“No. Like I told Ash, they didn’t sound familiar. And by the way, it creeps me out to no end that strange men were in my apartment.Especially while my best friend was there.” She shot me a dirty look. I ignored her and took another bite of my salad.
“They were looking for something. Could it have been your laptop?” Jake asked. “Is there something on it that could lead to the murderer?”
“Not likely. I use it mostly for gaming.” Dylan walked to the fridge and got out three waters, offering one to each of us before takinga swig of hers. “Although... that stupid spreadsheet.”
“The one you were fired over?” I asked.
“Yeah. Kirk had been keeping me super busy with menial crap like making coffee runs and getting him lunch, and I didn’t have enough time to get all his expenses added, so I took it home and worked on it. Therewasa copy on the laptop.”
“Was?” Jake asked.
“Yeah. I deleted it when I was done.”
“Wouldanyone else have known about the laptop?” he asked.
Dylan shrugged. “Probably. Lots of people took their laptops into work. It wasn’t forbidden or anything.”
“So this spreadsheet is the only thing you had from work—or connected with Mr. Miller—that you have in your possession?” Jake asked.
“That I can think of, yeah.” Dylan nodded.
I could see where Jake was going with his line of questioningso I jumped in. “Did anyone see you with your laptop the day you were fired?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Dylan said. “Kirk and the security guard... the Russian one. The security guard stood by the door and Kirk helped me pack up my stuff. Kirk was breathing down my neck like I was gonna steal the company stapler or something. Oh Kirk’s assistant, Michelle was also there. She said good-bye to me on theway out.”
Jake scribbled down a couple of notes. “And where did you say the laptop is now?”
“At a friend’s house. He wiped the hard drive and is adding more memory to it.”
“Does your friend have a name?” Jake asked.
“He sure does.”
“What is it?” he pressed.
“Why do you want to know? So you and ten of your closest friends can show up on his doorstep and scare the crap out of him? Sorry, butI’m not that kind of friend. I’ll call him and find out when I can pick it up, and then you can look it over. I’m telling you, he wiped the hard drive, though.”
“Why would you have him wipe the hard drive if you had nothing to hide?” Jake asked.
Dylan cracked a smile. “As Addison mentioned, I’m a gamer. I’ve had that particular laptop for almost four years now and have probably played closeto thirty games on it. You can run sweeps and defrags and maintenance, but over time programs build up this residual gunk that slows down your computer. You wipe it to get rid of that so your programs run faster.”
Jake’s eyebrows rose in question.
“You’d understand if you ever tried healing for a raid while you’re lagging out,” she explained.
He looked to me and I shrugged. “I tried to tellyou she was a geek.”
“Yeah, so I wiped it. But I took it to my friend right after I got fired... killing time while I waited for Addie to wake up.” Dylan’s expression turned thoughtful, but before I could ask her what she was thinking, she rose to her feet and headed toward her bedroom, leaving me alone with Detective McSexypants.
“Dylan—” Jake started.
“It’s the best you’re gonna get,” Iassured him. “At least without some sort of search warrant. And she’ll never give up her friend’s name. Trust me. Might as well enjoy our lunch and wait for Dylan. My brother knows you’re here, by the way.”
“I know. I told him.”
“Well, I also texted him,” I said.
“Yeah?” He grinned at me. “Good girl.”
