Page 32 of Fatal Conspiracy

“I’ve known her for two days, but that’s easy to believe. She’s very much a team player, and I’m extremely grateful to her and the entire team for coming to my defense.”

Cal turned away from the door and stepped up to him, a little too close, in Derek’s opinion, but there was nowhere for him to go when pinned against the wall. The man beforehim wore an expression that said things were about to get real. He stood his ground and waited for Cal to speak.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you did to her. I haven’t. While I understand that you were dazed and confused, the choices you made forced her into making choices she otherwise wouldn’t have, and she got hurt because of it. Fair warning—that was your only get-out-of-jail-free card. If you so much as harm one hair on her head, you will not be so lucky the second time around. Are we clear?”

“Crystal,” he said in a tone that was confident in light of Cal’s posture. “The last thing I want is to hurt Alayah. I’ll beat myself up for the rest of my life that I put her in the position she was in with those guys. Trust me on that one.”

Cal took a step back and gave him one last side-eye. “I do, which is the only reason you’ve gotten within ten feet of her since then. Don’t make me regret it.”

“Wouldn’t cross my mind,” Derek promised as a car pulled up and Detective Henry climbed out.

“Gentleman,” he said when he approached. “This better be the real deal.”

“It is,” they said in unison, but the detective didn’t even crack a smile.

Derek handed over the envelope to the detective. “That is an official, encrypted copy of the proof. The instructions are inside. With that, I shall return to my room.”

“Stick with us,” Henry said as Cal motioned them toward the conference room. “I may have questions for you after I watch this.”

With a resigned nod, he followed the other men to the conference room. There was no reason he needed to stay, but he also didn’t want to look combative at 2:30 in the morning. He could spare another ten minutes since Alayah had her head buried in the computer anyway.

“My operative was able to track every second from the time I took possession of the bottle until I left it onstage, as well as where I went from there until the speech started,” Cal explained, starting the video after handing him a printout of the time stamps.

The man worked fast. Then again, Derek probably would, too, if it was a matter of not going to jail for a murder you didn’t commit. He sent up another silent prayer that Alayah was getting closer to proving that he wasn’t responsible. Something about being accused of a crime made you question whether you somehow did it and blocked it out. Derek knew how that sounded, but he had run the scenario through his head hundreds of times over the last day just to double-check that it remained the same each time. When he’d handed that bottle over to Cal, it had been free of antifreeze, and he’d stand by that until the day he died. He just had to hope he could find a way to prove it.

Chapter Eighteen

“Come on, come on,” Alayah chanted as she rode the elevator down to the first floor. She had to find Derek and Cal. She’d been trying to text them, but when they didn’t respond, she’d grabbed her walker and headed down to find them.

She had lost track of time after Derek left, and when she’d looked up again, over thirty minutes had passed. Maybe he was just having a drink with Cal, but it was weird that they weren’t responding to her texts. Especially since she had news they would want. The doors to the elevator slid open and she hurried out, looking left and right for any sign of them, but the hotel lobby was empty other than the receptionist at the desk. She noticed the clock and realized the bar was closed, so they weren’t having a drink unless they were in Cal’s room. Unsure what to do, she worried her lower lip between her teeth for a few minutes before she walked to the reservations desk.

“Have you seen a couple of guys down here in the last hour or so?” Alayah asked the woman. “They were waiting for the police to arrive.”

“Oh, they’re in the conference room,” she said, pointing to the left, where Alayah finally noticed the door was ajar a bit.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile before she hurried toward the room. They must have decided to go over the footage together before parting ways for the night. Cal likely had questions for Derek, and knowing Cal, a few choice words about her as well. Everyone at Secure Inc. was known to be overly protective of her, which she appreciated, but it was also difficult to navigate when she was a fully grown adult and capable of making her own decisions.

“You’re under arrest for the murder of Hugo Victor,” a man said as she pushed the door open. Detective Henry was slapping cuffs on Derek’s wrists.

“Stop that!” she exclaimed, nearly falling when her walker wheel got stuck on the door. She abandoned it and limped toward them, anger and fear making her legs tremble. “He didn’t kill Hugo Victor!”

“Alayah, keep your voice down,” Cal said as he approached and grasped her arm to keep her from falling.

“I’ll do no such thing!” she said, shaking her arm free. “What on earth is happening right now?”

“For your information,” Henry said, snapping the cuffs. “Mr. Benjamin is being detained for the murder of Hugo Victor. With your boss cleared of the murder, it leaves me no choice but to arrest his assistant, as he was the only other person who had access to the bottle.”

“That’s not true,” she said, shaking an envelope in her hand. “I can prove it.”

Cal helped her to the table to sit before he knelt before her. “You have proof?”

She nodded and motioned for Henry and Derek to come over. She noticed that Henry had left the cuffs on Derek but hadn’t started Mirandizing him, so she’d take it for now. “This was the official copy for the police, but since you’re here and can see I’m not tampering with it, can I open it?”Henry nodded for her to proceed, so she opened the drive and inserted it, then decrypted the files.

“I’m not sure how this will prove he didn’t poison his boss,” Henry said. “He brought the water bottle with them.”

“Watch,” Alayah said, starting the video, and everyone leaned in to see it better. She had slowed it down so she could speak as it played. “Here, you see Derek take the water bottle from Hugo, who had just taken a drink from it.”

“The antifreeze could have already been in it,” Henry said defiantly.