“It’s not Centurion,” said Prefect. “I’ll vouch for him.”
“Aw, you do have friends,” I said, grinning.
“I don’t have friends,” said Prefect. “I have colleagues that I trust.”
“So you think it’s one of the others?”
“Steve,” said Prefect, “Keiko. Or Leo.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think he’s smart enough to pull this off.”
“It could be an act.”
I shook my head. “He set the office microwave onfire trying to heat up a can of soup. Not in a bowl—he put the whole can in there.”
“He could be the world’s best actor.”
“He once asked me if photocopying his face would give him a tan,” I said.
“Okay, maybe not an act.” Prefect paced back and forth a few steps, rubbing his neck. “Steve. Or Keiko. Opinions?”
“You’re asking me?” I said.
“You talk to people more than I do,” he said. “What do you know about Keiko?”
I considered her. “She’s nice. She’s an artist who went into ink technician work. Transferred in from Detroit. She brought in cupcakes once. I don’t think it’s her.”
“Because of the cupcakes?” he asked dryly.
“Anyone that feeds me gets a little trust.” I looked at Keiko. I could barely see her silhouette in the dim light. “Also… hypothetically, I may have hacked into her work computer. She doesn’t have any debts, nothing blackmailable, and she has a lot of photos of her and her family going on vacations to Iceland. If she’s a double agent or in this for the money, I’d be shocked.”
Prefect gave me a look. “Do you investigate everyone around you?”
I returned the look. “Do younot?”
“A fair point.” Prefect’s tone sobered. “And Steve?”
I scratched the back of my neck. “Steve is—well. How do I put this nicely?”
“Indecisive, spineless, and only good for grunt work?”
I bit back a smile. “He also has a yearlong crush on Marco that just got rejected because they’re coworkers. He could be upset about that. Maybe it’s a revenge motive.”
“So Steve,” said Prefect.
“Steve,” I agreed. “So how do we confirm it was him?”
Prefect reached down and picked up a stapler. “I have a few ideas.”
TWENTY-FOUR MINUTES REMAINING
It was a rare Saturday that I watched a coworker get interrogated.
“Talk to us, Steve,” said Prefect. “It’ll go better for you if you talk to us.”
Steve looked even paler than usual. He had been forced into a rolling chair so we stood over him. Keiko was still on the phone. There was hold music filtering tinnily through her phone’s speakers. Centurion had his arms crossed. And Leo just looked mildly bemused.
“If this is about asking Marco out, I’m sorry,” said Steve. He looked from Centurion to Prefect, panic written across his face. “I admit, I didn’t actually watch the harassment seminar, so I don’t know what’s okay and what’s not. I put my visor on my dog so it’dlook like I was attending. I was behind on work! So I was doing some at home.”
