“I haven’t yet.”She sighed and continued going through her emails.She realized there was a series of them related to the end of the first quarter financial statements.She turned the screen so Micah could see them.“There’s discussion about the statements, but no attachments to show what they are.Do you think this is the prelude to finding the missing money?You can see they originate with Tabitha.”
“Could be.”He leaned in to read the message.“You really have no idea how much money the company brings in each month?”
She bit her lip, thinking back.“There was one time I caught a glimpse of a financial statement.I don’t think it was supposed to come to me, so I just forwarded it on to Damien.That was from six months ago maybe?The bottom line was that they had well over seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in the account.But again, that was a six-month report.”
“If that’s true, then the company brings in one point five million each year.”He arched a brow.“Not bad for a public relations and marketing firm.Not that I’m an expert in that sort of thing.”
“Just because they made that much over six months doesn’t mean that is their income on an annual basis.They could have just had a particularly good year.If I remember correctly, they brought on several new clients over the past year.”
“When did they land the data center account?”Micah asked.
“That was recently.Maybe February?I’d have to look through the emails to say for sure.”She turned back to her phone and began forwarding several of her messages to her personal account.It would be easier to read through them with Micah on a laptop compared to a tiny phone screen.“I think—hey, what just happened?”
“What do you mean?”
Bryn tapped her phone screen to access her work email.But all that came up was a message that readaccess denied.
She sat back in her chair, stunned.“The company just cut of my access.”
“Right now?”Micah scowled.“Do you think they realized you were online and looking at the messages?Maybe Richard does have something to hide.Something he’s worried you’ll realize is important.”
“I don’t know.If Richard was worried about that, why wait until today to cut off my access?He could have done that the moment I left the office.Or even before that, when the police took me in for questioning.”She wondered if Richard had been flagged about her being online.Deon was their technical support expert.Deon might have been doing some work when he’d noticed activity on her account.
Yet it was a Saturday.The only people who worked weekends were Richard and Damien.They didn’t approve overtime for the hourly staff except in extreme cases.Maybe Richard was working and had noticed her email was still active.If so, it made sense that he’d sent Deon a message to remove her from the system effective immediately.
She set the phone aside, feeling sick.Being locked out shouldn’t have been a surprise.Richard had fired her.There was no going back, even if she wanted to.
Yet it felt as if the last connection to her previous life had been severed.For good.
“It’s okay.”Micah could tell Bryn was upset.“We’ll figure this out.”
“I hope so.”She stared at the phone as if it were a poisonous snake.“It’s just weird that they shut me out while I was using it.”
The timing was odd, but her logging onto the account could have activated something on their end.It didn’t matter now.Although he still wondered if the data center account was somehow involved.
He glanced at his watch.It was barely seven thirty in the morning.Still too early to head to the store to buy clothes and shoes for Bryn.He rose to his feet to pour more coffee.The idea of reviewing her work emails had been a good one.Now it was time to make a list of the company employees.
If by some chance Damien hadn’t been the one to steal the money, then someone else inside the company had done the task.Maybe someone with the skills to make it look as if Damien had done it.Or worse, made it look as if Bryn was the culprit.
He glanced out the kitchen window to the street running along the front of the property.They’d come in at night; the houses looked different in the light of day.
Maybe he should cruise around the neighborhood again.Check out the make and model of the cars belonging to those who lived in the area.He glanced at the time again and decided they should head out earlier than he’d originally planned.
“I was able to send some of the messages to my home email,” Bryn said.“We can look at those in more detail, although I didn’t notice anything strange when I first scrolled through them.”
“That’s fine.”He tore his gaze from the window.“But I’d also like to keep going through the list of employees.I mean, I did the initial background search, but we should look at other avenues to gain information.Social media, that kind of thing.”
“I doubt anyone would post anything incriminating on social media,” she protested.
“You never know.And it wouldn’t be something obvious, but maybe a connection we could follow up on.”He carried his coffee to the table.“Do you want more?”
“No thanks.I’m already past my limit.”She grimaced.
“We’ll work for a few minutes and then head out.”He sipped his coffee, then set the cup aside.“Show me what you have.”
“I only managed to send a few of them, all related to the data center.”She turned the computer so he could see the screen.
“No other big projects have come in recently?”he asked.
