“What do you want from me?” Kate Delbridge demanded. “The police already took my statement. HR sent out a memo telling everyone at the company that we aren’t supposed to talk to anyone except the cops.”
“Which is, of course, why the news of Sandra Porter’s death is all over the social media sites that the local tech crowd likes to use,” Virginia said.
They were standing in the hallway outside Kate’s apartment. Cabot had agreed to let her take the lead. She was following a hunch because neither she nor Cabot had been able to go deep into the latest social media sites that the young tech crowd favored. But given the way the world worked these days, she figured it was a safe bet that employees from Night Watch had done a lot of communicating about the murder.
Kate frowned at Cabot. “Who are you guys? Local TV? I don’t see any cameras.”
“I’m a private investigator,” Cabot said. “I’m investigating a case that may have a connection to the death of Sandra Porter.”
Kate switched her attention back to Virginia. “Are you his assistant or something?”
“No,” Virginia said. “I’m his client. Sandra Porter died in the back room of my gallery.”
“Oh.” Kate absorbed that information. “I read somewhere that the gallery owner found the body.”
“That’s right,” Virginia said. “You can understand why I’m interested in Sandra Porter’s murder.”
“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” Kate said. “But the fact is, I didn’t know Sandra Porter very well. She was a loner and she worked in IT. When I ran into her in the halls, she ignored me. All I can tell you is what I told the cops. People at work are saying that Sandra was seeing someone but she was very secretive about it. I got the impression that she’d been dumped recently. She was always intense but after that she got a little scary.”
“We know she lost her job at Night Watch,” Virginia said. “We know the official reason – she left to pursue other career opportunities. We also know that’s not the real reason. Why do you think she was fired?”
Kate shrugged. “Some people are saying she got into drugs. But there have been rumors that she might have been embezzling funds. Management probably couldn’t prove it, so they just let her go.”
“That’s often the way big firms deal with embezzlers,” Cabot said. “It avoids the bad publicity.”
“What did you mean when you said that Sandra got scary?” Virginia asked.
“It’s hard to explain,” Kate said. “She seemed to be seething all the time. And she had mood swings. One day I found her sobbing in the restroom. I asked her if she was okay. She told me to fuck off.”
“Do you think she might have been the embezzler?” Cabot asked.
“I guess we’ll all find out soon enough,” Kate said. “If she was the one who was skimming off money, the losses should stop, right?” Kate started to close the door. “Look, that’s all I can tell you. I really don’t know anything else.”
“Wait,” Virginia said quickly. “One more thing – did Sandra have any close friends at the company?”
“Not that I know of. She wasn’t the type who attracted friends.”
Once again Kate started to close the door. Cabot took out a card and handed it to her.
“If you think of anything else that might be helpful – anything at all – please call me,” he said. “Day or night.”
“All right.” Kate took the card and closed the door.
Virginia heard the lock click into place. Without a word, she and Cabot walked down the hall to the elevators. She pressed the call button.
“Well?” she said. “What’s your take on her?”
“I think she’s nervous,” Cabot said. “But that doesn’t give us much to go on.”
His phone beeped. He unclipped it and checked the screen. His jaw tightened as he read the message. Without a word he clipped the phone back on his belt.
“What?” Virginia asked.
“A message from Anson. We’re expected for dinner again this evening.”
“Okay,” Virginia said.
“Okay?”
“You can do this, Cabot. You are a tough crime fighter. You can handle a teenager who just wants to know more about you.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do with a seventeen-year-old boy?”
“Give him a job.”
“A job? He’s seventeen.”
“Exactly,” Virginia said. “He’s seventeen. That means he probably knows a lot more about the online world than you and me and Anson put together. Ask Xavier to do some online research for you.”
She thought Cabot was going to come back with a hard no to that suggestion. But he didn’t. Instead he appeared to give the idea some serious thought.
“Huh,” he said.