Instead, I opened my emails and started a new message, doing what I was told.I didn’t even deserve his comfort right now.Sooner or later, he was going to realize that.
“I’ll get this over to my contacts at the major networks right now,” Ace said, already halfway out the door on the way back to his own office.“Keaton, can you clip out just the section with the spiking?We’ll need it for social media.Send that to me as soon as you can.”
“Okay,” I nodded.Mr.Harvey’s hand lifted from my shoulder and I immediately mourned its loss.My skin felt cold now where he was gone.“Do you need me to do anything else with it?”
“Keep watching,” Mr.Harvey said, pointing a finger back at me as he moved over to his laptop.“The person who leaked the footage must have been there.I suspect it was Brody.See if you can catch him standing outside to wait.”
“Are you going to be calling the press as well?”I asked.I finished editing out the clip, attached it to the email, and clicked send.It swooshed off through the internet, something so small that could make such a huge difference.It was going to be all over the world before the end of the day.The thought almost made me shake.
“No,” Mr.Harvey said.“I’m calling Ridley Angus.And Coleman.He needs to know what’s about to land at his door.”
I nodded.I watched as he sat down and pulled his laptop towards him with that same strong hand that had been on my shoulder a second ago.It had felt so reassuring.So comfortable.Like home.
I shook myself and looked back at the screen.
I watched as people continued to move around both inside and outside the VIP lounge.Ridley’s arm movements as he spoke began to change, becoming elongated and then heavy, as if he was getting tired.A lighter expression transformed his face from friendly to almost… silly.
It was like he was drunk.Only, I knew now that it was something different.
I kept my eyes on the screen, watching for any hint of Brody coming back or doing anything else, but he didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight.I wished I’d had access to the cameras in the street outside.I would have been able to see if he’d walked away or just stood out there.
This was a police investigation now, I realized with a start.They probablywouldbe able to get that footage.They would be able to catch him.Brody wasn’t going to get away with this unscathed, and neither was Helen.
A figure dressed in dark clothing moved into the frame.I almost didn’t notice him, except for the fact that I was looking for Brody’s leather jacket.He leaned against the wall near the VIP lounge and peered into it.He must have been able to see Ridley from this angle.By this point, his teammates were trying to convince him to leave while he shook his head and told them he hadn’t even had that much to drink.I knew from memory that it wasn’t long before they would drag him out.
The person in the black clothing looked around the club casually, and their gaze landed right on the camera.
Right on me.
And his eyes opened wide, he stepped back out of frame, and I had to pause the footage and rewind and watch it again.
There was a look of recognition and then panic in his eyes that I could identify even in the low lighting of the club, from this distance away, and even though he had deliberately stayed within the shadows at the edges of the room.He looked at me, realized who I was, and he was scared.
And while there were a good number of reasons I could think of why he might be scared to be caught by me at a nightclub, none of them were good at all.
Either he knew what was going on and he didn’t want me to witness him there…
Or Fernando was at a club when he should have been with my sister, and he had a lot of explaining to do.
Either way, I had a big decision to make.
I opened my mouth and then closed it.Mr.Harvey was talking to someone on the phone; he didn’t even notice me glancing in his direction.
I could tell him.Let him judge for himself.
But Fernando was my sister’s boyfriend.
If I told Mr.Harvey about my suspicions, then maybe he would get into trouble.And if all he’d done was tell my sister he was busy and then go out for a drink with a colleague, then it was nothing.I would be getting him into trouble for nothing, and Clara would be mad at me.
I bit my lip and closed the video file.There was no need to bring it up.Not until I’d had the chance to talk to Fernando.
Mr.Harvey put down the phone from his last call.His face was grim; I gathered he’d just delivered the warning to Coleman.It couldn’t have been easy – telling his oldest friend, and his closest friend from what I understood, that his firm was about to come under fire.Not only that, but he couldn’t even be seen to support him because of their fake media rivalry.
He picked up the phone again.There was a pause while the line connected.“Quijada,” he said when it did.“Come to my office.I need to talk to you.”
And my heart beat wildly in my chest, wondering if Fernando had shown up earlier in the footage when I was looking at Brody and Helen after all – and if I was about to get in trouble for shielding my sister’s boyfriend.
Olly
