Page 19 of Power & Punishment

“Mic access events,” he says, hovering his mouse over a cluster of entries. “A lot of them.”

I frown. “You’re going to have to dumb it down for me.”

“I noticed it because these logs don’t match the others and some of them line up with the time of that valet ticket we have. Basically, his microphone was activating when the screen was locked,” he says, hovering his mouse over one of the entries, “and based on the other data I looked at, there were no calls, no voice assistant or apps open during this period.”

“Could it be a system malfunction?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

Keith shakes his head. “It wouldn’t look like that,” he says, leaning back in his chair. “Also, there’s this,” he says, clicking into another folder.

Short audio cache files fill the screen. Each one is encrypted and lasts only a few seconds. “Those aren’t voice memos.”

“Nope,” he says, zooming in on the timestamp. His face twists up in pure confusion. An expression that I’m sure mirrors my own. “They go back months and months. Probably since the beginning of DeLuca’s appointment on city council.”

“Fuck,” I say, letting out a shallow breath. “Someone else has been spying on him.”

Keith locks eyes with me. “It seems that way.”

The room immediately feels cramped and hot. I twist my sweaty palms around the arms of my chair and straighten my spine. “Who the hell would want to spy on DeLuca?”

“Other than us,” he answers, giving me a silent shrug. “It could be anyone. But whoever it is knows what they’re doing. This isn’t amateur spyware.”

Shit. I suspected Leo was involved with the Caruso’s, but maybe their relationship is more volatile than I suspected. Maybe he isn’t cooperating. Maybe Vince had been hired as muscle to scare him into obedience.

And perhaps Leo saw it coming.

The thought settles deep inside my chest as a clear motive clicks into place.

“Can we listen to any of the recordings?”

A frown forms on Keith’s face. “Even if I could recover the files, I’d need the original listening server to decrypt them.”

“Fuck,” I say, bringing my hands up to my temples and applying pressure. “We can still salvage this. We just need to convince the captain there’s probable cause without telling him how we found it.”

Keith opens his mouth to poke holes in my master plan, but his interjection is interrupted by my phone buzzing on my desk. I quietly thank whoever it is for intervening until an unknown number flashes across my screen.

“Hello?” I say, answering the call.

At first, the other line is quiet. I almost hang up before a smooth voice fills the speaker.

“Emilia.”

My breath catches.

Keith’s eyes snap to mine, and for some reason I find myself forcing my face into a neutral position. I give him a gentle smile, cover the speaker, and say, “I’ll be right back,” before walking to the stairwell.

“Who is this?” I answer, trying to create an even yet professional tone.

“You know who it is, Cara,” Leo says, turning a term of endearment into a slap in the face. “Or do you usually forget the people you steal from?”

Dread clings to my back like a thorny sidekick. He knows. Of course he fucking knows. He’s Leo DeLuca.

“I’ll take your silence as admission of guilt,” he says, his voice like a hot poker in my side. “We need to talk. In person.”

“No,” I answer without skipping a beat.

Dead air weighs down the line. The silence stretches long enough for me to imagine his wicked smile on the other end, tormenting me from miles away. I can feel him savoring the disobedience, and for some reason that makes my stomach flip.

“I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression, but I don’t ask. I tell.”