I wake up still surrounded by three naked and sexy women after the four of us slept through the night in the bar loft. Daisy had rolled off me during the night and wound up cuddling with Lillian, the two of them squished against the wall where the futon is shoved up against. Sylvia is beside me, and I don’t know what makes me think this is a good idea, but I crawl on top of her and kiss her away. “James…” she opens her eyes and smiles at me, and I shove my dick inside her without giving her much time to process. She looks over at Lillian and Daisy who are both still asleep and giggles, “You’ll wake them up.”

“Shh…” I say and kiss her, sliding my cock around inside her incredibly wet pussy. I keep my lips pressed tight against hers, muffling the slight groans she is making. I can tell she is still really turned on after what had happened last night. I cum inside her, and the two of us laugh quietly at how ridiculous the whole situation is. We quietly crawl out of bed, taking note that Lillian and Daisy look absolutely exhausted, so we try not to wake them as we get dressed. Sylvia leaves them an awkward note thanking them for the fun night and apologizing for having to scram, and the two of us sneak out the door.

We walk the walk of shame past the employees who are getting in for the morning shift and out into the streets, feeling the sting of the morning light. “So what are your plans for the day?” she asks, giggling slightly –still hyped up after the unusual way we had spent our evening.

“I’m going to see what I can do about helping the police,” I say. “I still have Eddie on my mind. I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to put this behind me until I figure out who killed him. A part of me still wonders if Éclair might have-”

“I doubt it,” Sylvia says. “You say you two have been friends for a long time –good friends. Plus, like I said before, I don’t think she would risk her company’s reputation. I have a thought if you want to hear it.”

“Sure,” I say.

“Martin Stone,” she says, and the name rings a bell, but I’m not entirely sure.

“How do I know him?” I ask.

“I did some digging. I told you, I’m a regular Nancy Drew. I found a police report in your files at Shattered INC. You had to fire him after he accidentally contaminated some supplements, and he had to be drug away by police off of the premises,” Sylvia explained her reasoning, and I have to admit I’m impressed with her detective work. “He’s a big guy. He could have taken down Eddie easily.”

“I forgot all about him,” I say. “It was years ago. Do you really think he could still be holding a grudge?”

“Could be. Now here’s the real kicker. Stone is one of the ones who put up money for the lawsuit.” Sylvia grinned, “Pretty suspicious, right? Especially considering that, as a fired employee, I doubt he had been using your supplements, so he wouldn’t be a victim. He would just be putting up money to help other people cash out –and that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Damn,” I say, “you are a regular old Nancy Drew, aren’t you? All right, Nancy, are you going to help me look into this Martin Stone guy?”

She frowns and grabs me by my tie, pulling me in for a kiss, “Unfortunately, sweetie, you’re on your own today. I have to get to work.”

“Oh,” I say, disappointed, but I remind myself that she sat with me for five hours at court yesterday. We say our farewell, and I’m off to chase down this lead that Sylvia suggested I follow. I look into this Martin Stone guy, barely able to remember him. If it wasn’t for having to have him escorted off the premises, I probably would not remember him at all. He wasn’t that good of an employee, to be frank. Eventually I’m able to track down a phone number but no address. Should I call him? Would that tip him off? Against my better judgement, I call the number I found amongst my files at work. While sitting in my desk, I tap my fingers nervously against my desktop keyboard.

He actually answers. “Martin Stone,” he says in a pretty peppy voice for someone in the middle of a revenge scheme.

“Um…” I’m a little caught off guard by it, but I go for it anyways. “Martin, this is James Mont.”

There’s a long pause. “What can I do for you, Mr. Mont?”

“Coffee?” I ask and then add, “I realize this is a little out of the blue, but I was hoping to talk to you face to face if you could spare an hour.”

There’s another long pause. “I mean… I guess…” he sounds hesitant, “I can take a lunch if you’re wanting to meet up today.”

“I’d appreciate it. It’s kind of urgent,” I say, honestly a bit surprised he’s willing to meet.

The next thing I know I’m meeting this poor bastard I fired at this random coffee shop down the corner from my office. Much to my surprise, he pulls up in this brand new Honda, and the guy has a personal driver. I raise a brow at this, and I stand to greet him at the door with this awkward handshake. We order our coffee, and we find a seat outside on the patio. He’s wearing a fine suit, not much unlike the expensive shit I normally wear –not at all like the factory worker garb I was used to seeing him in. “You look good, Martin,” I say, slowly recalling my seldom interactions with the lowly factory worker I had fired.

