Can't Stop the Feeling Page 24
The door to the conference room opened, and Jenna walked out slowly with her head held high. Everyone in the lobby stopped what they were doing to stare at her.
She hugged Mimi and Pilar. “Thank you again. I couldn’t have gotten through that without your support.”
“Jenna, I’m so sorry,” Ben began. “What can I do?”
“Do?” Pilar mocked. “Haven’t you done enough?”
“It’s not his fault,” Jenna said. She gave him a sad little smile. “Isn’t that right, counselor? After all, you did warn me. No matter what it takes, you never lose.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jenna dropped her forehead against her desk. “My career is over.” It was Sunday morning, and she’d come into the office to meet Mimi and Pilar to go over their strategy for tomorrow’s meeting. But so far, they hadn’t been able to come up with anything.
If Larry wanted to raise a stink about her trespassing on city property, there wasn’t much she could do about it. It was only a misdemeanor charge, but coupled with her trying to cover it up and her relationship with Ben, none of it looked good. She’d lost credibility, but more importantly, without Larry and Denise’s support, everything from now on would be an uphill battle. It would be in Whispering Bay’s best interest for her to quit so they could find a replacement.
Pilar sighed heavily. “I think the city manager position is cursed. First Doug, now you.”
Jenna raised her head up to look at Pilar. “Things must be bad if you’re comparing me to Doug Wentworth.”
Mimi gave Pilar a hard look. “I can’t help but think that maybe certain people might have lured you into this situation.”
“No, like I told Ben,” Jenna said, “I can’t blame anyone but myself here.”
“Mimi is right,” said Pilar dismally. “I should have never encouraged you to have a drink with that attorney. That’s what started this whole mess. I’m just as bad as he is. I wanted you to spy on him because I wanted the upper hand. I wanted to be known as the lawyer who beat Ben Harrison.” She put her hand up to wave off Jenna’s rising objection. “I know. It’s completely selfish and juvenile, but I never said I was perfect.”
“Maybe it’s not as dismal as we think,” Mimi said cautiously. “Recusing yourself from the vote was the professional thing to do. And we still have the meeting tomorrow to make Larry change his mind about you. Where Larry goes, Denise will follow. We just have to be really eloquent.”
“Ha! Good luck with that. I’ve loved working with both of you, but we all know that if my job depends on Larry Jefferson, then I’m out of here.”
* * *
Ben listened with extreme interest to everything Gavin was telling him. “Are you sure about this?”
“Positive, sir.”
“Because if you’re not—”
“Have I ever let you down before? Besides the Greta situation. I take complete responsibility for that. But all my information here is one hundred percent correct. I triple checked everything. Three times over. I know how important this is to you and Jenna. How is she by the way?”
“Currently not speaking to me.”
“Oh no. I hope this makes up for it. Please keep me in the loop, sir. She’s a very special lady, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she is.” The information Gavin had just given him was the ammunition he needed to help them win her battle to stay on as city manager. But the battle for her heart? That was a tougher war. Jenna was right, though. No matter what it took, he never lost. And he didn’t plan on losing now. Not when she was the only win that really mattered in his life.
He was about to hang up when he remembered what Jenna had said to him about Gavin. He couldn’t care less whether Gavin was gay or straight, but if she was right about his personal assistant having some sort of infatuation for him, he’d have to cut that off at the knees.
“So, Gavin, did you do anything fun this weekend?”
“Um, I worked, sir.”
“I know you worked. I mean, did have a chance to get out?”
“Get out? I have no idea what you’re referring to, sir. If you need me to work more hours—”
“No, Gavin, you’ve got me wrong.” Aw, hell. He really hated this. “I’m trying to make small talk here.”
There was a pause. “Oh. Well, I did manage to squeeze out the time to go see a movie. But it in no way interfered with my duties.”
“Oh yeah? Did you take a date?”
“A date?” He chuckled nervously. “I suppose, yes, you could call it a date.”
“Someone you met recently?”
Another pause. This one was longer than the one before.
“I went with my wife, sir.”
Wife? Gavin had a wife? “When did you get married?”
“Um, that would be two years ago, sir. Lisa and I have known each other since our undergraduate days.”
“I had no idea. Why have you never mentioned this before?”
“I didn’t think it mattered.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Frankly, sir, I didn’t mention that I was married because I didn’t want you to think that I wouldn’t be available twenty-four seven. You seemed to emphasize that quite strongly in the interview.”
Twenty-four seven? Had he really said that? Yes, he had.
“Congratulations. What does Lisa do?”
“She’s an attorney. Public defender. She graduated from Loyola, top of her class,” he added proudly.
A public defender for the city of Miami? Good God. “So she works a lot of hours, huh?”
“Oh yes, we’re like two ships that pass in the night. But we both love what we’re doing,” he added quickly. “Plus, we have a lot of student loans to pay off.”
“I can imagine.”
“Sir, may I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“Are we…bonding, here?”
“I guess so.”
