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I couldn’t see myself in the picture anywhere. “And just which smudge is me?”
“Did you go there Tuesday afternoon?”
It took a few seconds to register. It seemed so long ago, but I put it together. “Yes,” I admitted. “I was meeting a friend.”
“And this is her, right?” He slid over another picture. This one was of a woman whose face you couldn’t see. It could have been Suzanne. She was entering a nondescript building. “It could be, but what does that have to do with Cartwright?”
He slid another piece of paper in my direction. “Cartwright has offices in that building, and she works for him.”
My mouth went dry.
The last piece of paper was a picture of Suzanne, labeled senior analyst, on a page of First Century employees.
“It says First Century.”
“That’s a Cartwright subsidiary.”
I swallowed hard. “I had no idea. I went to undergrad with her. She just called up asking to meet for lunch. She said she was back in town and wanted to get reacquainted. She wanted me to pass her resume around.”
“Security followed you to the meeting, so you can drop the innocent act.”
The realization of what had transpired was like a gut punch.
Ed was fucking with me, and big time.
“If you got this from Ed Baird, you can’t believe a word of it. He’s just trying to screw with me…with us.”
“Is that so?”
“You wanted to know who my ex-boyfriend, EB, was? EB is Ed Baird, head of security here.”
That stopped him with his mouth agape.
I could see the wheels turning inside his head.
“Your ex-boyfriend?”
“That’s right, and he’s trying to jam me up and mess with us. She asked me to pass along her resume. I printed it out and took it down to HR, and I sent it over to Pasadena. Call them if you don’t believe me.”
He pondered silently. His eyes were no longer the fierce cold they’d been a minute ago, but we clearly weren’t back to Denny and Angel either.
“I swear I had no idea she worked for Cartwright, and that was the only time I’ve seen her since college. She, Ed, and I all went to Pepperdine.”
I hadn’t seen the possible setup until I’d spoken the words.
Ed and I hadn’t hooked up until after school, and I’d never considered him having a connection to Suzanne. But he could definitely be that sneaky. Had he set me up?
“Your ex-boyfriend?” he repeated.
I nodded. “Don’t you see what’s going on here? He’s pulling a Melissa.” I gave him a few seconds to process it all. “Who was it that said we should gather all the evidence before passing judgment?”
He rose, and in a few strides had circled the desk and pulled me to standing. “You’re right. I’m sorry I was so easily taken in by it.”
I looked into his eyes, which had warmed. “We’re even, I guess. I used to think you were a jerk.”
“I did sort of set you up with the Talbot meeting.”
“Don’t remind me or I might change my mind. Can we please drop the mean boss act now?”