He smiles, “I was honestly surprised to hear from you. Why are you calling me after almost two years?” He takes a sip of the coffee I had bought him. He seems legitimately confused about our meeting which is making him less and less suspicious by the minute.

“I suppose you’ve seen Shattered INC. in the news a lot lately,” I say, and he nods. “The lawsuit against my company is going to be tossed out because they’ve cleared us of any wrongdoings. However, I have found out recently that you are one of the ones helping to pay for the lawyer who’s trying to sue me.”

Martin suddenly laughs. “Oh God, that’s what this is about? Mr. Mont, I bought up a shit ton of your new line of supplements because I ran into Eddie, and he gave me a deal, and I handed them out in this stupid giveaway my company did a while back for my employees. Half of my staff wound up in the hospital after taking your shit, so when they all starting pointing fingers at me I offered to help pay for the lawyer –that’s all, I swear!” he has this stupid grin on his face. “I guess I was just trying to pass the blame game back to you and off of me to keep my employees from crying workers comp.”

I let what he is saying sink in. Surely he still has some sort of grudge against me for firing him, but he seems so damn friendly. “Your company?” I ask.

He smiles and pulls a brochure out of his jacket pocket, handing it to me. “I should honestly thank you, Mr. Mont,” he says, “I was headed down a dark path. My wife was thinking about leaving me and taking the kids. I was showing up drunk to work all the time because my alcoholism was getting the better of me. After you fired me, I didn’t have much of a choice but to grow up. I joined AA, and about a year after leaving the program I took out a loan and started my own branding business. As a matter of fact, Eddie’s used us a couple of times… so in a way, I guess I’m still working for Shattered.” He smiles brightly at me, “You firing me was a real wakeup call. I worked for your dad for years, and honestly I always thought of you as the sort of playboy joke son. Getting fired by you made me realize I must have really fucked up. If it wasn’t for you, I probably would have lost my kids.” He suddenly changes his demeanor. “I heard about Eddie. What happened?”

“Honestly, Martin, I don’t know. Someone attacked him.” I look at him, trying to gage what he is thinking. It’s not him. I know it’s not. I guess I got to tell Sylvia strike one. “Honestly,” I say, looking him in the eye, “I had you meet me here today because I was going to accuse you, but you don’t exactly seem resentful.”

Martin frowns. “No, I wouldn’t hurt Eddie. He was a good guy. And I’ll admit I was a little… upset… the day you fired me. Plus, I was drunk. I’m two years sober, I swear to it.”

“I can tell.” I smile at him. “Look, I’m sorry. I’ve been racking my brain about the whole thing, but I just can’t figure it out. I don’t know who would want to do this to me.”

“Have you looked into other people who jumped on the lawsuit bandwagon?” Martin asks. “Some woman was the one who initially hired the lawyer and started the lawsuit. I’ve never met her in person, but her name is Suzette. She’s been really sketchy, to be honest with you. Even the lawyer will tell you so, but money is money. She’s been sending the lawyer money, paying way more fines than me, and she’s always pushing the lawsuit forward despite repeatedly all of us being told that it wouldn’t go anywhere.”

“You’ve never met her, but you’re working with her?” I question.

“Yeah. The lawyer hasn’t even really met her. She’s just paying for others to be represented. She herself is not even on the list of victims. She’s just some woman sending funds to a lawyer and compiling lists of victims to get them riled up about the lawsuit. She sent a mass email to my company is the only reason I even know about her.” Martin sort of slumps his shoulders as though he has had some sort of epiphany. “Honestly, the more I think about it, the weirder it seems. She won’t speak with me on the phone, only email. The lawyer just accepts her money and moves on. She occasionally sends out email blasts to get everyone worked up about you, though. The emails are kind of hateful, actually.”

“Her name is Suzette?” I ask.

“Yeah, hold on,” Martin takes the brochure away from me and writes the woman’s email down for me.

“Is that all you got for me?” I ask.

“Sorry, but that’s it,” Martin says, “That’s the only way she’s been communicating with my employees about the lawsuit. I can forward you the emails, if you like. One of my employees has been sending me them.”

“Please do,” I say.

I stare at the brochure with the email address. It isn’t much, but I have a first name and an email address. Looks like I got some sort of lead.