"I’d shake your hand, but you’d end up with flour all over you." He held up both hands, and Tommy chuckled, dropping his. Deon had a light dusting of flour up to his elbows. "Come on, we can talk in my office."
He led Tommy to a door that blended into the wall and up a narrow flight of stairs.
"Is Evie alright?"
The question was so unexpected that Tommy tripped and almost fell up the stairs. "Evie?"
"Yeah. Tommy Sloane came in and asked to see me by name, so now I’m worried something happened to Evie."
Deon opened the first door on the right and flicked on the light. Tommy followed him into a simple ten-by-ten room lined with filing cabinets and boxes stacked three deep and six high. Baking ingredients, by the look of them. A desk took up most of the back half. Deon grabbed a chair that had been pushed against the wall, set it in front of the desk, and gesturedfor Tommy to sit before walking around and settling into the computer chair.
“Oh.” Tommy sat down and set the briefcase on the floor next to him. “Evie’s fine and will be here tomorrow for her usual Sunday brunch.” He smiled weakly. In all his years as the CEO of two major corporations, it wasn’t very often he had to eat crow and apologize to someone for mistakes, and he had never had to do it with a customer. He had no idea how to start.
“I’m actually here to talk about your account with Sloane Security Services.” He swallowed and decided just to lay everything out. “Just after eleven thirty last night, I was informed of the potential breach of several of our clients' surveillance systems by a senior employee.” He watched as Deon’s face dropped and he leaned forward, folding his arms on the desktop as he listened.
“I immediately began an investigation and concluded that this employee had abused his position and security clearance to access the security cameras in your bakery a total of thirteen times. This employee was terminated first thing this morning, with all his clearance and access revoked.” Tommy ran his hand through his hair, feeling like his heart was about to pound out of his chest. To his surprise, Deon didn’t look upset, only confused and worried.
“Why would he do that? What was he trying to do, steal our recipes?” The bewilderment in his voice had Tommy biting his tongue so he wouldn’t laugh.
“No.” Tommy shook his head. “His reasons for accessing the cameras had nothing to do with your bakery. He believed his girlfriend was meeting someone here while he was at work.”
“He was using our cameras to stalk his girlfriend?” Deon’s confusion sharpened into outrage, and Tommy could only nod.
“Legally, I can’t use that word, but the spirit of what you’re saying is close,” Tommy said carefully. He opened his briefcase and pulled out the new contract. “And as the CEO of Sloane Security Services, I felt I needed to tell you in person and express my sincere apologies.” He slid the document across the desk. “And offer you a year of free services, an upgrade to the Quartz 360 cameras, a new Supernova Executive system for your office, an upgraded POS setup with Prism Facet 12s, and a year of paid internet.”
Deon picked up the contract and read it over. Tommy had to admire the man’s poker face; he had no idea what he thought about any of it, which only made him more nervous. But then he picked up a pen and signed the contract, passing it back to Tommy.
“You didn’t have to do any of that, but I’m not stupid or magnanimous enough to turn it down,” Deon told him with a slight grin, making Tommy chuckle in relief and pick up the signed contract, tucking it back into the briefcase.
I also understand as a business owner,” he continued. “About feeling responsible for the fuckups by the people who work for you and the need to fix the problems they’ve created.”
“There’s that and the feelings of shame and embarrassment that come with knowing you trusted the wrong person,” Tommy admitted. “You guys close at three tomorrow, right?”
“Yessir,” Deon nodded. “You gonna send someone over on a Sunday afternoon to do the install?”
Tommy shook his head, grinning. “Nah, I’ll do it. I enjoy installing and setting up the tech, and I never get to do it anymore.” He stood and held out his hand, not caring about the flour. “Thank you for your understanding.”
Deon got to his feet and shook his hand, a small cloud of flour coming off him. “Yeah, I get that too. I only get to be in the kitchen on Saturdays and Sundays. And it’s no problem.” He hesitated. “Look, Mr. Sloane; -”
“Tommy.”
“Tommy.” Deon grinned for a moment, then his expression grew serious. He beckoned for Tommy to follow him to the window. When Tommy joined him, Deon pointed at a bench across the street. “He used to watch her from there, too.”
“What do you mean?” Tommy felt his heart stop.
“Well, Evie’s been coming here for a long time, and I always make time to talk to her. I know Alex, too; he would come in with her from time to time before he was promoted.” He shrugged. “As soon as you said he was spying on his girlfriend because he thought she was meeting someone, I knew you meant Evie. Aaron started coming in with her back in November.” He grinned at Tommy’s surprised look. “I know you can’t confirm anything. It’s fine.”
“Anyway, Evie’s favourite table is right in front of the window so she can people-watch while she writes. That bench has a direct line of sight into the window. But see the tree behind it?” He stepped back from the window so Tommy could get a better look.
“A London Plane,” Tommy murmured.
London Plane trees dripped sticky resin, shed itchy pollen balls in the spring, and had bark that flaked off in sap-coated chunks that stuck to your clothes like glue. They were everywhere in the city and impossible to avoid.
“Exactly. No one wants to sit there except tourists who don’t know better. I always notice when people sit there because I think, ‘You’re going to regret that,’ and sure enough, the nexttime I look, they’re gone. It took me a while to clock it, because he didn’t sit there every time Evie was here. The first thing I noticed was that he didn’t leave within ten minutes like everyone else, and I figured he was high or something.”
“But he kept coming back,” Tommy muttered, folding his arms.
“He kept coming back. I didn’t mention it to Evie because I wasn’t sure. He wasn’t consistent about anything except the fact that he would stay, even during pollen season. And then one day, he came in with her, and she introduced him as her boyfriend.”
