CHAPTER 57: THE FIRST STEP

Fabian.

If I wanted to take care of this issue, then I needed to do my due diligence. I needed to be thorough. Making an assumption that Grace Steyner was behind the attempt at sextortion was only the first step. I had to find proof now. Once obtained, I could approach her directly and demand she delete whatever footage she had from every storage device or service she put it on. Then, from there, I could broach disciplinary measures with her. At the top of my list was firing her. Added to it were possible criminal charges as well. I don’t abide criminals or criminal behavior. That is one of the biggest reasons I reacted so harshly with George. If he had been anyone else, he also would have been arrested. For the sake of our friendship though, I had spared him that part. Maybe I shouldn’t have.

How many things would have been different if I had gotten the police involved with George? One, he would have been so preoccupied with finding a lawyer and trying to keep himself out of jail, he never would have manipulated Douglas Duncan into committing the atrocities he committed. Then I wouldn’t have gotten shot and Myla wouldn’t have been subjected to such trauma. This, it appeared, was yet another folly of mine. They were becoming increasingly frequent. My instincts, although sharp as a surgical scalpel, weren’t infallible it appeared.

“Mr. Ness. Good to see you, sir,” a man said as I walked past the front lobby desk of the Roseforce building. His name was Nick Wallace, one of the building’s security personnel. He’d been there when Douglas Duncan had tried to shoot me and Myla. I wasn’t sure if he had been the one to actually shoot Duncan, but he had certainly been on top of the situation from what I remembered. “I hope everything is going…uh…better these days.”

“Thank you Mr. Wallace,” I said. “It’s been…a trying past few weeks, to be sure.”

“I understand, sir. If there is anything you need. Added security or anything else of that nature, please, just let us know.”

“Yes, that’ll be excellent. I actually do require some attention on an extremely delicate matter. Is Mr. Munce in?” I asked. He would be the guy to go to for verification on who either stole security footage or planted a camera. What I expected to find out was that Grace had been behind everything but again, I needed someone to verify that and Munce was my top choice.

“Uh…yes, I do believe so. Do you want me to ring him? Let him know you’re on your way?” he asked.

“No, if you don’t mind,” I replied. “I’d rather he not know I’m coming.”

Nick gave me a weird look and I could tell he was hesitating in answering me. Kevin Munce was his boss, after all. If it were me and Adrianna sent someone in to see me without letting me know, I would be furious too.

“It is important he does not know,” I urged, giving him a stern look.

“Uh…sure,” he finally replied. “Go on up then. He’ll be happy to meet with you.”

“Excellent. Thank you. I appreciate your cooperation,” I replied.

“Sure. Any time,” Nick replied with an unsure smile. He watched me as I left the front desk and headed over to the elevators.

Looking around, I didn’t spot a whole lot of people walking through the building. It wasn’t unusual considering it was only eight in the morning and the work day wouldn't be starting for nearly an hour. I often showed up about an hour early so I could concentrate on important matters before getting inundated with all the other menial tasks that cluttered up my day. Today, however, there was a task with a far greater importance I had to take care of than anything else.

Finding out who sent those photos. Was it really Grace? Or was it someone else?

It didn’t take long for the elevator to get to the lobby. The doors opened maybe a minute or two after I pushed the button. Once inside, I pressed the button for the third floor where Kevin Munce’s office was located. The elevator picked up speed and then almost immediately started to slow down again. There was a second when it dipped sharply and then a faint ding sounded and the doors opened again. I knew the way to the security director’s office by heart now, after having been there so many times after first the shooting, and then the attack from Duncan. Police and security and detectives had all been crammed in that office at one point or another.

I finally got to Kevin’s door and knocked on it lightly.

“Come on in,” came his muffled voice.

I turned the doorknob and opened it. Inside, I found Kevin sitting at his desk, an expectant look on his face as he saw me. It looked like he’d been waiting for me so it was likely that despite my ask, Nick had given him a heads-up anyway. Was I pissed off about that? Not really. I expected him to give his boss forewarning of my appearance. Nick had no loyalty to me and didn’t even work for me. Well, not really anyway. The main reason I wanted to come unannounced was to gauge Kevin’s face. As the director of security, he might have been made aware of my tryst with Myla on the abandoned floor or he just happened to see it firsthand. Either way, it wasn’t that far of a leap to think the man would use what he’d seen to blackmail me. I was rich and therefore a target. My personal feelings about him and most of his team really didn’t matter. I had to remain objective and even though Grace was my top suspect, I still had to explore other possibilities. I might not be a detective, but I did know that much at least.

I had to be sure.

