Page 40 of Fatal Conspiracy

“We noticed the bedhead,” Mina agreed with a chuckle. “We figured he got a surprise hookup phone call.”

“You had to know the guy,” Derek explained. “He never left the room if he wasn’t spit-polished to a shine. He also didn’t have his briefcase or computer with him. Was it in his car?”

“Don’t know, but he’d have to have left it in there the night before. He wasn’t carrying anything when he left the hotel at 0300 hours. We know he had his phone, but otherwise, it doesn’t appear he took anything with him from the room.”

“That’s also a red flag,” Derek said. “He had this leather attaché that I swear was glued to his hand. If this meeting was for business, he wouldn’t have gone out without it.”

“Which brings us back to a personal reason for being out there,” Mina said.

“There weren’t any other cameras available to pull from?” Alayah asked.

None that were usable. The other cameras are static, so if someone did push him into the water from that area, it wouldn’t be caught on camera.”

“Which is probably why whoever he was meeting picked that spot,” Derek mused.

“Do we know where he was found in the harbor? Was he near that wooded area or somewhere else?” Alayah asked.

“He was found floating near a small bridge just down from the beach. It wouldn’t be impossible for him to float that far in the amount of time he was in the water. I’m currently trying to get footage from the camera at the beach to see if there’s a time stamp of him floating past.”

“To say we’re dead in the water until then is a bit onthe nose?” Alayah asked, smiling when Derek covered his mouth with his hand to maintain his composure. “Or maybe we should consider this a dead end?”

“Alayah,” Mina said, trying to bite back laughter. “You’re killing me here.”

They all broke into a fit of giggles brought on by too little sleep and raw nerves.

“I’m sorry, that was inappropriate. A man is dead, and that’s nothing to make fun of. I’m just frustrated by the lack of evidence. Our business is to find proof of these crimes. What are we missing?”

“Wait. Our business is to find proof of these crimes,” Derek repeated. “Almost as though whoever is behind this knows how not to leave any digital evidence behind.”

“Because he works in the industry?” Mina asked.

“It’s possible!” Alayah exclaimed. “This town is crawling with tech bros right now.”

It was Mina’s turn to laugh. “Tech bros. I know how much you love them.” Alayah didn’t interject to say there was one whom she was growing rather fond of. “Derek, do you know any other businesses that may have had issues with Josh?”

Alayah wasn’t sure if Mina heard Derek’s scoff, but she sure did.

“Open up Google, type in ‘tech companies,’ and pick one. You’ll find someone who had an issue with Josh. Hugo included. Their history is well known in the industry as we discussed.”

“A very likable kind of guy, apparently. Always the worst kind in life and death. Death because it’s hard to narrow down the field of potential killers when everyone was a hater.”

“That sums it up well,” Derek agreed. “I wouldn’t digtoo deep into Hugo and Josh’s feud, other than to look for any commonalities between them regarding employees or shared close business consultants. If it would help, I could come up with the top five companies with a bigger bone to pick with him than most.”

“As long as we don’t have to track their whereabouts down,” Alayah clarified. “Cal wants us to make notes of everyone Josh talked to at the conference, and we’re just getting started with that. That doesn’t include looking into his business dealings to see if there are any red flags there.”

“Let me start with that aspect of the dig,” Mina said. “If I start looking into his business dealings, that will naturally reveal people he had issues with and may have angered. I’ll assign several people to work on it, and once we have the names, I’ll forward them to you. With that information in hand, Derek can tell us the strongest trails to follow. It will also help you rule in or out interactions that you may witness with people on the footage from the conference.”

“That would be a huge help,” Alayah confirmed. “The faster we can get the information to Cal, the better. Let’s face it, it can’t be a coincidence that the opening and closing speakers of this conference were killed. There’s a connection somewhere. We need to find it. Let’s use our Messenger app to exchange information in real time.”

“You got it. Whiskey, out.”

Alayah disconnected the call and turned to Derek. “We make a great team.”

“We sure do,” he said with a genuine smile. “Now, while you spool up the camera feed, I’ll make us more coffee. The faster we figure out who killed Hugo and Josh, the faster I can take you out on a real date.”

“I don’t remember you asking to take me out on a realdate,” she answered, batting her lashes coyly. He had, but this time, she had a different answer for him.

He turned back and knelt, taking her hand in his. “Alayah Heath, would you do me the pleasure of going out on a real date where we eat good food, drink great wine and talk about anything other than computers or tech bros?”