Tell Me - Ashe Barker Page 0,74
survive. Our staff may view both of us in a new light, but I feel we still have their respect. Don’t you?”
“Mmm, time will tell. But yes, no one was overtly hostile. I’d have preferred to avoid all of this, but in the circumstances this is the best outcome we could have hoped for. And you’re right. We had no choice. One thing still worries me though. What if whoever did this isn’t done yet? What else might they be planning? And what was it all about anyway?”
“Who knows?” As he responded Tony picked up his phone and hit redial. He’d tried the mystery number several more times, always with no answer. Thea turned back to her screen.
They both heard it at the same time, a faint but distinct ringing. From somewhere close by. Thea’s gaze snapped back to Tony. Their eyes met.
He ended the call and the ringing stopped. Coincidence?
“Try again,” Thea whispered.
The ringing started up seconds after Tony finished dialling, and again it ceased when he hung up. The sound was coming from the outer office.
“Fucking hell.” Tony got to his feet and strode out there. Thea was hard on his heels.
He dialled again, and they both stood transfixed as the trilling of a phone echoed around the otherwise silent space.
“The desk.” Thea moved forward, examining Isabel’s workspace for the telltale phone. “Nothing. But it’s here somewhere.”
“Keep looking. Underneath? In a drawer?”
Tony joined her and together they opened each drawer in turn. Thea crouched to peer under the desk, and spotted Isabel’s bag tucked away there, out of sight. She dragged it out, and unzipped the top. The old fashioned Nokia lay on the top, its screen illuminated and ‘unknown number’ emblazoned across the display. Tony ended the call, the screen went dark and the trilling stopped.
Thea stared at Tony, his expression of disbelief mirroring her own.
“Isabel? Isabel did this? But why?” Thea was incredulous.
“I intend to find out. First though, pass me that phone if you would.”
Thea obeyed, then straightened to stand beside Tony as he turned the phone on. He quickly located the pictures stored on it. There weren't many. A couple of shots of a house somewhere, several snaps taken at a wedding, and just one of her and Tony. That picture.
“I’ll check her machine.” Thea sat at Isabel’s desk and fired up the PC there.
“What? Why?”
“She printed that off. She must have copied the file onto a computer, then sent it to the printer. My guess is she didn't do that at home.”
“Right. She might have deleted it though.”
“Maybe. If so, I’ll get it back. I’m a forensic auditor, remember. If that picture is on this machine, or has ever been here, I’ll find it.”
Tony watched in silence as Thea spent the next several minutes checking through Isabel’s recently altered files. She turned to him. “It’s here. Look.”
She clicked the mouse to bring the image up on the screen. “The file has a number, but no name. It was created yesterday, and last accessed at eight minutes past four yesterday afternoon. I assume that’s when she printed those flyers. Just before she left.”
“Yes. Scattering them around the cars in our car park as she went.”
“What’s going on? What are you doing in here? That’s my bag.”
They turned. Isabel was framed in the open doorway, her half-finished cup of take-out Costa coffee in her hand. She looked furious.
“You have some explaining to do, Isabel.” Tony didn’t raise his voice. Neither did he respond to the implied criticism from his PA. Thea admired his restraint. She could not have summoned such control if her life depended on it. A Dom thing, no doubt.
“Me? What about you two? Searching through my private things. You had no right…”
“I do hope you’re not about to start giving us a lecture on invasion of privacy, Isabel.”
“I don't have to talk to you at all. Either of you.”
“You do, if you want to carry on working here. I need a damn good explanation for this. And I need it now.”
“Are you threatening to fire me?”
“Tony, we should—” Thea tried to interject, even in this situation her sense of procedure coming to the fore. Tony was having none of it.
“Yes. You’ve five minutes to convince me otherwise.” His glare was implacable.
“So you’re taking her side then?” Isabel spat the words at him. Her glance at Thea was laced with contempt.
“I am. Every time.”
“You’ve only known her five minutes.”
“What does that have to do with you? With any of this?”
“She swans in here