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“Love you,” Derrick said over another mouthful and hung up.
Taylor rolled her eyes. “You coming to eat?” she asked Marty.
But Marty shook her head. “I have thinking to do,” she said. “But don’t forget movie night tomorrow night,” she reminded Taylor.
“Course not,” she replied and hugged Marty close. “I love you, Marty.”
“I love you too, Sis,” Marty said, squeezing her back.
And Taylor loved the full heart feeling she had at the sound of that.
Eighteen
The next evening,Taylor was escorted out of work by Mick and Ian. It had been another busy day filled with meetings and phones calls, and it left Taylor zero time to even think about snooping, never mind actually doing it.
Now, even on her trek to the car, Taylor had her head buried in her phone. She had just received four text messages from Charlie about contract details, and her email chime was going crazy in the background. All the chaos would drive anyone else crazy, but Taylor was actually enjoying it. She never felt so free and alive as when she was wheeling and dealing. But she knew to tell anyone this would have them questioning her sanity.
Taylor slid into the SUV after Ian opened the door, and once she was seated, turned back to him. “Thanks, Ian,” she smiled and went back to her phone.Be kind to everyonehad been a credo in her home growing up. Her mother said that was one of the greatest things she had ever learned from Taylor’s father—that it mattered just as much to be kind to the janitor as it did to be kind to the guy you needed to make a million-dollar deal with.
Taylor glanced up when she noticed her security detail did not get in the car and saw Henry in the driver’s seat.
“Long time no see, Henry,” Taylor said to him, as she tapped out instructions in a text and then flipped into her emails, skimming through them to find the one which needed her attention the most.
“So I’ve been doing some research on Cedric’s habits before he died,” Henry announced to Taylor.
“How come?” Taylor asked absentmindedly. She was engrossed in her emails that she was still behind on and only half listening.
“I’m hoping to shed light onto why he was bludgeoned to death,” Henry said dryly.
“Ah, yes,” Taylor said, now completely focused on Henry. “What did you find?”
“Glad to see I have your attention now,” Henry quipped. “So he didn’t use any phone correspondence starting two months before he died. It just abruptly stopped.”
“Well that doesn’t shock me, to be honest, Henry.”
“Why is that?”
“Because he was batshit crazy. You should see what he did to the mansion where we used to live.”
“I have.”
“You’ve been to my house?” Taylor asked in horror.
Henry gave her a curt nod and met her eyes briefly in the rearview mirror. “It was when I was checking the security status before you officially hired me.”
Taylor took that in. She felt like a coward having not been back there, for feeling unable to go back. “Is it still in shambles?” Taylor asked quietly.
“It closely resembles a demolition job gone bad if that is what you are asking,” he confirmed as he pulled into the underground garage of Fletcher Enterprises.
The door to the car opened and Derrick slid in as Rog closed the door behind him. “Hi,” he said leaning over to kiss Taylor. He winced just slightly and Taylor noticed he was doing that less and less. It made her feel so relieved to know that he was starting to feel better. “Henry,” Derrick greeted, nodding to the other man as he settled in his seat.
“Mr. Fletcher,” Henry returned with a nod, “I was just telling Taylor how I was looking into Cedric’s routines before he died.”
“Oh yeah? To see if we can find out who knocked him into the bucket?”
“Tactful, Derrick,” Taylor reprimanded, as Henry started to fill him in on their conversation from moments before. She was totally trying to take the attention away from the fact that her husband caught Henry’s drift way sooner than she had.
“So while he didn’t make phone calls, he was all over email. He did many work and business transactions with his Preston Corp email. He buried it pretty well, but it was still easy to dig up the information. I could tell I was not the only person who had attempted hacking it.”