and you’ve bent his nose out of shape.  I will stay on it, but in the meantime, you two watch yourselves.”

“Thanks for the advice, Officer,” Jessup said. “Can your department offer us any protection?”

“I’m sorry, no. What I have to go on is pure speculation, no more. I can’t use department resources for this unless I have real evidence. I’ll stay in touch.”

Singer ended the call. Jessup looked at May; her lip quivered.

“What have I gotten myself into?” she said. “Hell, what have I gotten you into?”

Jessup wrapped his arms around her giving her a warm kiss on the lips.

“May, we just got here,” he said. “It’s day one. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”

“I know… it’s just, I had a plan, and it’s all unraveling so quickly,” she outlined.

“There are pluses, remember,” Jessup said. “Mrs. Sweeney and Ray Tostum are your advocates. You’ve already established yourself as CEO and they are spreading the word around the company.  The employees here are likely fearful about the future with your father passing and all the rumors circulating about a sale. They loved and respected your dad—they trusted him. You are his daughter and in your own words he appointed you for a reason. You can win them over. They are predisposed to not like Marbury—Ray said so. Let’s use that.”

“What’s the next step?” she asked.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” he said. “I have an idea. It’s aggressive. It won’t be easy.”

“Tell me,” she said.