“Is there something I can help you with, detectives?” Simon asked when he stopped in front of them.
The tall one took off his sunglasses and held out his hand. “You’re Simon Diesel, aren’t you?”
Simon nodded.
“I’m Detective Bartlett. And this is my partner, Detective West,” the tall cop said. “We’re big fans of your work.”
“I appreciate that, gentlemen,” Simon said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Detective West reached into his coat pocket to retrieve a notebook and pen. “You’re probably wondering why we’re here, so we’ll get straight to the point, Mr. Diesel.”
“Simon is fine.”
Bartlett smiled, his grey moustache twitching. “The guys at the precinct aren’t going to believe this. First-name basis with Simon Diesel.”
Simon raised an eyebrow. “Your coworkers are tech aficionados?”
“The cyber forensics guys are,” Bartlett explained. “Anyway, we’d really like to discuss the hacking that recently came to our attention.”
Bartlett nodded. “Right. We also have some questions on the previous insider trading case you dealt with several weeks ago. Your former assistant was a person of interest in that case, if I recall correctly.”
Simon nodded. “Yes. It was a very unfortunate incident. We had to let Xander go.”
“Seems like Dover, Inc. has been dealing with a lot of unfortunate incidents lately.” West flipped open his notebook and started scribbling furiously. “The assistant who came after Xander got a lot of attention, didn’t she?”
Simon swallowed hard, uneasy at the prospect of the conversation steering towards the topic of Heather. Right now he had to stall these cops by keeping them outside the building for as long as possible. He had to buy Heather time to get out of sight before they got to her. He had no idea if they were here to arrest her, but he wasn’t taking any chances. Not with Heather.
He chose his words carefully. “She did.”
“But she wasn’t let go, was she?” West asked with a raised eyebrow. “In addition to the media frenzy around her, she was suspected of corporate espionage and hacking into Dover’s cyber system.”
“Not Dover’s system,” Simon said. “It was my personal home system.”
“That Dover paid for and designed,” West murmured.
“I designed it,” Simon said sharply.
“No need to get defensive,” West said, shaking his head. “We’re simply saying that you have a pretty special contract with Dover. You are the company. Whatever you design is also Dover’s by extension. It’s probably why they had such a hard time firing you after details of your personal life surfaced.”
Simon bristled at the accusation in the man’s tone. “My personal life? Look, if you have something to say just be upfront about it. No need to beat around the bush.”
West shrugged. “Whatever you want. You had a romantic relationship with your assistant, didn’t you?”
The way the officer said it made it sound like some cheap, illicit affair, when it wasn’t. His brief relationship with Heather had been so much more than that. Some much more than tabloid fodder and insinuations. “Yes. But that’s over now.”
“Too bad,” West said. “From the photos I’ve seen she’s quite a looker, if that whole repressed librarian thing is your type.”
Simon snarled, balling up his hands in outrage. “Detective West, I’ve answered all your questions so far, but if you ever talk about Ms. Hall like that again I’ll be forced to do something to you that lands me in jail.”
“Hey, don’t get testy, pal.” West paused. “Look, I take it back. I meant no disrespect. How about we go inside and have a nice chat?”
Simon nodded stiffly. If he refused to talk to them they’d only get more suspicious, and they were already talking to him like he was a suspect. The police had a way of twisting things and coming to convenient conclusions. He was lucky he had all the power and privilege of being wealthy, or they would probably have been a lot more aggressive with him. He needed to get in contact with his lawyer the moment he felt things were not in his control.