“We need to check out the possibility that you are behind the deaths.” Connor spoke directly to his suspect.
Cami could see Rowan’s mouth tighten. His gaze flicked around the room. He wasn’t going to admit to anything, she realized. Most likely, even if he was innocent, he had other transactions that he was busy with and that he did not want the FBI knowing about.
“You know as well as I do what we are looking for,” Connor said to the lawyers. “Evidence that your client hired someone to do this work for him.”
“Why are you telling us this?” the lawyer pressured back. “We do not have to provide you with this information. My client has given you an alibi. Plus, you must understand, this is a huge corporation. He is not involved in the day-to-day workings of the game itself. He would have had no opportunity to do such a thing; he’s not that hands-on. And if you think one journalist can bother him, you’re wrong. He’s had pieces written before. He always sues. That journo would have had her life destroyed by a lawsuit. That’s how my client responds. Not by murdering. He doesn’t need to do that.”
“He would have had the expertise,” Connor insisted. “He’s an IT professional.”
“My client works more on the visuals of the game, the big picture. Hundreds of developers, coders, and artists then do the rest of the work.” The lawyer on the left folded his arms.
“Not all of them leave on good terms. We’ve dealt with defamation cases before. Disgruntled employees have challenged us and spread lies. This is nothing new to us,” the lawyer in the center insisted. “You are very wrong to think this means anything to my client.”
“And could those developers have contacted players after they quit? Accessed information?” Connor asked.
“Absolutely not! They sign a confidentiality agreement when they work for Virtual Ventures. And top-class security is in place. When every employee leaves, all the access passwords are changed immediately. Nobody would be able to hack into the game from outside. That is an absolute certainty.”
Connor was pushing forward. “We want a list of everyone who has left your company, resigned, or been fired, in the last two years.”
“Sure. We can give you that. Our client’s HR department will provide that within a few hours. But you need to drop this harassment of him. We’re not unreasonable. We will cooperate, of course. But we won’t allow this bullying treatment from the police.”
Cami realized that getting any information through either Rowan or the lawyers was going to be all but impossible. They seemed intent on putting the blame elsewhere. If Rowan himself was guilty, this was not going to be an easy task.
She didn’t know if this would be allowed. Probably, it would not be allowed at all. She was sure Connor would shout her down big-time if she suggested it, but right now, Connor wasn’t here. If she could access the phone’s records, was there a possibility she could pick something up?
At least there would be some evidence then, and Connor would have a better idea of whether to pursue this suspect, or whether he could go on and explore other possibilities.
Quickly, she reached for the phone. What would be the best way? She guessed it would be to scroll through the records and simply film it with her own phone.
Cami found the list of recent calls and scrolled slowly through, allowing her phone to do the filming. Then, she scrolled through the texts.
Bank transactions would be more difficult. She couldn’t get into his bank, not without risking creating message alerts and email alerts that he would know about, thanks to two-factor authentication. But that authentication would allow her to check another way, by reading through the messages the bank had sent. That she could do. She could film them all. That way even if one message had been deleted, there would be a gap that Connor could question.
Quickly, Cami accessed the bank messages and scrolled through, glad there was a record of those, too, filming them as well. There was a separate app where the crypto transactions were stored. Those could be useful she thought, taking screen shots. Crypto transactions were always a good way of paying when you didn’t want it to go through official bank records.
“Our client needs his possessions back!” the lawyer threatened.
She’d only just been in time.
She hastily removed the phone from flight mode, then canceled the lock override. If she was quick, then maybe Rowan wouldn’t even realize that anything had happened to his phone. She put her own phone away in her jacket pocket.
When Connor opened the door, Cami pushed the tray over to him.
We’re going to need to keep you here while we confirm this alibi,” he said. “Probably, another half an hour. Then we’ll decide what to do about the assault charges.”
“It had better not take too long,” the lawyer threatened.
Connor walked out of the interview room.
“Connor,” she whispered. “I don’t know if it will help you, but while his phone was unlocked, I filmed the records. I thought maybe it would allow us to see if he’d been up to anything.”
He stared at her in utter astonishment.
“You did what?” he said. “You know you’re not supposed—”
At that point, he caught himself.
“That was good thinking,” he said, still looking slightly shell shocked. “That could actually give us what we need. So, let’s have a look, while my team confirms this alibi. If there is anything suspicious, we hold him. If not, we can avoid the trouble.”