Maiden and the Lion (Lions of Manhattan 2)
Page 29
Bea laughed. She’d had her fair share of working with Alex while he had hovered over her. He had made her nervous. Alex was very good at making people uneasy. Sometimes, he could be very intimidating. “You know, you aren’t at all as I expected. I thought all billionaires’ wives were glamorous and chic.”
That earned her a snicker from Cat. “My husband is the billionaire, but I’m just a humble private investigator. Besides, you can’t stalk people with a fancy getup. People will notice.”
“So true.”
Cat paused at the exit booth and waved her card. She then drove the car into the street.
“What made you want to work as a private investigator?” Bea asked. “I mean, you have everything. Certainly, you don’t need beer money.”
Cat laughed. “No, I don’t need beer money. The agency is my late brother’s legacy. I keep it running in honour of his memory.”
“Oh, I see.”
“I like being a PI.”
“I think your line of work is very interesting. I’m a sucker for good detective stories.”
“Hey, me too. Speaking of detective work, you screen Alex’s calls, right? Did you notice anything weird lately?”
“Weird callers, you mean? No, not really. The usual. Mostly the inter-department calls. His appointments. Important calls go straight through to his private lines and I’m not privy to them.”
“What about his mail?”
“Also the usual. Junk mail, overnight documents and several packages.”
“Nothing unusual about that, I suppose?”
“No. Why do you ask?”
“Just trying to figure out something. He was being blackmailed.”
“Blackmailed?” Bea straightened in her seat. “By who? For what?”
“That, my husband won’t tell. The mystery…oooh…it drives me nuts.”
“Alex has a secret?” Bea guessed with a heavy heart.
“Everyone has a secret, honey.”
“What kind of secret could he possibly have? Did he murder someone? Past affair? A love child?”
Cat laughed again. “I don’t think so. Alex is squeaky clean when it comes to women. I don’t think he’s dated for a long time.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He’s Mr Calculated Guy. Not a one-night stand type of person.”
It brought her relief to hear of Alex’s character. “So, what do you think? Company’s trade secret?”
“It could be. I heard corporate espionage is just as dangerous as governments.”
“You think we have a spy in our company?”
“One of the possibilities. Alex deals with the company security, vetting cons, liabilities. Stuff like that.”
“And you think Alex’s men have something to do with this? You mentioned Johnston, Danielson and Wyatt.”
“My husband said that Alex has hired a private firm to investigate all his men. He said the leak was an inside job.”