“In that case, may I tell you how much I enjoyed talking to Jenna the other day? She sounds quite lovely.”
“She is.”
“Is it serious?” he added tentatively. “Not that it’s any of my business. Please, sir, just pretend I never—”
“It’s about as serious as it gets.”
“Congratulations, sir! I hope to meet Jenna soon. Is there anything I can do to facilitate the relationship? Should I have you send flowers?”
“I can send my own flowers. But thanks for offering. By the way, damn fine work on this Stuart Malloy thing. When this is over, remind me to give you a raise.”
“Oh! That is, I never dared dream that after just three months I’d be—”
“Forget that. How would you like to be Roar’s new CEO?”
“Is…this a test, sir?”
“No test. I want you to take over the company. Run it for me. Hell, you practically do already. Let’s go ahead and double your salary. Would that be acceptable?”
There was silence.
“You there?”
“Yes, sir. I’m just…”
“Overcome with emotion?”
“How did you guess, sir?”
Ben smiled to himself. Screw it. If he was going to do this, he was going to do this right. “One more thing. Write up a letter to the partners at the firm.”
“Right away, sir. Um, what’s the subject line?”
“My resignation.”
“But…if I’m taking over as CEO of the company and you’re resigning from the firm, what will you be doing, sir?”
Ben thought about it a minute. “How much money do I have?”
“You don’t know?”
“Not really. I mean I have an idea, but no solid numbers.”
Gavin proceeded to tell him exactly how much he had, down to the penny. “That’s just the liquid assets. If you count long-term investments, that sort of thing, it’s about ten times that amount.”
“In that case, I won’t be doing anything. Scratch that. I’ll be doing the most important job
in the world.”
“What’s that, sir?”
“I’ll be raising my niece.”
“Very good, sir.”
“Gavin?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Do you think you could start calling me Ben now?”
* * *
Fixing things with Jenna started with a call to Zeke Grant. Even though it was Sunday and his day off, the police chief agreed to meet Ben down at headquarters.
The receptionist showed him into Zeke’s office, where he sat at his desk, looking at Ben with distrust in his eyes. After Friday’s city council meeting, Ben didn’t blame him.
“Have a seat. What can I do for you, Harrison?”
“For starters I’d like to have a look at that security footage you have of Jenna and me at the rec center.”
“That’s a little kinky, isn’t it? Or is that what you’re into?”
“I don’t blame you for thinking I’m an asshole. But I’ve just come across some information you might find interesting. Both personally and professionally.”
“Oh yeah?”
“We Gotcha, Inc, the company that does video surveillance for the city, is owned by a guy named Stuart Malloy.”
“I already know that. I talked to him Friday morning.”
Ben faltered a second. “In person?”
Zeke frowned. “No, we emailed actually.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Why?”
“My assistant, Gavin Porter, has been trying to buy We Gotcha for the past few days. At first, Malloy said he didn’t want to sell, but Gavin was persistent. Eventually we offered twice what the company was worth.”
“That doesn’t seem to make good business sense to me.”
Lying to Zeke Grant wasn’t going to help his cause, so he came clean. “I didn’t care what it cost, I just wanted to buy the company so I could get my hands on that video footage and make it go away.”
“Got it.” He thought he saw a gleam of admiration in the other man’s eyes.
“Yeah, well, Malloy still wasn’t interested. Then we find out he’s decided to disband his company with the excuse that he wants to spend more time with his family. It makes no sense. Why disband a company for nothing when you can still get rid of it and make a big profit? By the way, Malloy never returns any of his phone calls. He works strictly off of email.”
“Go on,” Zeke said sounding more interested.
“So my man Gavin did some more digging around. There is no Stuart Malloy, and the IP address from the computer he uses comes from a house in Mexico Beach. Vince Palermo’s house to be exact.”
Zeke rubbed his jaw with his hand. “I looked you up, you know. Everyone who knows you says you’re a good guy. And your foundation does some damn good work. But if you’re saying what I think you’re saying, then you better be certain here.”
“There’s only one way I’ll know for sure.”
“What’s that?”
“I need to see that footage.”
Zeke thought over it, then logged into his computer. “What’s the time frame?”
“Between eleven and eleven thirty p.m.”
He tapped the keys and turned the screen to Ben, so that he could view it in private. “There you go.”
Ben let out a pent-up breath and steadied himself. If he was wrong, then he was about to see himself in action. But he had a strong feeling that he wasn’t wrong about this.
Just as he thought, the video was on the dark side. The footage showed empty hallways, the building, even a random armadillo walking down one of the pathways. He watched as the camera angles changed. More empty hallways. More…
He turned the computer screen around to show Zeke what he’d found. Zeke looked at the screen, then at the time on top of the frame. “So?”
“Wait for it,” Ben said.
