Even a Diamond can be shattered...
After the owner of a security company is murdered, his sharp-edged wife goes on the run. Forced to abandon everything she holds dear - her home, her friends, her job in special ops - she builds a new life for herse...
One last roundhouse kick to the punchbag, and I stripped off my boxing gloves. A good session in the gym always made me feel better. Took some of the edge off. An edge so sharp right now that it could slice through titanium. A quick shower to get rid of the sheen of sweat, and I was ready to face the world again.
But first, food.
We always kept the staff kitchens fully stocked, but when I opened the fridge on the fifth floor, all I found was turkey on rye, falafel with carrot, chicken salad sans mayo, apples, grapes, celery.
"Has Toby been here?" I asked Tina, one of our London assistants.
"He sent a directive. The catering staff took all the junk food out an hour ago."
"But I need cookies."
"I think that's why he did it."
Gah. I also craved a meatball marinara sub, but I didn't have time to go out and buy one. Instead, I grabbed a bowl of fruit salad and headed for the conference room. Judging by the glum faces looking back at me from around the table, frustratingly little had happened.
"Can you give me an update?"
"We've been through the employee files, but there's little in there in the way of disputes," a woman told me.
What was she called? She'd joined just before I left. Helena? Melanie? Usually, I remembered names, but I couldn't think straight.
"That doesn't surprise me. Luke isn't the type to go around upsetting his employees. So there's nothing?"
"We found one complaint that looked kind of juicy. Luke sacked a programmer for lying that a project had passed beta testing when it hadn't, and the guy wasn't happy about it."
"I take it you followed up?"
"Oh, yes, straight away. He was surprisingly cooperative. Said he'd been going through a nasty divorce and things just got on top of him."
"Did he seem the type to bear a grudge?"
"He admitted he hadn't been happy at the time, but he didn't blame Luke anymore. Even said he'd have done the same. He reckons he's got a new perspective on life now he's moved to Sydney with his boyfriend."
"As in Sydney, Australia?"
Helena/Melanie nodded.
"Did you corroborate?"
"We sent an operative from the Sydney office to check on the happy couple. They offered him a beer and invited him back for a barbecue."
A complete bust, then.
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Mack called back at five past eight, just as I was rooting through my desk drawers for a stray chocolate bar. No luck.
