“Um, okay.”
“When I noticed the sprinklers going off, I pulled up security footage,” Brian said. He spun his laptop around so Allison could see the screen, and her mouth dropped. There was Allison, stumbling out of the file room. She was soaked, and she had water in her eyes, and she was trying to wipe them off. She stepped, walking down the hallway, scurrying off-screen.
“Sorry about the water,” Allison whispered.
“Just keep watching.”
A moment later, a small bird flew out of the file room. It flew in the opposite direction that Allison had run. A second later, security arrived to shut off the water.
“The bird was a shifter,” Allison realized. It was likely the person who had tried to go cause trouble in the file room.
“The bird was a shifter,” he agreed. “Now, look at this.”
He showed footage of the bird flying into a closet on the second floor of the building. A moment later, McKenzie emerged. She was fixing her hair and adjusting her clothing. Obviously, she’d dressed in a hurry.
“It was her,” Allison whispered.
&nbs
p; “I assume she had backup clothing stored in that closet,” Brian said. “When the sprinklers went off, she was probably caught unprepared just as everyone else was. While you ran away in your wet clothing, she stripped out of hers and took off.”
“What happened to the wet clothes?”
“Oh, there’s more to the story.”
He pressed another button, and they saw McKenzie appearing outside of the file room. She was speaking with the security team and she went into the room. She emerged a few minutes later with a small bag. Then she walked away hastily, keeping her head down.
“She was out of breath when I walked by her desk,” Allison said, remembering.
“I believe she shifted in the closet, put on her dry clothes, ran up here to save face, and then, after leaving you with my brother, she went back downstairs to get her wet clothing from the storage room. The timeline fits.”
“Sounds like she was busy.”
“It also explains why she didn’t tell me about the file room break-in,” Brian said. “It didn’t exactly go as planned.”
“But what is she looking for?”
“Nothing.”
“Then what’s she trying to hack?”
“Again, nothing.”
“Brian, you aren’t really making any sense.”
Allison felt a little dumb admitting it, but she had no idea what he was talking about.
“McKenzie has been in love with me for a long time. Unfortunately for her, I have no romantic interest in her. Each time any sort of ‘hacking’ occurred, she called me. We would spend hours together just trying to sort out what happened.”
“So, you think she was doing this for attention?”
“Yes.”
“Brian?”
“Yes, Allison?”
“Do you think she was trying to shift the blame to James? I feel a little bad, but I definitely suspected him.”