Ana's POV
I entered Marcus's apartment and noticed that my laptop and suitcase were already brought up and placed near the door to the guest room. I excused myself and brought everything into the room and closed the door. I kicked the suitcase over towards the bed and Sat on the floor trying to clear my head.
I couldn't believe what transpired in the last 48 hours. It was like something out of a horror movie, except that this was my life and I had no way of pressing stop. Elise was my best friend, my confidant. I knew there were times she was jealous of me or upset at everything, but I always encouraged her and reassured her that everything would get better. I didn't realize that her version of better was taking over my life.
I opened my suitcase And grabbed my sweatpants and T-shirt. I knew we would be spending most of the day in the apartment and I was sick of wearing tight clothing. I wanted to be comfortable and I didn't think Michael would be the type to judge. I pulled my hair into a messy bun and began to put my stuff away. All the clothing from my shopping spree was already hung up in the walk-in closet and I noticed a few other pieces that I never tried on. My mind flashed back to the moment that I and Marcus shared in the changing room and I suddenly felt flustered.
"Now is not the time to think about that" I shook my head and finished up.
I came out into the living room and saw Michael sitting at the kitchen island with an older skinny man dressed in a dated checkered suit. He had greying hair and sharp features and looked out of place in Marcus's modern apartment. As I approached, they stopped talking and the older man glanced at me. Immediately I was drawn to his warm dark brown eyes and friendly smile.
"You must be Ana" he stood up to shake my hand, " Michael briefed me on the circumstances, and let me tell you... I'm appalled". He practically screamed the last word.
"You'll get used to him" Michael smirked.
"Ya, well, let's got on with it shall we?" He offered me a barstool and gestured for me to sit. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Garry, Garry Terrington. But my friends call me Terry"
I sat down and nodded. I had no idea how to respond to him and was eager to hear what they'd discussed so far.
Michael cleared his throat and began.
"Terry here has been a tremendous help already. He called in a few favours and found out who the detective assigned to your case will be. She's tough, deals with fraud cases only, and is well-versed in the law. But Terry has dealt with her before and knows she can get carried away in the what if's and maybes. He can exploit that" Michael fixed his glasses and continued "he also asked for access to all the evidence and requested to meet with the so-called witnesses. Terry also requested to hire a computer forensics specialist, aka me, to review all evidence"
"You have not been charged yet, but based on the fact that you were fired and charges are pending, we requested permission to conduct our own investigation" Terry brought out His suitcase and pulled out a few forms " I just need your signature here and here".
I stared at the papers Questioningly.
"It's documents allowing us to access all your personal emails and any other forms of correspondence" Terry explained.
I shook my head and signed.
"Perfect, so since you signed the forms I can now tell you what I found " Michael glanced at me mischievously "I recovered deleted emails from your account going back as far as 2 years. Better yet, the IP addresses for these emails are fairly consistent. Every time you sign in to your computer and connect to a different location's wifi, your IP address changes. We can see where the emails were sent from based on the IP address. And the bulk of the deleted emails were sent from the same location. We can eliminate your IP address and can trace the location of the others and prove that you didn't send those emails"
"Even with that, we need to prove that you had nothing to do with the emails or the bribes and that Elise was working alone. We know the detective will try to say you two worked together." Terry stated.
"I also found the banking account where all the money was transferred to. Terry will be out for the rest of the day talking to people you supposedly bribed and finding out who opened the account and when" Michael looked at Terry and with that, Terry stood to leave.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, Ana, I will see you again soon" Terry nodded and left.
"Well, we better get to work" Michael moved his laptop into my vision and began to show me the emails. There were hundreds of them. I sighed loudly and got up to make coffee. It was going to be a long day and we would both need it.
Marcus POV
I came into work and found my A/CEO already in my office. She gave me a quick rundown of the things I missed in the past few days and informed me of my scheduled meetings. I gave her a nod and sent her on her way.
I messaged my secretary and advised her that I would not be taking any calls. I also directed her to send Cole in as soon as he arrived. I debated my course of action with him and figured I would just wing it.
I sent off a couple of messages to Ana, Michael and Terry and asked for an update. I was pleased with the progress so I put my phone away and dug into some reports.
A little while later I heard a knock on my door and glanced at the time. Exactly 1 pm.
"Come in" Now it was my turn to play.