“I’m not scared,” I tell her.
“Really? Isn’t that why you’re running away?” She kneels beside me. “What did he tell you, Leo? What are you not telling me?”
“I’m not running away.”
“Then stay.” She grabs my arm and looks into my eyes. “Stay with me. We can still get to the bottom of this. We make a great team, don’t we?”
Damn it. Why is she making this so hard? She didn’t want me here to begin with. Why is she refusing to let me go now?
I look away. “We tried, Jodie. We did what we could, but we’ve got nothing now. You said so yourself.”
“So you’re giving up?” she asks.
I hear the resentment in her voice. It stings, but it’s easier for both of us if she goes back to hating me.
“I’ve wasted enough time pretending to be your knight in shining armor,” I tell her firmly as I pack my last shirt. “It was nice playing with you, but playtime’s over.”
Jodie says nothing. Just as I thought, she hates me again. I can feel it.
Well, this time, I asked for it.
I zip my bag. “I’ll just wait for the call from the guy who’s replacing me and then I’m leaving. Goodbye, Jodie.”
I grab my bag and walk out of the room.
Chapter Thirteen
Jodie
I don’t believe it, I think as I stare at Leo, who’s fallen asleep on the couch waiting for his phone call, his backpack on the floor and his laptop, which is still turned on, on the coffee table.
I do believe his father told him to leave, but I don’t believe the reason and I can’t believe Leo would just roll over. Since when does he do as he’s told?
He’s keeping something from me. I know it. His father told him something and he won’t tell me, probably because he feels he can’t tell me. That’s why he spouted all that bullshit. But that’s all that is – bullshit. I’m a lawyer. I’m an expert at recognizing it.
What is Leo hiding? What are he and his father up to?
I glance at his laptop. He’s always on it, typing things, reading things. Maybe there’s something on it that could help me understand why he’s acting this way all of a sudden. Then maybe I could help him and the two of us could keep working together.
I look at Leo again. He’s still asleep. He probably didn’t get much sleep last night, either. The sound of the rain wasn’t exactly a lullaby. It’s still pouring now, which may be why the other guy is delayed.
Now is my chance. It could be my only chance.
I go to my room to get a flash drive. When I come back, I wait a few seconds to make sure Leo is still asleep. Then I kneel on the other side of the coffee table, move the laptop so that the screen is facing me and plug in the flash drive.
Now what?
I draw a deep breath and start copying the files on the hard drive. There are a lot, so the process takes a while. With each passing second, I grow more anxious as I keep shifting my gaze between the screen and Leo.
Five more minutes. Come on.
Finally, it’s done. All I have to do is eject the flash drive so I can unplug it, which should only take another second if I can get my fingers to stop shaking on the keypad.
I manage to bring the cursor to the lower right corner of the screen. There. As I click the command to eject the drive, the computer beeps.
Shit.
I quickly unplug the flash drive, then hold my breath as I stare at Leo, afraid he’ll wake up. Thanks to the downpour, he might not have heard that beep.
I’m safe.
I let out a sigh of relief as I put the flash drive in my pocket. I’m about to put his laptop back the way it was, too, but then something occurs to me.
What if all the important stuff isn’t on his hard drive but in his inbox? That’s usually the case with suspects in court.
I draw another deep breath and open his email. I immediately notice one from the Yuzuriha Corporation and another from the Governor’s office. He’s friends with the Governor? Most of the emails seem to be about work.
I scroll down just in case there’s something else.
Come on.
Then I see an email without a sender’s name, just an address made up of jumbled letters and numbers. The subject is unspecified, too.
Suspicious.
I’m about to open it, but then I notice the message a few rows below. My eyes grow wide.
My father was writing to Leo?
There are over fifty messages under that one subject, which means they had a lot to talk about. The latest one is dated just a few days before his death.
What were they talking about?