Page 116 of Wicked Sexy (Wicked Games 2)
Miranda nods.
“Anything else?”
“Oh, the list was extensive. I’ll have my IT guys catalogue it for you.”
“That’s all right, I just wondered if there was anything else of particular value that came to mind.”
Miranda pauses for slightly longer than seems natural. “Yes, actually. My software was stolen.”
Downs lowers his rangy frame into one of the angular mo
dern chairs in front of Miranda’s desk, crosses his long legs, removes the bottle of Tums from his pocket, and shakes a few out. As if only half listening, he says, “Oh?”
She drums the fingers of her left hand on the desktop. “InSight. It’s a statistical analysis product I developed myself to measure and predict audience engagement.”
Downs tosses back the antacids.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
“Huh. Developed it yourself? Impressive.” Over his shoulder, he asks the quadruplets, “Guys, did we know about this InSight thing?”
The one who’d been chewing the toothpick in the other room—at least I’m pretty sure it was him, they all look so freakily alike—says, “It’s in the report, Deputy Director.”
Downs turns back to Miranda with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Ms. Lawson. You’re not a stickler for titles, I’m not a stickler for reports. I like to leave the paperwork to the bean counters, if you know what I mean. I more of a big-picture guy.”
“I do know what you mean. I’m the same way myself. Leave the details to the underlings, I always say, it’s the big picture that really matters.”
“Exactly! That’s exactly what leadership is!” He slaps his palm on the metal arm of his chair. “Well, I can certainly see why you’re the big boss around here, I’ll tell you what.”
When Miranda smiles, pleased by his compliment, I realize Downs is doing his Columbo impression to soften her up, make her think he’s a bit of a doofus, get her to let her guard down.
It seems to be working.
Hurry, Downs. Hurry. I turn and pace the other direction.
“All right, Ms. Lawson, I’ll get out of your hair in just a moment. Sorry to bother you again, we’re almost done. Let’s recap. A few weeks ago, this Killgaard individual contacted you via email with a threat of extortion, yes?”
“Yes.”
“And after you received that threat, you took the appropriate precautions to prevent any breaches in your network, yes?”
“Yes.”
“And then he somehow got in anyway, yes?”
“Yes.”
His questions are coming faster. Her answers are easy, automatic. They’re getting into a rhythm.
“And once he was in, he demanded more money, yes?”
“Correct.”
“And that’s when our rapid response team arrived to help, yes?”
“Yes.”
“And then Connor and Tabitha West arrived, correct?”