“Mr. Ness,” Kevin said, standing up and reaching out a hand for me to shake. I did so. When I pulled my hand away, he gestured at one of the chairs in front of his desk. “Have a seat.”

I did, sitting down and crossing one leg over my knee. I placed my hands in my lap and just stared at him. The friendly demeanor on my face disappeared and once Kevin realized this was a more serious visit, he got more serious himself.

“What brings you to see me?” he asked.

I didn’t respond at first. Instead, I reached into my pocket and took out my phone. I held it out to him with it unlocked and the text thread already opened. Without so much as a questioning look, he took it and glanced down. As he did, his eyes narrowed with anger and when he looked up, there was clear outrage there.

“You can’t possibly think,” he started to say but I cut him off.

I held up a hand silently and he stopped talking. I don’t normally cut people off as that is incredibly rude but this was a somewhat special occasion.

“I received these in the middle of the night. As you can see, the photos appeared to be stills from security camera footage. It depicts myself and a woman I am currently involved with having sex,” I told him, my voice cold and uninflected.

“I can see that,” Kevin said, handing the phone back to me. “Those are incredibly damning images. What exactly do you think I can do to help? Because I know you aren’t accusing me of sending these. Right?”

“That has yet to be determined, Kevin. I would hope not. I’ve known you to be a reputable man of good character but these photos could tempt someone with thoughts of making easy money. Just because I like you, doesn’t mean I should immediately disregard you as a potential suspect.” As I spoke, I made sure to watch him carefully. There was anger still with a touch of being offended by my accusation. No fear or guilt to be seen.

“Well, I can tell you that I absolutely did not do this and will help in whatever way I can to find the person who did send these,” he shot back.

I kept my gaze shrewd but it wasn’t him. I was reasonably sure of that. He may have been expecting me but the shock on his face after viewing the photos had looked genuine. To me anyway. Make no mistake, I am not an expert in body language or micro-expressions but again, reading people was one of my gifts. Kevin was not involved in this.

“Good,” I told him. “Your help will be invaluable, I feel. And in your opinion, who would have had the opportunity to do this?”

“It could have been anyone, really,” he said. Then he reached out a hand. “That camera was not one of ours, also.”

“I thought that might be the case,” I said. It crossed my mind that someone had been waiting for an opportunity to set Myla up. It was unfortunate that she gave whoever was behind this sextortion scheme that opportunity. However, there was no way I was going to let this person bring her down. “Do what you can to find out who placed that camera there. It would be on the ninth floor. The breakroom.”

“The empty floor. Understood.”

“And of course, discretion would be appreciated as well,” I said.

“I’ll handle it personally. Don’t worry,” he replied. “No one else will be brought it.”

I stood up and reached out to shake his hand again. He did so, his grip a strong one.

“I’ll give you a call once I have any information for you,” he added.

“Thank you,” I told him.

With that done, I left Kevin’s office and started to head up toward my own office. I went back to the elevators but as I stood there, waiting for them, my worry for Myla started to overwhelm me. I hadn’t heard from her at all which was not a good sign. She must have gotten the photos too which solidified in my mind the fact that she wasn’t the one behind this scheme. Why would she send the photos to herself?

I needed to find her and fast but I feared she was avoiding me. She hadn’t texted back after I sent her what I did last night. I think it was time to give her an actual call. I needed to hear her voice so I could make sure she was okay. So I took out my phone, pulled up her number, and called her.

The phone rang.

And it rang.

Eventually, her voicemail started to speak.

“Hello. I’m sorry but I can’t answer at the moment or do not have my phone on me right now. Go ahead and leave me a message. I’ll give you a call when I get a chance.”

It was a simple message and I actually listened to it all the way through. Mostly, I just wanted to hear her voice even if it wasn’t live. Before the beep to record a message went off, I hung up. There wasn’t anything specific that I needed and I had a suspicion she had purposely ignored my call. The fear that she was avoiding me only got worse.

Did she get the photos too? Or was something else wrong?

Maybe she was avoiding me for a completely different reason. I didn’t want to keep pushing at her or annoy her into responding to me but she was making it very difficult to leave her alone. Not with all these questions going off in my head like tiny bombs. Once one went off, it would explode into dozens of others.

I was spiraling down a very bad emotional rollercoaster. Finally, after taking a few moments to get my mind straight, I started to feel a little better. I took one last breath in and decided on a course of action.

Do nothing for the moment and just wait. Wait for either confirm that Grace had placed that camera, or find out who really did it. Either way, driving myself crazy wasn’t going to do any good at all.

I decided the best course of action right now was to get to work and hope that I either saw Myla at some point or she called me back.