of knowing. Remember, it was my first job. However, they explained that a lot of the work we did was for private clients who paid top money for discretion as well as expertise.”
Sitting there answering questions had her flashing back to when she’d been arrested and interrogated for hours. The only difference was that Conlan hadn’t chained her to the chair. Maybe it would help to get up and move around.
She covered her jitters by pouring both of them another cup of coffee. The apartment was too small for pacing to be of much use, so she gave up and sat back down.
“Most of the work was pretty straightforward. I’d be given a problem to work on. Once I came up with a solution, they’d take all my records, including my computer, and I’d get a new assignment along with all new equipment.”
“When did you first suspect something wasn’t right?”
“About a year after I was transferred, I was abruptly given a new project. They told me it was mine alone to pursue as I saw fit without supervision or interference.”
She paused to get it all straight in her head before continuing. Those moments of excitement had been pretty short-lived. “Then, a couple of months into the research, I noticed the papers I’d left on my desk the previous evening had been moved. I ignored it the first time, thinking maybe I was imagining things. The second time it happened I mentioned it to the head of security. He checked the computer logs, which showed that no one had come into or gone out of my lab except me.”
“Did you believe him?”
She shook her head. “There was no reason not to, but it still bothered me. Then I began to deliberately leave my papers with a specific page out of order. For a few days, they remained exactly as I’d left them. I almost convinced myself that I’d been wrong, but then I gave it one more try. The next morning all of the pages were back in the right sequence.”
Was that a glint of approval in Conlan’s eyes?
“My plan was to go to Richard Jacobs, one of the two other researchers who worked in the same building, and ask him for advice. I was hoping to get some hard evidence first, figuring he wouldn’t believe me if I showed up in his office raving about page twenty-seven being right there in front of page twenty-eight.”
Conlan ran his finger down a page in the court report. “According to your previous testimony, the two of you were friends.”
She managed a small smile. “Yes, we were. Even though company policy discouraged contact between the research scientists, inside or outside of work, he and I hit it off. We even went out for a drink a couple of times, but—”
Before she could finish, Conlan cut her off. “Were you and this guy lovers?”
What did that have to do with anything? “No, not at all. I’m sure I testified that we were just friends. Why?”
Conlan shifted in his chair as if uncomfortable. “The specifics weren’t anywhere in the records. I needed to make sure of the exact nature of your relationship.”
Even if his excuse made sense, she had the odd feeling that there was more to his question than that, although she couldn’t imagine what it would be. He couldn’t possibly be jealous, especially because Richard had been dead these three long years. She should know. She’d been convicted of his murder.
“Even if he would’ve believed me, I doubted the higher-ups would, especially on such skimpy evidence. I started tracking which reports were being monitored and kept copies of my originals to compare to later copies. Some had actually been altered and my data skewed.”
She stared at a point on the wall, not wanting to see how Conlan was reacting to all of this. “That’s when I came back late one night and broke through the firewalls to see what the other two researchers were doing. It turned out that they were both working on variations on the same project as mine but were several steps behind where I was. They were both duplicating my research but applying it to other parameters. Clearly I’d been lied to about the whole program.”
Her anger at that betrayal felt as raw as if it had happened yesterday.
“After that, against company policy, I installed a program on my computer that operated in the background, recording anyone who logged in or breached my firewalls.”
The tips of Conlan’s fangs were showing