Page 41 of Fatal Conspiracy

Her laughter filled the room, but she melted into a pile of goo on the inside. “I would love to.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Derek knocked on Cal’s door, offering Alayah a smile as they waited. It was late, but they’d done what he’d asked and tracked Josh through the entire conference until he’d left for the final time last night.

The door opened and Cal motioned them in. “I was starting to worry you’d fallen asleep.”

“Sorry, boss,” Alayah said, and Derek noticed her grimace. It hadn’t been her fault, and he jumped to defend her.

“It’s been a lot of back-and-forth with Secure Watch to find the information and then to verify it.”

Cal held up his hand. “I apologize for saying that. I’m frustrated with the lack of movement on the case. Not from lack of trying but from lack of evidence. I know everyone is doing their best to find something that will bring this all together and make it make sense.”

“For all our work, we don’t have much,” Alayah agreed, opening her laptop and setting it on the bed, which was the perfect height for her to use while standing. She’d mentioned to him on the way over how tired she was of sitting, and he vowed to grab some food and let her walk around the hotel a bit once they finished here. Then, he’d take her back to the room for a shower and bed. He just hoped she’d be in his bed again tonight because he loved nothingmore than holding her as he dropped off to sleep. He found a sense of safety being with her that he’d never experienced with any other woman. That spoke to his heart in more ways than one.

“You’re not helping my mood much,” Cal said with a chuckle.

“Trust me, we both agree,” Derek said. “However, with Mina’s help, it was easy to alibi all the tech bros that Josh encountered at the convention. That part hadn’t been too hard since he hadn’t done his presentation yet and the convention had only been up and running for one full day. If there were interactions at his hotel or in the community, we wouldn’t know because we don’t have access to his schedule or the hotel feeds from his hotel.”

“That’s fair. Nothing stood out to you as a negative confrontation?” Cal asked.

“Only one,” Alayah said, clicking the mouse and letting the footage play of Hugo and Josh backstage.

“That was right before Hugo died?”

“Yes. I didn’t know it was there since I stopped watching that part of the feed to track Derek once he left Hugo backstage,” Alayah explained. “But if you look closely, Hugo turns his mic off before arguing with Josh and then back on after the exchange. We never would’ve heard their interaction from the control booth.”

“Too bad. It would be nice to know what they said.”

Derek lowered himself to the bed next to her computer. “It was probably the same old song and dance where Josh wanted to buy the new cyber app, but Hugo wouldn’t sell. I could repeat it verbatim, but I’ll spare you the details. Suffice it to say Hugo was tired of the constant emails and contact from Virtual Scorpion Productions about it. He swore Josh had everyone on his staff email us every week.”

“Reeks of desperation to me,” Alayah said, shaking her head.

“Wait, what?” Derek asked and Alayah glanced at him.

“I said it reeks of desperation. Why did he need Black Marlin’s app so badly if he could create his own?”

“She’s right,” Cal said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Did we ever get his financials?”

“We got some, but Mina is still working on getting everything. That’s easier said than done with a company that knows how to protect its servers. Nothing she’s found so far has set off any alarms. The company had plenty of money, and there were no mergers or any evidence of an attempted coup.”

“For all intents and purposes, Virtual Scorpion was the next Black Marlin,” Derek confirmed. “I always assumed that the reason Josh wanted the app was to merge the two companies and make it a powerhouse in the industry.”

“Would Hugo have gone for that?” Cal asked.

“Absolutely not. He always called Josh a gnat on the bottom of his shoe. Just to be extra annoying, he pronounced thegevery time.” He smiled at the memory, and the part of him who would miss his boss in his day-to-day life reared its head again. He was grateful when Alayah reached over and took his hand in hers, squeezing his fingers. It helped him focus again.

“Then we’re missing something,” Cal said. “There had to be a reason Josh was so desperate to get the app. From the interaction I just saw between them, that is the word to describe it.”

“Running out in the middle of the night in your pajamas to a deserted parking lot also suggests that,” Alayah said. “Did you get any new details about Josh’s death since our last check-in?”

“All we know is that his manner of death was blunt force trauma to the head. The autopsy revealed he was already dead when he hit the water, as there was none in his lungs.”

“Which means there won’t be a murder weapon to find,” Derek said with a groan.

“Cops thought it was probably a rock, which is likely now at the bottom of Lake Superior.”

“Did the cops offer up that information willingly?” Derek asked, and Cal shook his head with a grin.