Page 74 of Unraveling the Truth About Love
Chapter Thirty-Five
JOSH SENT RILEY a text as Jay drove away from the airport.Don’t worry. We’ll get through this. Love you.J.
He waited for Riley to respond, and when he hadn’t received a response ten minutes later, he ignored the unsettled feeling in his stomach and assumed she was going through airport security. He called his attorney, who advised him that he had not yet reached his privateinvestigator, he assumed because of the impending holiday. Josh mentioned Reggie to him, and when his attorney agreed that Reggie was qualified and one of the best, Josh called him. An hour later, he was sitting in Reggie’s office.
Reggie Steele’s voice was deep and gravelly. He was a burly, dark-haired man in his late thirties, Josh guessed, with slate-blue eyes and an affable personality.
“Savannah called me this morning after speaking to you. I’m sorry to hear about what you’re going through. The media can be a bear—but I suppose you already know that,” Reggie said. “If the claim is false, this kind of nonsense should be easy to crack.”
“I hope so, because I can’t find one piece of evidence to discount Claudia’s allegations, but my gut tells me she’s lied her way onto the frontpage.” Josh’s nerves wrenched just thinking of Claudia’s smug face—and Riley’s sad one.
“I take it that you and the accused are an item?” Reggie leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers before him.
“We’re seeing each other, yes. We were trying to keep it out of our professional lives.” Josh now wished that they’d exposed themselves as a couple from the start. It would have been one lessissue to deal with. His phone vibrated.Mia.He clicked the Ignore button.
“Anything else I should know that could impact this discovery process?” Reggie asked.
“Only that Claudia has come onto me several times, and a few weeks ago, I shut her down pretty harshly. But I can’t see how that would affect your investigation one way or another.” At least he’d remembered to document those instancesin her personnel file, alongside all the rest of the complaints, which he’d never filed formally. Out of loyalty to Peter, he’d wanted to keep her indiscretions under wraps. Now he wished he had canned her the first time she’d come onto him and had just faced Peter with the truth.
“You’d be surprised at what comes up with these types of investigations. You might find out things about other staffmembers that you don’t want to know. And, I hate to say it, but you might find out that you’re wrong about your girlfriend, too,” Reggie said.
“I appreciate your candor, but I doubt that’s going to happen. She’s been under Claudia’s thumb the past few weeks, and when she hasn’t been at work, she’s been with me. She didn’t have time to steal anything. If anything, we might find out more aboutClaudia than I’m prepared for.” Josh realized the truth of his words and was even more determined to get to the bottom of this garbage.
“Fair enough. Tell me more about Claudia’s habits. Does she work later, come in early? Does she work odd days, weekends, through lunch? What kind of access did she have to Riley’s work files? And I’ll need to know the same about Riley, of course.”
Finally, abreak.He’d been with Riley every morning and evening. She’d never been in the office alone. “Riley has no access to personal files. She works earlier than some, later than others, but there’s always someone here before she arrives and after she leaves. She works from home when she needs to on the weekends, whereas Claudia has been with us for five years. She’s often in before anyone else, andon the weekends she’s often alone in the office. As the head design assistant, she’s the password keeper for the entire design area. She has full access to Riley’s files.” It all sounded so easy to decipher. Riley had no access. Claudia had full access. Why was it so difficult to find proof of what seemed so obvious?
“Have you gone through security tapes?” Reggie asked.
Josh shook his head.“Not yet, but…”
“Don’t sweat it. That’s what I’m here for. Do you have separate security files for each area of the office?”
Thank goodness, yes.He felt warmth run up his chest, remembering the things he and Riley had done in his office. “Yes, I’ll give you full access to the design room tapes.”
Reggie nodded. He lowered his chin and looked down the bridge of his angular nose. “This is justone woman against the other, right? You don’t think any other employees are involved? It’s not a case of one trying to get a promotion so she can bring another up riding her tail feathers? Tag team?”
Josh shook his head. “Claudia isn’t well liked enough to have a partner in crime.”
“And Riley?” Reggie asked.
Josh’s protective urges surged forward. He reminded himself that Reggie was only doinghis job—a job he was hiring him to do.
“Not that I’m aware of,” he said, meeting Reggie’s stare.
“I was planning to take a few days off for R & R before the holiday, but it sounds like this might be a good time to get a jump on investigating while your employees aren’t in the office. What’s your time frame?”
“Now,” Josh answered. “The media’s following my every move. I came here directly fromthe airport, so they have yet to link us together, and I’d rather they didn’t get wind of my hiring you.”
“I’m very good at being discreet. I’ll keep you abreast of critical findings, and until then, I’ll need access to your security files, the desks of the employees in question, their personnel files, and of course, access to their computers.”
“How long do you expect this will take?”
Reggieshrugged. “I won’t know until I get started. We could get lucky and find something in an hour, or it might take weeks.”
“I’ll go with you to the office,” Josh said.
“Don’t you want to know my rates?” Reggie asked.
