Naive by Charles Royce (world best books to read .txt) 📕

can’t help but think … well, you know how you said the word ‘sinister,’ which reminded me of a word I used to describe, well …”

“Jenna, spit it out.”

“I think I might know what this is all about.”

C h a p t e r   1 3

Rain engulfs the sidewalk outside and begins to pool in the interim area of the doorless lobby. Shawn knows he needs to get to Micah soon, but he cannot pass up the opportunity to find out anything and everything that might point to someone other than his client. His friend. His mind spins, exploring all the facts that could point in other directions, but the ones that point to Micah are those he fears the most. Instead of hanging up the phone and running in the rain to the W Hotel where Micah is staying within walking distance, he takes out his iPad, brings up his car service online, and orders a pickup. That way, he can actively listen to Jenna and go to Micah at the same time.

“Jenna, tell me everything.”

Jenna braces herself. She’d sworn to Lennox that she would never reveal what she was about to share. On the one hand, she could point Shawn in a clear direction that could lead to exoneration for Micah, and on the other she could tarnish the reputation of a dead man, not to mention land herself in jail. She makes a decision.

“You know I used to work with Lennox, right?”

“A little, but give me the CliffsNotes refresher course,” Shawn answers, taking out his legal pad to begin writing.

“Let’s see. Okay, I worked with Lennox as his secretary at Élan Publishing for two years, until I was publicly let go due to, quote, budget restraints, when in reality I quit.”

“Why did you quit?”

“I’m getting to that!”

“CliffsNotes, Jenna.”

“Oh, dear God. Okay, okay, I’ll try, but bear with me so you have the context.” Jenna begins to talk very rapidly. “Shortly after I quit, I started working as the administrative assistant for the CEO of Élan’s biggest competitor, which as you know, is Cooper Harlow. Now, this switchover caused quite an uproar ’cause it was right at the start of the Pub War.”

“Right. Never liked that moniker. Couldn’t the Post have called it something a little more evocative? ‘Ooooohhhh, Élan and Cooper Harlow are battling it out over print and online viewership, it’s a ‘Pub War.’ Please.”

“You weren’t in it, Shawn. These companies are behemoths. You may just know Cooper Harlow for their iconic fashion magazines, but did you know they quietly absorbed four powerful media companies and became one of the first tenants of One World Trade Center?Meanwhile, Élan shows up with new, young, smart, stylish, left-of-center publications, taking advantage of their proprietary integrated online platform that seriously began to threaten Cooper Harlow’s market share. Then, as a final blow to the coffin, Élan goes public and begins its own media acquisitions. And there you have the beginning of the Pub War.”

“Please, Jenna, come in for a landing.”

“Anyway, employees and clients were poached by Élan from Cooper Harlow, and vice versa. Nondisclosure agreements were broken, meetings and interviews were held offsite under the most secure circumstances. Friendships and partnerships were either weirdly entangled or irreparably harmed. Especially mine and Lennox’s, for a while, anyway.”

“Finally,” Shawn says.

“Things at Élan were becoming secretive and scary. About two months before I left the company, I was privy to a cover-up of some sort, I’m not sure what.”

“A cover-up?”

“Shawn, this could really get me in trouble.” Her voice quivers.

“Well, Jenna, if you know something that might help Micah, I’d love to hear it. I can’t promise what I will or won’t do with the information. My client is Micah. But I understand if you need some time …”

“No, no, I know, I know.” Jenna takes a deep breath. “Okay, so, being Lennox’s assistant, I had complete access to all of his files, and he knew that. He also knew that I didn’t just blindly respond to things, nor simply file papers without knowing exactly what went where. So he took me to dinner one night and explained that he’d been asked to doctor some books, and that if anyone knew other than myself, we’d both be in trouble.”

“In trouble? How?” Shawn asks as he places his blazer over his head again and steps through the glass into the waiting limo. He climbs into the back seat, covers the mouthpiece of his iPhone, and, overcompensating for the pounding precipitation outside, yells to the limo driver, “Seventeenth and Park, W Hotel, please!”

“Well, that’s what I asked. All he said was, the less I knew the better, and to trust him. So I did.”

“What were these papers about, specifically?”

“Near as I could tell, they were purchasing agreements, vendor contracts, intents to purchase office equipment and the like. Mostly I simply input numbers on line items based on documentation and percentages I was given via private email. You know, those chatroom thingies we all use to talk with each other internally.”

“So there’s a record of these conversations?” Shawn raises his voice mid-question. The driver has his windshield wipers on high, but they are barely keeping up.

“Um, no. That’s how I knew it was serious. Lennox told me that’s the easiest thing to get rid of, these private messages.”

“Get rid of? Haha, that’s funny, there’s a digital paper trail everywhere. I’ll find it.”

“I don’t think you will. See, that’s the part I wanted to tell you about. Élan doesn’t mess around. They’ve been under investigation before for not playing by the rules. No one knows how, but they’ve always managed to sneak right past anything and anyone to get what they want.” She pauses, as if putting two and two together for the first time. “Don’t you think it’s kind of strange that two people from Élan were murdered on the same night?”

((Flash. Boom!))

“Jesus,” says the limo driver, as calmly as he can. “That was a close one.”

Shawn had been suspicious of a