Shaking his head in complete disbelief, Tommy printed a dozen copies of the spreadsheet he had made, transferred the folder with all the videos to four different USBs and left Alex’s former office to start dealing with the fallout of Alex’s insanely bad judgment.
**********
He stopped by Vanessa’s office and filled her in on everything he knew so far. Vanessa was flabbergasted that Alex would do something so stupid, because even if he hadn’t walked into Evie’s trap and accidentally admitted to using the security cameras in the Tower, everybody’s computers were monitored. Random audits were conducted constantly, with each terminal checked at least once a quarter.
All employees knew about the audits, but they never knew when they would happen or how often their terminals would be targeted. They could be audited up to five times in one quarter, so Alex had been extremely lucky while he tempted fate.
When Tommy explained the videos filmed of Evie and Aaron’s trips to Sherlock’s, and his theory that Alex had asked or paid multiple people to follow them, Vanessa asked for the dates and times. She said she would look into anyone particularlyclose or loyal to Alex. If it was employees using any form of communication on the server, she would find them.
Tommy passed over one of the spreadsheets and a USB, highlighting the correct dates, then told her that Alex’s office was to remain closed and locked until he brought in someone from an outside company to go through it and collect evidence as he stood to leave.
“Someone from an outside company? Why?” Vanessa stood and walked with him to the door.
“Because I’m too close to Evie, and if this ends up going to court for any reason, I could be accused of manipulating the data. All I’ve done so far is look for evidence that backs up Evie’s claim. Now that I have it, I have to bring in an outside IT person. I can’t even use someone from Sloane Tech; I need them as far removed from me as possible,” Tommy explained.
“And that goes for the workstations and devices of any employees who might have been involved, too.” He continued. “Whether you decide to fire them or not, the minute you find any proof, you stop looking and remove the computer tower or device for the IT guy to go through.”
“This is going to be a mess.” Vanessa sighed and rubbed her forehead. “If it gets out that the Chief of Security Operations was fired for accessing clients’ systems, we’re going to lose a lot of accounts.”
“When I speak to Alex, I’ll be reminding him of the NDA he signed,” Tommy said, trying to sound upbeat and reassuring. “He only accessed the Honey Oven Bakery & Cafe’s system, no one else. I’ll speak to them personally and explain that he didn’t access it to target them, but to check whether his girlfriend was meeting someone at their café behind his back. I’m also going to offer a year of free service and a camera upgrade to theQuartz360. I’ll throw in the latest Sloane Supernova Executive computer and a couple of Prism Facet 12 tablets, too.”
Vanessa raised her eyebrow. “That’s an awful lot to appease a small, family-owned bakery over a security breach that wasn’t even about them.”
“It’s more to assuage my guilt and embarrassment than to appease them,” Tommy admitted as he turned to leave, then paused. “Can you text me a list of any devices I need to get back from Alex? I know he has a company phone and laptop but check to see if he has anything else. Thorn already blocked his access remotely, but I still want everything returned.”
**********
Tommy’s next stop was to bring the spreadsheets and USBs to Thorn and Nissa and see where they were with their conversations with Aaron and Evie. He found them in the penthouse kitchen, discussing how best to talk to Aaron and Evie while eating French toast. He walked in and laid two of the printed spreadsheets on the table.
“Where are they anyway?” he asked as he poured himself a large thermos of coffee and grabbed a slice of toast to munch on.
“Evie is still sleeping.” Thorn barely looked up from his plate. “I brought her down to her bedroom here. Harvey is coming from his cottage near Phoenicia and wants to meet with me first at nine.”
Glancing at the clock, Tommy saw it was already twenty to nine, which explained why Thorn was shovelling food into his mouth and talking with his mouth full.
“He is meeting with Evie at ten and Aaron at eleven,” Thorn continued. “Nissa is going to wake Evie when I leave soshe can get cleaned up and dressed, then explain everything and answer questions before sending her to Harvey.”
“And I asked Aaron to be here by ten to go over everything with him.” Nissa joined in, standing up and making Tommy a plate. “Sit and eat,” she instructed firmly. “You haven’t eaten since dinner, and you’re going on two hours of sleep.”
Tommy did as he was told, too hungry to argue. “HELIX? Can I get an update on Alex?”
“He woke up, used the bathroom, then went to the spare room and went back to sleep,” the AI reported.
“Good.” Tommy nodded, relieved he hadn’t tried to leave, then had a thought. “Does he have access to Evie’s computer or laptop?”
“As a guest only. He can’t access her accounts and usually uses his own laptop. Would you like me to lock hers down?”
“Yes,” Tommy said immediately, concerned he would try to log on to Evie’s accounts when he saw he couldn’t use his work phone or laptop. “And let me know if he wakes up and tries to leave before I get there.”
“Yes, sir. All of Evie’s devices left in her apartment have been locked and will need a PIN that I chose and will only give to Evie to unlock them, including mine in the kitchen.”
Thorn wiped his mouth, stood up and brought his plate to the dishwasher. “HELIX, did you hear the name Alex gave Evie when she asked who told him she was spending a lot of time with Aaron?”
“My apologies, I was not activated and therefore not listening while they were talking,” she responded after a minute. “I had to review my camera recordings. It was Crystal Furlong.”
“Thank you.” Thorn grabbed one of the spreadsheets and a USB and popped a piece of gum into his mouth as he walked to the elevator. “I know she’s an employee, I hired her,” he said as he pressed the call button. The doors opened, and he stepped on. “I’ll let Vanessa know. It gives her a good place to start.”
The doors closed before Tommy could thank him, and he watched as Nissa stood up and headed to the stairs. “If you have a chance, could you find a forensic IT specialist with no connection to Sloane Tech or me? If you have to go out of state, great.”
