“Just one.” Tommy clicked on a folder, revealing dozens of saved video files. “The Honey Oven Bakery & Cafe. It’s only a few blocks away, and Evie loves their pastries and breads. She’s there two or three times a week.”
“That could work in our favour,” Thorn said thoughtfully. “If she’s a regular customer, telling them that one of our employees was stalking her and accessed their camera systems to do it, they may be sympathetic.”
“True,” Tommy muttered. “I’d rather not have to have the conversation with them at all, but this could be the best-case scenario. Can you pull their file for me, please?” He clicked on a video as Thorn nodded, straightened up and leftthe room. He enlarged the video icons to get an idea of where they were sourced without watching and began separating them into different folders. Most seemed to be from the elevators and lobby, and there were thirteen from the cafe surveillance cameras. Thirty-three videos appeared to have been filmed on a cell phone, and, aside from a bunch that looked like they were taken on a sidewalk, he didn’t recognize where the others were filmed.
Thorn returned and laid a folder on the desk as Tommy watched one of the videos.
“Thanks,” he murmured. “Do you recognize anything about this?” He pointed at the screen. “It’s not a security camera, and it looks like it was filmed in a pub.”
The video showed Evie and Aaron having a beer and a meal in what looked like a British-style pub.
“It is Sherlock’s on Caton. The guys like to go there for a drink after their shifts.” Thorn reached out and clicked play again, watching how Evie and Aaron interacted. Evie was laughing as Aaron told her a story and then showed her something on his phone. “What is the timestamp on this one?”
Tommy checked. “It was filmed on December 26th and uploaded on January 14th.”
“Evie said Alex has been acting off for about two months and that ‘someone’ told him she was spending a lot of time with Aaron.” He furrowed his brow. “Is this the first video?”
Tommy arranged the videos by date downloaded and checked the ones he had moved to the other folders. “Yeah. But these three were all downloaded one after the other on the same day.” He highlighted the one they had just watched and the two next to it. “And they were all filmed on a cell phone.”
“So, they are the ones sent to Alex to prove Evie was cheating,” Thorn mumbled. “Play the other two, please.”
The next one looked like it was taken on the sidewalk, but it started in the lobby and showed Aaron and Evie leaving the building from behind. The video zoomed in to show Aaron place his hand on the small of Evie’s back as he guided her through the door. The person filming then ran to the doors and followed them as they headed up Prospect Park Southwest. Aaron didn’t touch Evie again, but it was clear they were comfortable with one another, talking animatedly.
“I did not realize Evie and Aaron were so close,” Thorn said as they entered the Honey Oven and the person filming got a shot of them lining up at the counter, pointing at various pastries in the display and discussing them through the window before the video ended.
“Yeah,” Tommy nodded as he clicked on the third video. “After she helped him with all of Paula’s arrangements when she died, he started going to her office to talk. They both like the same sci-fi TV shows and movies and read the same types of books. I walked in on them a few weeks ago, researching upcoming comic cons to see if anyone from their favourite shows would be there and talking about going if Aaron wasn’t away on assignment.”
“Hmm.” Thorn hummed thoughtfully and watched the third video, which showed Aaron and Evie at Sherlock’s again. He watched as Aaron lightly berated her about something, waving a fry in her face, which she snatched and ate with a smirk. Then Aaron leaned close and asked her something that made her uncomfortable and defensive, while he looked worried about her. Someone walked in front of the camera and sat down, blocking the filmmaker’s view, making them say “Fuck” in an annoyed tone before turning off the camera.
“This is the first video,” Thorn told Tommy, making him frown. “It might be the third one Alex downloaded, but this was filmed in early December. Evie’s hair is longer in this one and does not have the different colour she added when she and Nissa went to the salon during Hanukkah.”
Tommy went back to the other videos and realized Thorn was right. In the first two videos, Evie’s hair was cut in a shoulder-length bob with caramel highlights, but in the one they’d just watched, it was past her shoulders and her natural dark brown. He checked the date it had been taken.
“Yeah. This one was taken on December 7th.” He checked the other video. “And this one was taken on January 13th.”
“Well, that confirms what Evie said.” Thorn sat on the edge of the desk and folded his arms. “Someone told Alex she was spending a lot of time with Aaron, and it was a woman.” He smiled faintly, running his hand through his hair. “She said whoever told him has been trying to ‘sit on his dick’ for a while.”
Tommy rolled his eyes. Evie was shockingly potty mouthed when she got drunk. He began going through the other videos, arranging them by the date they were filmed instead of where they were filmed.
“It looks like he started actively surveilling them on January 14th.” He paused; he had to admit; Evie had been spending a lot of time with Aaron. There were one hundred and sixty-one videos taken within about three months, plus the first three. Although, to be fair, there were thirteen days that had four videos, and eleven with six.
“Taking the first three videos out of the equation, it looks like he surveilled her and Aaron thirty-nine times in seventy-seven days,” Tommy said, pulling up a spreadsheet and entering the data, needing it to confront Alex, to show Evie and Aaron,for the internal investigation, and in case Evie wanted to get a restraining order.
“We need to find out who he had following them and fire them if they work here. Can I ask you and Nissa to get Aaron to come in and inform him and Evie of what we discovered, and have Harvey debrief them?” He glanced at the time. It was already five in the morning, and he had a lot to do in the next few hours. I’d talk to them myself, but I have to inform our legal team, confront Alex, then speak to the owner of the Honey Oven and tell them about the security breach.”
“No problem.” Thorn stretched. “I will go bring Nissa up to speed and have her call Aaron in while I check on Evie, get the name of who told Alex about her and Aaron and send it to you. Vanessa and Harvey should be here soon; both said they would be here as quickly as possible when I spoke to them.”
“Is Vanessa well enough to come in?” Tommy glanced up at Thorn, concerned, both for her health and for the other employees’. Thorn nodded as he headed to the door.
“Her doctor cleared her yesterday afternoon. She was coming back on Monday.”
**********
When Tommy finished going through the videos, he was in shock. He had no idea how Alex had found the time to do all of this. Out of the one hundred and sixty-one videos on his computer, thirteen were taken from the Honey Oven’s security system, thirty-three were filmed on a cellphone either inside Sherlock’s Pub or following them as they walked to or from there, and the rest were from inside the elevators and lobby.
The sheer number of cellphone videos told Tommy that Alex had more than one person following them, because Aaron would have noticed the same person trailing them, sitting closeenough to film, then leaving at the same time and following them back to the Tower. Aaron, like Cole, sometimes trained the security guards in self-defence, so there was a good chance he would recognize anyone employed by them.
Tommy hoped Alex hadn’t pulled in employees, but he would have Vanessa check. She could decide the fate of any guard who had followed Evie on Alex’s behalf. If he or Thorn investigated it, they would fire everyone involved immediately, with no consideration beyond the fact that they had dared to follow her.
