Page 44 of No Good Deed

Columns indicated the dates of the attacks on her. Adam had posted a video from a friend’s boat on the date of the mugging. Jeremy and Kyle both posted a lot of selfies. They each had photos that took them out of the picture for at least one of the attacks.

Which left Ethan Westerlake. He didn’t post on social media, so there was no way to rule him out. Was Ethan behind all of this?

She didn’t know him well, and really didn’t like him much, but she couldn’t imagine him dragging her into an alley or crashing into her car. The man was all about fancy suits and shiny shoes.

It was far easier to see Ethan as a blackmailer. He was smirky and superior. If he had something to use against someone, would he? Potentially.

But why hide a USB full of blackmail data in her Cloud Gate? It didn’t make a lot of sense. Maybe it wasn’t blackmail. Was he skimming the books? Or running an illegal business? Part of a criminal organization? “I can’t figure out why Ethan, if it’s him, would put the USB into my Cloud Gate in the first place. If it’s important enough for him to break into my home and crash into the car I was driving, why wouldn’t he keep it somewhere safe?”

Troy turned to her. “Very good question.”

The room was quiet while everyone thought about it. Finally, Nico spoke up. “If it’s blackmail data, he likely has the original data locked up safely somewhere in his home. This is probably a copy. Any chance he would use the office for clandestine meetings outside of work hours? How’s the security?”

Piper shrugged. “It’s a locked building with several businesses inside. People at my level don’t get keys to the office doors, but I think they do at Ethan’s level. I’ve seen him and several others there on nights I work late.”

Troy rubbed her leg absently. “Do you use a swipe card to get in? Or a code?”

She shook her head. “No. The office is always open when I arrive and the door locks automatically behind me when I leave at night if it’s after hours.”

“So anyone with a key could use the office without anyone else knowing it.”

She nodded.

Nico steepled his fingers together on the table. “There are probably a lot of scenarios. One would be that he was meeting someone he was blackmailing. The blackmail victim might be a dangerous person. Ethan might have had one USB to prove he had information on the person. But he would have been sure to mention that he’d left another copy with a colleague.”

A shudder ran through her at that. Was there more than one person after her? Ethan and the mysterious—potentially dangerous—blackmail victim?

Troy hugged her into his side. “We’re going to figure this out, Piper.”

A chorus of agreement sounded around the room. Luck had certainly been on her side since she’d arrived in this town.

Tessa flipped the screen back to the first file on the USB. “There’s a possibility that whoever created the USB hired someone to do the dirty work, but, for now, let’s go with the assumption that Ethan Westerlake is the man attacking Piper. If we focus on him, we can start trying to understand his code. Everyone chooses one that’s personal to them. If it’s blackmail, there should be a code for names, dates, and amounts. If he’s skimming money or laundering money, we’re probably looking for the same kinds of data. If he’s cutting corners in the building process and pocketing the difference, we’d likely be looking for company names as well.”

The data still looked like advanced chemistry to Piper. Incomprehensible. She needed more numbers and fewer letters for it to make sense to her brain.

Tessa turned to Piper. “Could you give me some information on the projects Ethan has been working on? Names of clients, buildings or project names. Also, the names of his superiors, and anyone you saw him interact with who pissed him off. Or that he was extra smug with. It would need to be people who would are rich enough to make blackmail worthwhile.”

Piper nodded and moved to sit beside Tessa. Troy followed and sat beside her, proving he already knew her well enough to know this would be a stressful activity. If her heart hadn’t already decided to fall, the simple action of him sitting beside her to offer his support would have done it.

She leaned over and kissed him softly. “Thanks.”

He grinned. “You’re welcome. Not sure for what, but whatever it is, I’ll do it again.”

An alert she hadn’t heard before sounded from his phone, and his entire demeanor changed. With a curt curse, he pulled out his phone. “That’s the alarm for my garage. Someone’s broken the window.” Another alert had his face tightening. “That’s the garage’s fire alarm.”

His property was on fire. Because of her. And they were far away from his property, also because of her.

Troy’s phone buzzed again with a message. “Arrow is heading to my house. Mitch too.” He reached over and squeezed Piper’s hand. “I have to go.” She nodded and he raced out of the lodge, three of his friends right behind them.

It all happened so quickly, she barely had time to blink. She stood to follow them. There was no way she could keep up with them at a run, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try to help. She didn’t have her car here. “Can someone give me a ride into town? I have to help”

Lia nodded. “Absolutely. Mitch is in town, but I need to go in case there are injuries.”

Joe stood as well. “We’ll go too.”

In moments, most of the people had left the lodge and were hurrying down the trail. Tessa and Tansy had stayed behind with the dogs. Apparently Tessa had injuries that prevented her from moving quickly, and she hadn’t wanted to slow them down. Tansy stayed with her to keep working on the data.

It didn’t take long for Piper to realize she was slowing down the group. It appeared they were all in excellent shape, and probably didn’t eat Oreos by the pack.

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