Slow Burn (Diamond and Diamond Private Investigators 2)

“Yeah. I figured it would be frowned upon if I punched him in the face, so I'm going to go with the next best option.”

Melinda studied her and asked, “Is that it?”

“Matty asked me for money again,” she said. “I told him no and he blew up at me.”

“You did the right thing,” her sister said, rounding the kitchen counter. When she pulled her into a hug, Tessa felt a little better.

“Thanks. It still makes me feel like crap, though.”

“He stopped calling me altogether,” Melinda said, her face a mask of pain. “I hate that I'm sort of relieved. I love him, but he's a mess. He won't agree to rehab and hell if I'm going to let him around the girls in his condition.”

That was one thing she and Melinda agreed on wholeheartedly. He needed help desperately. “Now that I've brightened your day, I'm gonna get going. Can you tell the girls I said goodbye? I don't want Ms. Nosypants to see this,” Tessa said, waving the invitation.

“Smart thinking. I'll make an excuse.”

“Make it a good one, too. Like someone called my bat-phone and I had to go fight crime or something.”

Melinda laughed and agreed. “Crime fighting. That's so you.”

“Bite me,” she responded, though there was no heat in her voice.

Her sister gave her one last squeeze and then said, “Thanks for making those copies. Love you, babe.”

“Love you too,” Tessa said.

A few moments later, when she was safely ensconced in her car, she let out a sigh of relief. Quick and painless. Now, she'd grab something to eat and head home. Then start it all over again tomorrow.

Chapter Three

By mid-morning, Rick had stapled packets, sealed envelopes, and was on his way to make fifty copies of a bunch of documents. And then, unless his powers of detection failed him, he'd be stapling these together later.

The only real information he'd been able to confirm all morning was that his boss was a little prick. When he'd handed him the papers, he'd said, “Double sided, Rick. You know how to do that right?” Like he was some kind of special case who couldn't work a copy machine.

He moved to the small supply room that held the copy machine. He'd really have to talk to Wallace Chase about all this stapling shit. Being buried in that office wasn't helping him achieve his objective. Maybe he could investigate other angles. Background checks, phone records, that sort of thing.

As he rounded the corner and walked into the supply room, he found the copy machine occupied. Tessa looked up at him and said, “Oh. Hey, Rick.”

“Hi, Tessa,” he said. “I've been upgraded to making copies today. I'll come back when you're done though.”

Her eyes widened and she said, “No. No. I'm done now. It's okay.”

Before he could reply, she snatched her original from the glass and stuffed it into a bright orange file folder along with her copies. She turned around and darted toward the door, skirting quickly around him.

Rick frowned at her odd departure, then shrugged it off and then placed the first original under the glass. He squinted down at the small touch screen. Now, how the hell did he make this thing print double sided?

After copies had been collated and then stapled, it was thankfully time for lunch. He clocked out and went downstairs to the commissary to grab himself a cup of coffee and a sandwich. He vaguely thought about checking in on Mike, but decided against it. As much as he hated the interning, it was nice to get out of the office.

As much crap as he gave Mike, he was capable. More capable than Rick had given him credit for. Last night he'd gotten a message from Dean about the fraud case they had just taken on. He had commented on Mike's professionalism.

While he ate, he tried to think of different ways to identify the leak. There weren't any security cameras in the lab, so there wasn't exactly any footage he could go over. IT had already informed him that access to the particular server that held the project files was limited to personnel working on the project only, so anyone accessing the files would appear to be doing so as part of their job.

Since all of these people worked on the project daily, there was no way to leak misinformation. He could run a background check on everyone in the lab, but that would be expensive and may not yield much of a result. The only real way this could work would be to narrow the suspect pool. But how?

As he was finishing his sandwich, he saw Tessa walk quickly through the lobby. His eyes caught a flash of the orange file folder sticking out of the top of her bag. Shit.

Was Tessa the leak? Thinking back, her surprise this morning could have easily been guilt. What had she been copying? Company files or something personal? Why was she taking it out of the building?

He had to admit, he'd been curious about her on a purely personal level. It was a little disappointing his interest had to shift to strictly professional. He'd run a background check on her tonight.