“My live-in maid, Gloria; she does my apartment, too.”
“Could she have leaked the information?”
“She wouldn’t have come into the office until this morning.”
“What about yesterday afternoon?”
“No, I don’t think so, but I’ll ask Martha.”
“I think you should ask Martha to keep a log of every person who comes into your offices, no matter how briefly – messengers, repairmen, anybody.”
“All right.”
Stone reached into his briefcase and took out a black plastic box. “Do your phones have the Caller ID feature that the phone company sells?”
“Yes; I don’t know how we ever did without it.”
“On the fax line, too?”
“I’ll have to ask Martha.”
“If you don’t already have it for that line, ask Martha to arrange it, then plug this unit into the line between the wall socket and the fax machine. Let’s see if we can see where this… newsletter is being faxed from.”
“An excellent idea,” Amanda said.
“Among your three employees, who is married?”
“None of them; Barry is gay, Helen is divorced, and Martha is single.”
“Does any of them have a regular companion?”
“Helen sees somebody, I believe; Barry, who knows? Martha doesn’t seem to have a social life, except vicariously, through me.”
“I’d like to know who Helen sees and, to the extent possible, who Barry’s closer friends are.”
Amanda frowned. “I don’t see how I can learn that without tipping them off, if one of them is involved.”
“Give me their addresses and phone numbers, then; I’ll have it checked out.”
“Discreetly, I hope.”
“Of course.”
Amanda flipped through her address book and wrote down Helen’s and Barry’s addresses. “I really don’t believe that either of them could have anything to do with this; they’ve too much to lose.”
“Then it will be best if we can eliminate them as suspects. We have to be sure.”
“You know best,” she said, handing over the addresses.
He looked at them. “What about Martha?” he asked.
“Oh.” She scribbled down the information and handed it over. “But believe me, investigating her would be a waste of your time.”
“Then I won’t bother until I’ve exhausted any other possibilities.”
Martha appeared in the doorway, clutching a sheet of paper. “Excuse me for interrupting, Amanda, but I thought you’d want to see this.” She handed her boss the paper.
Amanda read it quickly and handed it to Stone.