Chapter 13
“Cuban coffee and alibis. Follow me for more podcast name ideas.”
-Flint
I thought I beat Celia to the office, but when I walked through the hallways of Luke Saber Security, I could hear her peals of laughter from our Cybersecurity Expert’s office.
I felt like a creeper, hanging out in the hallway, but it did my heart good to hear Celia laugh. She hadn’t had much to laugh about in the last few weeks, and I didn’t want to interrupt.
“She did not,” Tatiana Martel laughed. “She did not call you Team Flelia!”
“She did!” Celia giggled. “I was mortified!”
Because, of course, she was.Shit. I didn’t want to hear anything more about how being linked to memortifiedher. I gritted my teeth and banged through the open office door.
Luke hired Tatiana last year after she helped us take down a ring of international terrorists. The black woman married her college sweetheart - Lou Martel - a former Heismann Trophy winner turned drag queen who owned Midnight Louise’s Drag Show Emporium. He was a giant white bald man who dressed up as Dolly Parton every night at midnight. She was a petite genius-level hacker who knew how to find just about anything on the world wide web.
They were from different worlds, but it worked for them.
This giant wouldn’t win the heart of the petite beauty sitting next to Tatiana, but that was okay with me. I would be happy with whatever time I spent with her. Even if it meant just working on this investigation.
“Good morning, ladies,” I sat down coffees on the counter as far away from Tatiana’s keyboard as I could get. I wouldn’t make the mistake of spilling on her precious keys ever again.
“Mmmmm, coffee,” Tatiana pushed her rolling chair away from her station, rolled over to the coffee, grabbed a cup, then rolled back. It was hilarious.
Celia read the label on the remaining cup. “Cuban coffee? Two sugars? How’d you know?”
“I pay attention,” I nodded at her but couldn’t muster up a smile. I knew how she felt about me. I wasn’t surprised, but it still hurt. Likebeing shot in a bulletproof vesthurt.
“Your timing is perfect, Flint,” Tatiana motioned me toward the screens in front of her. “I justborrowedthe investigations files.”
I raised an eyebrow but knew better than to question it. Tatiana’s skills meant we gathered intel in a lot of questionable ways. But for what we did at the company, we weren’t too concerned with what would hold up in a court of law. Most of the time, we were on protection detail. Trying to save someone’s life.
“What did you find?”
She typed a few keys. “Not much, and that’s surprising.”
Files filled up the glass wall in front of her. Instead of having multiple monitors, she had a giant glass wall that resembled a movie screen. It could be sectioned off as needed.
“There’s the list of people the detectives interviewed,” Tatiana pointed. “Current wife, ex-wife - Celia, neighbors, and business partner.”
“The detectives said everyone had an alibi,” Celia bit her lip. “Everyone, except me.”
Tatiana nodded. “Yep. And they’re pretty solid alibis. Especially the current wife, which is weird.”
“Why is that weird?” I sipped my coffee.
Tatiana glanced between Celia and me. “Most people are like Celia. We go about our business, work, home, watch television, whatever. And for most of what we do every day, we don’t have witnesses. We don’t have time-stamped receipts or video surveillance.”
I nodded and signaled for her to continue.
“But the current wife, Echo Cruz,” Tatiana frowned at the screen. “What kind of name is Echo? Did her helicopter parents want to make sure thisMillennial Snowflakedid amazing things in the world? That just chaps my ass.”
“Hey, not all Millennials are bad,” Celia countered. “I’ve worked with a lot of them. Most are just sponges waiting for some feedback. They’re not jaded Gen-Xers like I am.”
I laughed at that. I doubted Celia had a jaded bone in her body. “And, aren’tyoua Millennial, T?”
She stuck her tongue out at me. “Bless your heart. I was born at night, but I wasn’t born last night.”
