I shake my head. “I have a landline, so I called from the bathroom with water running.”
Gage stands. “I need all your cell phones.”
We hand them over, and he steps out of the room.
“I believe Mattis did this,” I announce. I want it out there. He’s gone off the rails, and now I discover this.
“What made you decide to look?” Jim asks.
Suddenly, I’m not sure Jim and Clear aren’t behind the intrusion. What if they put it on? “My program was lagging, and I didn’t realize until last night that each day it got subtly worse. Landon had indicated he was frustrated by my output, and when he mentioned Mattis, it finally clicked—”
“I didn’t think the lag was your fault,” Landon counters.
“Everyone was so insistent that I work on the networks in the office or Landon’s home, but not on my home network.” I look at Jim. “Did you put these on my computer?”
He shakes his head. “We put a tracker on to see where your computer is at any time. You also have one on your cell phone. It’s a security protocol. It’s just a GPS tracker, which tells us if your computer is stolen or if someone says you’re one place and we know better—that happens.”
I turn to Landon. “Did you put this on my computer?”
He shakes his head. “I swear I didn’t.”
Claire appears at the door. “What the hell is going on?”
Jim explains the situation.
“Who put spyware on her computer?” she demands.
“Right now, we believe it may have been Mattis Yung,” Jim confirms.
“Gage took my phone from me when I arrived. Are they bugging us, too?” Claire asks.
“He’s checking, and if there is anything, he’ll clean it away.”
“The issue of my computer rebooting while on the network wouldn’t be caused by the spyware, though,” I muse.
Jim nods. “You’re probably right, and we still haven’t figured that out. Gage is pulling in Cameron Newhouse from SHN. He’s a brilliant coder and might have some ideas.”
My head hurts. Claire and Landon talk in hushed tones, and I try to think when my computer was unattended so someone could load spyware on it. Other than at my desk in the office, I can’t recall anything. I don’t open mysterious attachments.
Gage returns with our phones and puts them in the center of the table.
“Each of your phones had spyware. It was recording all passwords, email, texts, and voice mail messages.”
I look at Landon. His eyes are closed.
We’ll need to come clean with Claire sooner than we’d planned. That’ll be World War III for sure.
“I’d like to hold on to your computer for the day,” Gage tells me. “I want to trace and see where the connection trying to retrieve your information is located. We’ll give your computer a different signal than our offices, so they’ll think it’s in a coffee shop or something. I’ll also have a team run a spyware sniffer on your office and home routers and networks.”
Everyone looks shocked. I nod, not knowing what else to do. Claire and Landon agree.
Jim stands. “I’ll give you guys a few minutes. I need to make some calls.”
Landon nods at Jim as he leaves, then turns to his sister.
“Claire-bear?”
She looks at him, alarmed. “What did you do? Did you load this on her machine?”
“No. I have something to tell you.”
“What did you do? Why did you need to meet Fiona yesterday?”
My ears perk up. Who’s Fiona? The lawyer?
“We can talk about that later,” he says. “But I thought you should know that Tinsley and I met the night before the closing with her business. We both used a fake name. I was Peter, and she was Amanda.”
Claire looks confused.
Landon can’t look her in the eye. “We hooked up.”
Claire moves from confused to angry. “What do you mean, hooked up?”
“Claire, I was out with Chrissy celebrating the sale of Translations to Disruptive. I don’t usually pick up strange men in bars.”
Claire slams her hand down on the table. “Why are you just telling me this now?”
“Because we’ve exchanged some messages, and if someone’s been spying on our phones, they have them. We wanted to tell you the truth. I’m embarrassed by my behavior,” I add. “I don’t want you to think that reckless girl is my typical self.”
“If those messages are going to come out, you need to have already heard the news from us,” Landon adds.
“What about your boyfriend, Bob?” she asks me.
I try not to laugh. “Bob is my vibe—battery-operated boyfriend.”
Claire doesn’t seem to find this funny or clever. “Is that why you wanted to set me up with Tomas? So you two can fuck like bunnies?”
Landon puts his hand up. “Hold on. We’ve not been together since that night. Tinsley suggested we be friends for six months before we explore anything, and even then, we agreed you needed to be on board with anything that happened.”
Claire closes her eyes, and I can tell she’s doing Ujjayi Pranayama breathing—a calming yoga technique. “I’m upset with both of you for not telling me.”
“I’m sorry, Claire.” What a mess this is.
Jim and Gage return and join us at the table.
“It looks like when you were on the office network, you were transmitting information—though fortunately not your code—to someone not far from here.”
Landon looks over at Claire. “Morgan Bennett. How much do you want to bet he’s the bastard behind this? He was probably using Mattis.”
Claire rolls her eyes. “Transitive wouldn’t dare.”
“Bullshit. Just because you had feelings for Morgan doesn’t mean he isn’t trying to beat us to market.”
Claire’s eyes fill with tears. “Stop it!” she yells.
I reach for her and
