Chapter Twenty-Five
Asher
I stared up at the starry sky as I sipped on my Glenfiddich 40-year-old whiskey. I enjoyed coming up to the turret of my home to think. I'd set up a moderately powerful telescope because of a lifelong interest in astronomy. Out in the hills beyond the city, the sky was clear and mostly free of the light pollution, which made the city sky murky and orange-tinted at night and blocked out most of the stars.
Here, the sky was dark, and stars were spread across it from horizon to horizon. Of course, the stars weren’t what was on my mind. That would be Lilah. We'd barely said a word to one another in the office the whole week. She had responded to my texts, but only with short replies that seemed evasive. It was looking as if she had reverted to keeping a cool distance between us. I hadn't pushed things at all, just like Colonel Tanaka had suggested, even after getting that cold reply to my heartfelt message.
I’d given it a lot of thought before she even returned from Paris and had decided to leave the ball in her court. I was sure that she knew what my feelings for her were. I felt I'd made them pretty clear. If she was willing to reciprocate, well, that would be wonderful. But if not, I wasn't sure if I could keep playing this game. Falling into my arms one minute, then acting as if we were nothing but acquaintances the next—it was not only confusing, it was draining, psychologically and emotionally.
I took another sip of my whiskey, savoring its dry, woody flavor. There was nothing in the world quite like properly aged single malt whiskey. It reminded me of my grandfather. It was the first taste of alcohol he’d shared with me.
I stood and headed over to my telescope. There was a full moon, and it was bright and clear in the sky. I leaned over and pressed my eye to the eyepiece, then moved the telescope around until I was focused on the moon. I zoomed in, as close as I could get without losing focus.
I stared in silent wonder at the craters and valleys of the moon, and for a fleeting, intense moment, I wished that Lilah was by my side to share it with.
Since I'd been a boy, it had been a dream of mine to be an astronaut. Life, though, had other plans. I loved my job, and the company was my life. I had no regrets about devoting all my energy and talent to it—but still, there remained the dream of one day flying amongst the stars.
I lost myself, staring at the moon and her craters and hills. I wasn't quite sure how long I'd been staring when my phone rang. I snapped out of the trance, and bent down to pick up the phone from where it was sitting on my deckchair.
“Asher here,” I said.
“Asher, it's Alan.”
“Alan, good to hear from you. Got any news for me?”
“Our PI has some leads on the case. He'd like to meet with you and to discuss a few things.”
“I'd like that, too.”
“When do you have time?”
“Whew. This week is crazy. I'll be working over the weekend, too. There's really no end in sight. Can he call Janice and see what’s on my schedule early next week?”
“Asher, you'll wanna hear what this guy has to say and you’re not going to want to wait.”
I glanced at my watch. “All right, listen, it's still early enough in the evening. It's only around 8:00. Do you think the guy could meet now?”
“I’m sure he'll be fine with that.”
“I'll send my driver out to pick you and him up. We can talk here at my place, if that's all right. I have a few items of work I need to get done, and I can't waste time driving myself.”
“That'll be fine, sir. I'll send you my address and his, and we'll see you shortly.”
“Excellent. I'll forward the addresses and your numbers to my driver. See you soon.”
I cut off the call and waited for the text with the addresses. When they came through, I forwarded them to Alfred, who left to pick up Alan and the PI. I sighed, reluctant to leave my little sanctuary with my telescope and whiskey.
I knew, however, that I needed to get to the work I needed to finish, not just because it needed to be done, but also because it helped distract me from getting too lost in my thoughts, too fixated on a certain, beautiful woman and her unpredictable behavior.
***
“Matt Eaton, pleased to meet you,” the PI said as he shook my hand.
He was a short, bald, rotund man with a thick, walrus mustache—he didn't look anything like the type of private investigators you see in movies or on TV shows. Still, I knew from his reputation that he was one of the best, and that's why I'd hired him.
“Great to meet you, Matt, and thanks for helping us with this case. Now, why don't you and Alan come on in and we'll have a seat and talk about what you've discovered.”
“Thanks.”
We went into my den, where there were a couple of sofas and a large coffee table. This was where I usually received guests and business associates. Alfred came out to see if anyone wanted drinks.
“I'll have some Glenfiddich, on the rocks,” I said to him. “Gents, what would you guys like?”
“A beer for me, whatever kind you've got,” replied Alan.
“No booze for me,” said Matt, “I gave it up years ago. Orange juice, if you've got it.”
Alfred nodded and went off to prepare the drinks.
