“Nope.”She frowned.“The data center was in the works for a while.Damien was thrilled to have landed the deal.”
He tapped on the mouse pad to go through each of the messages.The gist of the emails was that the general public was in an uproar over the data center, and the goal was to come up with a marketing and PR strategy to ease their concerns.He frowned when one message caught his eye.“The data center is already under construction?”
“Yeah.The construction project was stopped, though, when people started picketing the property.”She eyed him curiously.“I don’t know why something like a data center would cause something as sinister as murder.There’s an environmental impact, sure, but that’s not exactly dangerous.The missing money must be the reason Lori and Damien were murdered.”
He wondered if someone within the city government got into trouble for approving the data center, then decided she was right.It did not make sense that a project like that could be the inciting incident.Unless Damien had taken bribe money?No, that wasn’t logical either.Damien’s company had been hired by the owner of the data center.
With a sigh, he moved on to the next message.He didn’t want to spin his wheels on something that might not be important.He wished Bryn had sent herself the financial statement so he could look at it for himself, but that document wouldn’t prove anything either.
Would the police have more information to share about the investigation?If so, he doubted they’d be willing to share.He finished going through the messages, then rose to his feet again, feeling restless.
“I can try calling Gwen,” Bryn offered, watching him pace.“She might be willing to tell me what’s going on at the company.”
“You think so?”He turned to look at her.“She’ll confide in you as a friend?”
“Normally yes.I mean, we were good friends, at least I thought so.But when Richard fired me...”Her voice trailed off, and she looked away as if embarrassed.He wondered if she’d ever been fired before.He had, but that was when he was a teenager.And in some ways, it didn’t count.The only reason he’d been fired was because he’d been beaten by his father and showed up to work with bruises on his face, including a black eye.The grocery store manager had assumed he’d gotten into a fight and sent him home, telling him not to bother coming back.
At the time, Micah had been too proud to correct his boss’s erroneous assumption.He had been in a fight, but it was only in self-defense.Micah had been a skinny kid at sixteen.Over that next year, he worked out in the gym at school until he was strong enough to defend himself and his mother.Not that it mattered.His mother had taken off without him anyway.
He understood that being fired from a job as an adult was different.It could make you feel worthless, especially if you didn’t do anything wrong.
After a long moment, she met his gaze.“If I’m being honest, she looked at me with suspicion when Richard walked me out the building.But I’m sure that was mostly because Richard accused me of being involved.Now that she’s had time to think about it, she must realize I’m innocent.”
“That may be so, but keep in mind, we still don’t know what evidence they may have against you.”He kept his tone gentle to soften the blow.“If Damien planned to set you up from the very beginning, he must have implicated you somehow.Otherwise, Richard wouldn’t have let you go.”
“Richard can be a hothead.Gwen knows that.And she knows me,” Bryn insisted.“She knows I’d never steal anything.”
“Bryn.”He stopped pacing and crossed over to her.“You thought you knew Damien and look what happened.We think we know the people we work with, even those we’re friends with, but the truth is that everyone has secrets.”
Her brown eyes bored into his.“Even you?”
“Yeah.Even me.”This wasn’t the time to go into his troubled past.Even her brother Tommy hadn’t known everything.“Maybe secret is the wrong word, but there are deeply personal things from our past that we don’t readily share with each other.So as much as you think Gwen knows you, how much do you really know about her?Or any of your work colleagues for that matter?”He searched her gaze.“Did you ever anticipate Damien would disappear?Or be accused of embezzling money from the company?Gwen or one of the other employees may have things in their past they haven’t shared with you too.”
“Okay, fine.You’re right.I guess we only know what people tell us.”She let out a heavy sigh and turned back to the computer screen.“It’s just hard to accept that someone I considered a friend would think the worst about me without a second thought.”
“Try not to stress about things you can’t change.”His heart squeezed at the forlorn expression on her face.“You have your church friends, right?They’ll stand by you.”
“Yeah.”She dropped her gaze to her hands.“Maybe that’s the point.I must admit, this entire experience has been humbling.God must have wanted me to go through this for a reason, right?”
He wasn’t the expert on faith.“I don’t know about that.”
“All this time, I thought my life was good.I had friends, or so I thought.A good job.Then this.”She stared up at him, her gaze troubled.“You’re my only true friend, Micah.I’d be lost without you.”She reached for his hand, clinging to it.“Thanks for being here when I needed you the most.”
Warning signs shrieked in the back of his mind.Bryn was feeling vulnerable right now, and her attachment to him was understandable.He couldn’t afford to read anything into it.
“I’m here for you, Bryn.”He kept his tone light.“And I’m sure you have other friends too.”He glanced out the window, trying to think of something reassuring to say.Instead, a flash of a familiar steel-gray car caught his gaze.He moved closer, realizing it was the same make and model as the SUV that he’d noticed outside Lori Eastman’s house.
And it was rolling slowly past the rental property.Too slowly.
“We have to go.”He spun from the window.“Now.”
“But my shoes...”
“Run in your socks.I mean it, Bryn.We can’t stay.”He mentally kicked himself for lowering his guard, even for a moment.He glanced at her phone, wondering if Richard was behind all of this.The owner of the company could have easily used her phone to pinpoint their location.
And with Damien gone, it suddenly occurred to him that Richard was now the sole owner of the company.Was that the point of this?Maybe.But he’d have to work through that later.
When she reached for her phone, he grabbed her hand.“No, leave it.That may be how we were found.”He swept the laptop off the table and handed it to her.“Hold on to this if you can.If not, drop it, I don’t care.We’re heading out back, the same way we did at Lori’s house, understand?”
