Page 10 of Misdirection

Then she could find out what kind of absurdity he was talking about.

As soon as she was out of the SCI corridor with the door closed behind her, she tried to relax her shoulders.

It didn’t work.

Instead, she took a deep breath.

That didn’t work either.

It was imperative in these undercover assignments to remain low-key. Finding a dead body was in no way remaining low-key.

Running into an ex-boyfriend wasn’t ideal either.

She hoped her investigation wasn’t compromised. She needed to talk to Tevin and soon.

Right now might be the perfect time to find other information she needed. All the higher-ups at the company were distracted by Beau’s death. Security was also preoccupied.

If there was ever a time for her to get into Bennett Artfield’s office, it was now. The Sales and Marketing Officer was currently her number one suspect, thanks to some encrypted communications her team had found. The messages themselves weren’t definitive proof that he was the one behind the possible sale. But they did shoot him to the top of their list.

She just needed to see if he had anything in his office that might indicate any secret meetings or back room deals. She didn’t know exactly what she was looking for, only that she would know when she saw it.

The man was most likely too smart to leave information like that out in the open. However, Olive wanted to see for herself, just in case.

She started down another hallway, back toward the center of the building. People working here joked that the place was set up like a snowflake. A nucleus stood at the center with five branches—or corridors—shooting from it, each one containing a different department.

The walls and floors were all stark white and streamlined, without any frills.

Somehow, the place was even absent of any smell. Probably because of the ionizers running all the time.

Olive stepped into the nucleus. She needed to go up to Level 4 and down Corridor 5, the hallway where the top-tier executive offices were located. She wouldn’t know for sure that she could get inside Bennett’s office until she saw the area and who was still there.

Her own office, one she’d barely moved into, was located on the same floor but down a separate corridor.

She had just stepped from the elevator when someone called her name. She froze, forced herself not to look disappointed at the interruption, and then turned.

Claudine Marshall stood there. The IT specialist was in her late twenties with bobbed, blonde hair and an infectious smile. She was perky, friendly, and talkative. Talkative people could be both an asset and a liability. Olive’s path had crossed with the woman’s several times already.

“I heard what happened,” Claudine started, her blue eyes wide. “Is it true you found a body?”

Olive scanned her surroundings for any listening ears. A few people walked past with folders or phones in their hands. But each of them kept going, not lingering to overhear any gossip.

She turned back to Claudine, knowing there was no need to deny the truth. “I did.”

“Is it true that it was Beau?” Claudine’s eyes teared up as she waited for Olive’s answer.

“It was,” Olive said. “Did you know him?”

“Not personally. But I’ve seen him on occasion, like at office parties. I know he’s Head of Development and that he’s a nice guy—or he was a nice guy, I mean.” She frowned. “I don’t think he was married, so at least there’s that. But why . . . ?”

She stared at Olive as if expecting an explanation.

Olive shrugged. “I suppose we can leave those details for the police to figure out.”

She leaned closer and whispered, “I heard he was shot, right here in this office building. We have security in place. We all walk through metal detectors. How did someone even get inside with a gun?”

Olive had a theory about that, but she didn’t share it. She didn’t tell Claudine about how weapons called ghost guns could be made at home now out of products that weren’t metal, which allowed them to get past security. It also meant these guns had no serial numbers to trace them.

Most people in Olive’s position wouldn’t have that knowledge. Giving a resourceful answer would only make her look suspicious.

---