Zeke watched patiently. Ben knew the exact moment that Zeke saw it because his face screwed up in disgust. “Son of a bitch.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
A pounding sound startled her awake. What time was it? Jenna felt around the bedside table for her cell phone. She found it on the floor next to her bed. It was almost two in the morning. What in the world? Now it was the doorbell. She threw a sweatshirt over her PJs. “Coming!”
She looked through her peep hole. What was Ben doing here? It would serve him right if she let him stand out there all night. But she knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t be here unless something had…
Her heart stopped. She flung open the door. “Is it Rachel? Or your mom? Are they all right?”
Ben looked a little disheveled but other than that he didn’t seem to be hurt. “Everyone’s fine. I’m sorry, I called and left you messages, but—”
“I muted my phone.” Gus told Viola what had happened at Friday’s meeting, who in turn called Mom, who in turn called Kate. Add in Mimi and Pilar and her phone hadn’t stopped ringing all weekend. She was grateful for the support, but she just couldn’t take another pity call. She invited Ben to come inside.
He set his laptop on her coffee table and opened it up. “I’m sorry to come by so late, but there’s something you have to see.”
“Oh God, please don’t tell me we’re on YouTube.”
“We’re not on YouTube.”
She sighed. “Okay, I’ll bite. Not literally, though.” There was a blade of grass sticking out of his hair, and his khaki pants had a dirt stain on one knee. This was all very un-Ben-like. It was hard to stay mad at him when… Mad wasn’t exactly the right word. “Want some coffee?”
“I’m too wired up for coffee. C’mon. Sit down. You’re going to love this.”
She doubted she’d love anything at this time of the morning. Especially this morning. The city council met again in less than ten hours. This time to decide her fate. But he’d piqued her curiosity enough that she was willing to go along. She sat next to him on the couch.
“Where have you been? You look like you rolled down a hill.”
“Mexico Beach.” He grinned like a little kid on his birthday.
“What were you doing in Mexico Beach?”
“I’ll explain that later.” He pointed to the screen. “Look. It’s about to begin.”
The screen was dark, but she recognized the surroundings right away. “It’s the security footage from the rec center.” Her breath caught in her throat. “How did you get this?”
“Zeke Grant gave it to me.”
“Zeke Grant? Why on earth did he… Ben, please tell me you didn’t bribe the police chief!”
“Hush up, woman. You’re not paying attention.” He pointed to the top of the screen. “See there? The date and time are on the top. According to this frame, it’s now eleven p.m.”
“Okay.” She watched as the camera panned through the empty hallway and around the buildings. An armadillo walked by, sniffed around a column, then went off screen. “Aw, he’s so cute!”
“Do you recognize that column?”
“No, why—oh.” Her cheeks went pink. Her back had been to the wall, but she was pretty sure at one point during their tryst, her foot had been braced up against that column. “Are you sure that’s the same one?”
He nodded. “There’s a no smoking sign on it. See? It was the only sign up in this area.”
“So all that time we were being watched by an armadillo? That’s kind of creepy. Is that what you wanted to show me?”
“Check the time.”
She looked at the screen again. The counter now read eleven twelve p.m.
“That can’t be right. I should be here by now.”
“Patience, grasshopper.”
They both stared at the screen. A few more minutes went by. Then a few more minutes.
Then the armadillo came on screen again.
Jenna’s pulse began to hitch wildly. “Ben, this is like…that thing from the movie Speed! You know where they fool the bad guy into thinking he’s watching live film but it’s just the same footage over and over again.”
“This is what Stuart Malloy sent to Zeke? This is the footage I’m going to lose my job over?”
“You’re not going to lose your job. Not if I have anything to say about it. And here’s the kicker. There is no Stuart Malloy.”
“What do you mean there’s no Stuart Malloy? Of course there is. He owns We Gotcha.”
“Stuart Malloy is really Vince Palermo. He hired a temporary crew to install defunct cameras around all the city buildings.”
“You mean all this time those cameras haven’t been filming anything? How on earth did he think he’d get away with that?”
“This is Whispering Bay, remember? The safest city in America? The cameras weren’t installed at banks or ATM machines. His contract was with the city. Who breaks into a municipal building? Or the police station? Nobody. There’s been no one looking for break-ins or any other crimes because there’s no film and We Gotcha has no employees. He took a chance that he’d never really have to produce any footage, and when he did, he dummied this up. It’s about fifteen minutes of film, probably taken a couple of nights ago, just repeating itself over and over.”
“But none of this makes sense. Vince is rich. Why would he do this?”
“Vince isn’t rich. He squandered Nora’s money a long time ago. They’re living on credit cards and luck. That’s why he was so desperate to get ahold of the land Earl left the city.”
“But he couldn’t have done this all alone. I mean, how on earth did the city give him a contract—” She jumped from the couch and began to pace. “Oh my God. He was in cahoots with Doug Wentworth. I knew it!” She pumped a fist in the air. “I knew Wentworth was shady!” She whipped around. “Didn’t I tell you?”
He leaned back on the couch and smiled. “Yep. You did.”
“So…what does this mean?’