Kate sat at the computer in the flower shop as Maxi hovered behind her.
“I can’t believe you found these things in a piece of jewelry,” Maxi said quietly. “Who do you think put them there?”
“Off the top of my head, I’d say Muriel. She bought the bracelet. And from what Rosie and Andre said, she was fed up with Lord. Apparently, the last time Muriel visited Coral Cay she’d had some sort of epiphany. I think she’d finally made a decision. I think she’d decided to expose Stewart Lord.”
“Not a very safe thing to do,” Maxi said, shaking her head. “But why the charm bracelet? And the secret memory sticks?”
“I could be way off base, but I believe she was compiling evidence to bring him down. Muriel had access to his business records, computer files, paperwork, contact lists, you name it. But she needed a place to stash it. Some place handy but also hidden. And face it, who’d look twice at a middle-aged woman’s charm bracelet?”
“And the fact that she bought it in Coral Cay and was using it to help save Coral Cay…”
“A little extra measure of justice,” Kate said, smiling.
“But why would Lord keep it? He’d throw it out. Or destroy it.”
“He very well might have,” Kate said dejectedly. “These first two sticks are empty.”
“Are you sure?” Maxi asked.
Kate nodded grimly, reaching for the third. “Here goes nothing,” she said, shoving it into the slot on the back of Maxi’s computer tower.
Kate tapped a few keys and the screen displayed a menu. She opened a document and scanned it. Then another. And another.
“What is it?” Maxi asked, stepping closer to the display.
“This one’s not empty,” Kate said softly. “Definitely not empty. Page after page of documents. All related to Lord Enterprises. And Coral Cay. Reports. Memos. Receipts. Schematics. Blueprints. Government filings. Oh boy, we are going to need some serious time to go through these. But it looks like this could be the mother lode.”
“See when they were put onto the stick,” Maxi prompted.
“Let … me … check.…” Kate’s voice trailed off as she pecked a few more keys. “OK, the first one was loaded last month. The eleventh at six fourteen a.m. And the last document was downloaded on the fifteenth at nine fifty-two at night.”
“Nothing since then?” Maxi asked anxiously.
“No. And Muriel died the next day. You’re right—that date clinches it. These have to be hers.”
“She was super cagey,” Maxi said. “She did her sleuthing early in the morning or late at night—probably when no one else was at the office.”
“And since she was Lord’s personal secretary, it would be natural for her to be the first one in or the last one to leave. Just your typical diligent, devoted assistant.”
“So how did Lord catch on?” Maxi asked.
“That,” said Kate, “is exactly what I’d like to find out. And I think I know just who to call.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen more than a few of these document dumps in my time,” Manny said as his thick fingers typed away at Maxi’s computer.
Sporting a red Hawaiian shirt, the P.I. had traded the cargo shorts for jeans. No hat today, Kate noticed. But he had a pair of sunglasses perched on top of his head.
“You don’t want to know how many of my cases involve corporate espionage,” he said. “That and divorce work keep me in dog chow.”
“It’s going to take forever to read them,” Maxi said.
“Nah, the secret is triage. What do you want to know most?”
“Did Stewart Lord find out Muriel was on to him?” Kate asked. “And if so, how?”
“That part’s a piece of cake. Or, in your case, some of those ginger cookie things. John Quincy really likes those.”
“That’s a deal,” Kate said, smiling. “So how can you tell?”
“A lot of what your lady saved are photos. Pictures of paper documents. You start with those.”
“Why?” Maxi asked.
“Two reasons,” Manny said, holding up two tanned fingers. “Paper means someone wasn’t putting it into the computer. Probably stuff your developer friend didn’t want on the company hard drive. Two, a lot of these photos are receipts.”
“Follow the money,” Kate said, remembering Dr. Patel’s advice.
“Yup,” Manny said, typing. “Huh. This is weird.”
“What is it?” Maxi asked.
“See this receipt? Syntegration Solutions?”
“Yes,” Kate and Maxi said in unison.
“Spyware. Company’s pretty well known in certain circles. And I’ve seen this program in action. Nasty stuff. Dump it on somebody’s phone and it’ll tell you everything but what they had for lunch. That too, probably.”
“What do you mean?” Maxi asked.
“Well, basically, it’s a phone bug. Records calls, copies emails. Can even track somebody in real life with GPS. And that’s cheating, if you ask me. If you can’t run a tail the old-fashioned way, you got no business spying on people.”
Kate met Maxi’s eyes and tried not to smile.
“Odd thing is, according to the receipt, your guy bought two dozen copies,” he said, pointing to the monitor. “That means he can put it on twenty-four different phones. Most cases, it’s a one-off. One spouse or business partner tracking the other.”
“Remember our field trip?” Maxi said. “The office ladies were amazed how Lord remembered everything about everyone in the office. He knew who was quarreling with their spouse or whose kid was doing lousy at school. One time, one of his executives made an appointment for a job interview. Lord called the guy out to the reception area five minutes later and fired him.”
“Lord was spying on his employees,” Kate said quietly. “Probably the executives. And the executive assistants.”
They both fell silent as the horror of it hit them.
“Manny, is there any way to email all of these files to someone anonymously?” Kate asked.
“Eh, I may know a little something on that subject,” he said, cracking his knuckles over the keyboard. “Wouldn’t do it from here, though. Too easy to trace. A library’s your best bet.”
“What about the video cameras at the library?” Maxi asked. “Couldn’t they find you from those?”
“Nah, libraries have been underfunded for years,” he said. “Half the time, those cameras don’t even work. And I know a few primo locations where that’s definitely the case. Don’t ask me how. So if someone were to go in and fire off an email, who would be the lucky recipient?”
“Detective Ben Abrams,” Kate said. “At the Coral Cay police department.”