Page 91 of Shadow Operative

Nia felt Gage standing behind her, watching what was on her screen.

She was fine with that. There was nothing there that he shouldn’t see.

She started with the night that Rob had been murdered. There was a wide-angle camera right outside her office. However, most people didn’t know it was there because it was hidden behind a plant. One of the companies she worked with had developed the small cameras, and she’d decided to keep one for herself.

She started by watching herself leave the office at six. She closed the door behind her and double-checked the lock, just like she always did. Melissa was gone already because Nia had worked a little later than usual.

For the longest time, no one was on the screen. Then at seven-thirty, Jeff wandered to Melissa’s desk. He poked around as if looking for something.

“Who is that?” Gage narrowed his eyes.

“Jeff. He’s the VP of Finance and a pretty low-key guy.”

Nia held her breath, waiting to see what else he did.

Would he reach for the safe?

He didn’t. A few minutes after nosing around, he walked away and didn’t come back on screen.

She fast-forwarded through the rest of that night.

Nothing else was in the footage.

She continued to fast-forward through the next day.

She saw Melissa come in. Later, Nia came into the office. Graham went into her office and left the door open to speak with her for a few minutes.

Then Graham left, just as Nia remembered. She closed her door before leaving a few minutes later.

Melissa left at five p.m., just as she said.

Nia frowned, but she wasn’t ready to give up yet.

If those files went missing, it had to be between the time she left last night and this morning when Melissa came in.

The answers should be in heresomewhere.

She fast-forwarded.

“What about that Jeff guy?” Gage lingered behind her, and she was all too aware of his presence there. “What do you think he was doing?”

“I’m not sure.” She swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to cast off the thoughts of how close Gage was. “But Jeff didn’t appear to take anything. For all I know, he was looking for a paper clip.”

Despite that, she kept Jeff’s image at the back of her mind.

At one-thirty a.m., Nia slowed the video feed, unsure if she was seeing correctly.

“You see that too?” she murmured.

“I do.” Gage’s voice stiffened.

A figure wearing all black, including a mask, paused outside her office door.

Nia watched to see what would happen next.

chapter

forty-three

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