Justice Served

30 | Suspicious Activity

Chapter Thirty
Jayce Mirella

Door after door. Hallway after hallway. Floor after floor. I'm in search of Ian Lennox's office but it is nowhere in sight, I'm truly thankful that there are gold plaques on the doors with names written on them whether it be the name of the person the office belonged to or it is the purpose of the room. I step into the elevator, watching as it slides closed softly.

I'm currently on the fourteenth floor, there is one more floor to go. It would make the most sense for his office to be on this floor, at least I'm hoping that it is. It should not be this hard to find the CEO's office. Classic elevator music fills the small confined space as my feet step on nice marbled floors, mirrors displaying my reflection like the walls with steel bars circling the perimeter of the elevator.

I hear the ding of the elevator followed by the sliding of the doors as they open wide, revealing the nice layout of the fifteenth floor. Stepping out of the elevator, I decided to walk to my right as I travel down the wide hallway. There aren't any doors so far, just walls painted white. There is only one way for me to turn which is my left so I make the turn and directly in front of me are rich brown double doors with rectangular doorknobs.

I didn't have to read the gold plaque encrusted with black lettering to the right of the door to know that this is Ian Lennox's office. It didn't take a genius to come to that conclusion. Throwing caution to the wind, I quickly approach the door clutching the handlebars as I slowly pull the door open. Peeking inside to see if he was present, I release a breath as there was no presence inside the office.

I'm not sure what I would have said or done if he was in. I can only imagine coming up with some kind of bullshit excuse as to why I was there. Thankfully though, he is not in so I slip inside and quietly shut the door after. I have to search around to see if my gut feeling about Ian is correct.

Where do I start? What should I look at first?

I scan the large office, my eyes immediately catching the silver Apple computer sitting on the mahogany desk. I waste no time as I rush over to the opposite side of the desk, sitting in his large chair with a smile on my face as I gaze at the unlocked computer screen with his email tab opened. There are the occasional ads but most of his emails are compiled of things relating to the law firm, accounting, and such as that.

I continue to scroll through his emails, even going back to things he's received months ago. When I don't find anything worth suspicion, I go into his trash folder. I see a message that was sent from Keagan Quince to him and immediately click on it.

The email read: if you won't admit to your faults then I will. I've given you enough time and no matter how much you want to bury this, I can't allow you to cover up something like this. Integrity, Ian. Don't lose it.

The email is ominous, enough to arouse suspicious within me and anyone who reads it. Anything sent from a recently deceased man is ominous but this sent shivers down my spine. Ian didn't bother responding to the email, it seemed like he directly trashed the email as soon as he read the contents of it.

Pulling out Rhys's business card -- I'm wearing Luna's jeans and his business card happened to be in it and I hadn't decided to throw it away -- I forward the email to Rhys's email and pull out Rhys's phone — I slipped it off the coffee table when he wasn't paying attention — as I go to his camera and begin recording. I record the email that I just sent to Rhys. Standing up momentarily, I also record Ian's office as proof that this information was found in Ian Lennox's office so no one can dispute the email or whatever else I find.

Sitting back down, I continue recording the screen of the computer with my left hand while I scroll through the trash folder on his computer with my right hand on the mouse. I stop scrolling when my eyes catch a recent Walmart receipt email. Clicking it open, I scroll through to see that he ordered a pack of four chef knives, the exact kind that was used as the murder weapon, and the same knife the man used in the alleyway when he tried to stab me. I make sure that I catch footage of this too while also forwarding the email to Rhys.

I continue to scroll through his trashed emails, squinting my eyes as I look closer and see an email from Vincent. I click on the email, noticing that there is a thread. I go to the first message sent from Ian that read:

Go visit Keagan, you need to take care of what we talked about. I'll handle the rest.

In response, Vincent replied with:

Yes, sir. What time is most appropriate?

Ian emailed back more than an hour later saying:

The evening. Leave the office around 7 pm.

I swallow, my hands twitching against the white mouse as my heartbeat accelerates. The time of death of the Quince's was 8:00 pm.

In response, Vincent said:

Yes, sir.

I make sure to forward the thread to Rhys as well, focusing the phone on the incriminating emails. As I'm scrolling through for more dirt, the door slowly opens and I freeze, my heart-stopping. The person who pops there head inside isn't Ian Lennox, it's Rhys Chandler.

He looks like he's a mix of shocked and angry. "I told you not to do anything dumb!"

"It's a good thing I didn't do anything dumb then," I mumble as I begin to delete evidence that I forwarded those emails to Rhys from his sent folder. "You won't be yelling at me once you see the shit I found."

Rhys closes the door softly and walks over to me. Shifting in my seat, I lean to the right as Rhys lays his hands onto the desk bending downwards to look at the computer screen. I show him the emails I've seen starting from the suspicious email Keagan sent to Ian. Rhys is silent as he reads the email with furrowed eyebrows.

"These emails are hella suspicious, Rhys." I look at him.

Before Rhys can reply, we hear noise from outside the office; it sounded like Ian on a phone call. Frantic, Rhys grabs my hand and shoves the both of us into the closet by his desk that was filled with miscellaneous files. Rhys movements and incredibly fast reflexes serve us well as I hear the front doors open and close.

We hear his footsteps against the hardwood floor, the indistinct sound of Ian's voice filling the room. I'm unable to pay attention to any of that because of what's currently going on in here. I'm pressed against the wall of the closet while Rhys is pressed against me, I can feel his breath as it fans my face. The pungent smell of his cologne drifts into my nose, and I internally begin to freak out, my heart racing profusely. Despite how dark it is in here, I can feel his eyes on me.

At this moment, I don't know whether the profuse pounding of my heart is due to the fear and adrenaline of potentially being caught for sneaking into a potential murderer's office or if it's because Rhys is inches away from me with the warmth of his body pressed against mine.