“I don’t think there’s much else to talk out,” I nodded. “But I really appreciate it. Just head home.”
Maxim agreed, gathering up his laptop and wishing us all good luck as he stuffed his computer into his bag and proceeded to leave the office. The three of us sat in silence for a while, looking over the details and just trying to make something appear on the page or the whiteboard.
It was only after Wrage and Hudson decided to join me in sitting at the board meeting table that one of them spoke.
“Maybe we’re thinking about this in the wrong way,” Hudson suggested. “Who all knew about your, uh, relationship with Wrex?”
I didn’t squirm at the pause the detective had issued before saying the word relationship, or the fact that he’d tied us together in that way. Even if I had, Wrage wriggled uncomfortably in his seat enough for the both of us.
“Wrage was the only one who knew, and that was about a week ago.”
“Ugh, please don’t make me relive that.” Wrage buried his head in his palm, making me both blush and smirk at the thought of when he’d found me and Wrex in my office.
“And you’re positive that no one else knew?” Hudson was a thorough guy, and I appreciated it. But I also didn’t think this line of questioning was going to go anywhere. “No one else overheard anything or saw you text Wrex? Nothing like that?”
“No,” I shook my head, running a hand through my hair. “The day that Wrage found out was during lunch. And then—”
Freezing tendrils rolled through my body as the memory hit me. Wrage had caught us in the act, and then he’d droned on and on about some data that the board had collected in a certain area of town. And just as we’d passed Maxim’s desk…
“Wait…” Wrage’s voice hitched as if the memory was also serving him right in that moment as well.
“What is it?”
“Wrage was going over some data with me,” I squared my eyes with Hudson before glancing in the direction of the open board room doors where Maxim had just been minutes prior. “And then Maxim had asked to use my phone because he’d forgotten his at home that day.”
“And you think that Maxim went through your phone?” Hudson tilted his head in a physical display of his inquiry.
“I don’t know,” I scoffed, not wanting it to be true. “I didn’t even remember that he had my phone until I’d gotten ready to leave for the day. I didn’t think anything of it, but now, I guess he could have known.”
A glance exchanged between Wrage and the detective and I wasn’t liking it one bit.
“But that doesn’t mean that Maxim had anything to do with Wrex’s disappearance. It doesn’t make any sense!”
“It doesn’t until it does, Watson.” Hudson said, standing up from his chair so fast that the back of it swung in the air. “Where’s Maxim’s desk?”
“Out in the hall.” Wrage nodded, already following him as they paraded out of the room.
Following, more scoffs fell out of me in protest. “What do you think you’re going to find on his desktop? You think he’d be stupid enough to use his work computer if he was connected to the petrylle disappearances?”
“I have no idea what we’ll find.” Hudson admitted as he took a seat behind Maxim’s desk, booting up the PC in quick succession. “But right now, he’s the only lead we have. If it’s true that Wrage was the only one who knew about you and Wrex, and Maxim had your phone for an extended period of time, he’s now the only other person connected to it.”
“But that’s assuming that Wrex got nabbed because we were together.” I shook my head. “Why would anyone care about that?”
“Have you not given thought to the possibility that the people being taken have engaged in some type of relationship with humans?” Hudson typed away at Maxim’s work computer, which of course didn’t have a password protecting it because it belonged to the government. Yet another reason why I didn’t think that, if Maxim was connected to the disappearing petrylle, he’d use government sanctioned property in order to do his evil dealings. “We already know that all the petrylle had a new group of friends that included humans. Maybe the humans were befriending the petrylle so they’d be easy to subdue.”
“Except for Wrex.” I pointed out. “He doesn’t fit the bill like the rest of the petrylle.”
“Who better to be taken next than the brother of an ORBIT board member who just so happens to be shacking up with the human boss?” Wrage concluded, earning him a nod from the detective, clearly agreeing.
My shoulders slumped. They had a point. Maxim had access to more than just my phone, he had access to everything. Easy was an understatement if he’d applied himself to use the resources at his disposal to do something as wicked as helping make petrylle vanish.
But this was Maxim we were talking about. My dorky but very competent assistant. He’d been with me for so long, it was hard to imagine him betraying me. Maxim only cared about three things as far as I was concerned: his girlfriend Stacy, his Pokémon card collection, and doing a good job here at the Capitol.
Thinking about Maxim being in leagues with the hate group that was clearly behind the kidnappings didn’t feel right. In fact, it made me nauseous just to think about it as my stomach stirred uncomfortably.
I watched over Hudson’s shoulder, just like Wrage, as he went through Maxim’s email. Nothing suspicious was in his inbox or in any emails he’d sent, even though he’d connected his personal email and his work email. A sense of pride surged through me at that, because admitting to myself that Maxim had the means didn’t mean he had the motive.
“There.” Hudson pointed, gesturing to an email that was lodged in the trash folder.