“Well, Matt, let's not waste time—on to business. What have you found out so far?”
“I'm pretty sure your suspicions are correct, Mr. Sinclair. All the evidence is pointing to Brendan Savage being behind the break-in.”
I nodded grimly. “I knew it. I just knew it. That bastard.”
“Unfortunately, as of yet, I don't have anything conclusive,” Matt added. “Nothing that would hold up in court, anyway. I mean, that's what you're after, right? You wanna hit this guy with everything you've got, of course, but only when you've got a watertight case, only when you can prove that he was behind this. Right now, I'll tell you, what I've got is very strong, but just not enough to be watertight. He's done a great job of covering his tracks. He's got some real pros working for him.”
I sighed. “Do you think you can get a watertight case against him?”
“I might be able to, but it's gonna take a lot more time and a lot more digging.”
“That's fine. You keep working on it. I want to prove that this guy is behind it. I want to face him in court—and win.”
“That’s my plan, Mr. Sinclair. Just give me enough time to gather the evidence I need on him, and you'll win.”
“Good.”
Alan cleared his throat before he piped in. “There's more, though, sir. Matt has discovered something else about Mr. Savage and his interest in your company. Or rather, his interest in someone specific in your company.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”
“Yes, sir. One of the things the hacker was able to penetrate was the employee database. However, the strange thing was he only extracted one file from the hundreds of files there,” Alan added.
“And just who’s file did they take?”
“Lilah Maxwell,” Matt commented.
A jolt ripped through my body at the mention of her name.
“What?” I exclaimed. “Lilah?”
Matt nodded. “Yes. When we learned it was her file that had been extracted, I did some digging. It seems Brendan Savage is very, very interested in her. I believe he intends to poach her from your company.”
Flushes of heat surged along my skin. “How do you know this?”
“I've been trailing Savage in the evening hours since you mentioned you suspected him. And it turns out, he's been following Ms. Maxwell. I'm not sure how long this has gone on for. But he definitely knows that she was the driving force behind the sudden success of one of your company's recent campaigns. According to my source, he wants her on his team.”
“Tell me more,” I said, although I wasn't quite sure that I wanted to hear more.
“Savage may have even tapped her phone. He knew that she was meeting her brother Eddie at McGinty's pub on Tuesday evening. He set it up so that he would 'bump into' her. I was there, at the back, watching everything. He really turned on the charm.”
I felt my blood getting hotter and hotter as Matt spoke, but I did my best to retain a facade of cool collectedness.
“Really? And what happened? Between, uh, Lilah and Savage?”
“Oh uh, well, they ended up talking for a long while. He appeared to be laying on the charm, pulling out all the stops. But she seemed resistant to it, hesitant to talk to him too much. Mostly, it appeared he was the one talking and she listened.”
I breathed out a subtle sigh of relief, although the jealousy and anger remained simmering in my core.
“So, what else do you know about this particular situation?” I asked. “I mean, between Lilah and Savage? After that bar meeting, has there been any further contact?”
“Yes.”
Again, heat rushed through my body and I felt my breathing becoming quicker.
“What? How?”
“They've connected on social media. More than that, I can't tell yet. I could get someone I know to hack into the message system to see if they've been messaging one another, but it's risky. If my associate and I get caught, we could face charges.”
“All right, I'm not going to ask you to do that.”
“I can monitor his phone calls to her if you'd like. That's easy enough and pretty low-risk.”
“Please, do that. We need to, uh, we need to keep tabs on this situation.”
“Can do. Is there anything else you'd like me to do? I mean, I can open up an investigation on her, as well? Monitor her, have one of my team tail her, do a bit of digging. There is a risk that she could sell him a number of company secrets. And you know, of course, how disastrous that could be.”
I paused for a moment to consider this. I had no qualms about invading the privacy of a scumbag like Brendan Savage, but to do it to Lilah was an entirely different matter. Matt was right about the risk that she could sell valuable company information to Savage, but I didn't see her doing that. Lilah had too much integrity. I didn't think that it would be a risk at all, in fact.
There was no way I could do that to her—not a chance.
“Just stick with Savage,” I instructed. “I think the risk of Lilah selling me out is minimal. Non-existent, actually.”
“You sure? Often those closest to a person are the first to betray them,” Matt said. “I've seen it all too many times in my line of work, trust me on that.”
“I'm sure you have. But I trust her. I'd trust her with my life, in fact.”
“Suit yourself. I'll stick with Savage, then.”
“Good. We'll get to the bottom of this.”