My Missing Puzzle Piece (Creekside Falls #1) (17 page)

“Will I see you tomorrow?” Elle asked him as she stood with him by his front door.

“Are you coming into the office?” Trevor wondered.

“In the morning, I wanted to try and talk to your employees if that’s okay. The three we think it could possibly be and a few others just to mix it up. If you’re okay with that?”

“That’s fine with me. The sooner were done with this, the sooner I can move on and we can stop hiding.” He pulled her in for a hug. “Plus I have meetings and a few jobs I have got to check on mid-morning and afternoon but I’ll be there early when you get there and everyone else should be too, because we have weekly Wednesday meetings.”

“I think we should put Jake in the mix since you guys are close and people know it, it will throw them off a little. Can you ask him about it, make sure he’s okay with it?”

“That’s a good idea. Yeah I’ll call him after you leave and let him know the plan.”

“Bye Bruiser,” she called out towards the kitchen and he gave a small bark around his bone back to her. They both laughed at Bruiser’s goodbye.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow then. Thanks again for tonight.” She said with a smile before she stretched up to give him a quick kiss that turned into her gently sucking and tugging on Trevor’s lips until she finally pulled back and winked, “To remember me by,” she said before she opened the door. He just groaned and walked her out to her car. He stood in the middle of the street and watched as she drove away.

ednesday morning when Elle got to Trevor’s office he was busy with his weekly meeting and trying to figure out schedules so they barely had time to talk; which was okay since she had to conduct interviews with their suspects and some other employees to get their perspective about what was going on. The people interviewed about the sabotage were Jack, Jake and Becky. They chose those three since Jack and Becky had been with Trevor since the beginning, and Jake, since he had information that could shed light on the situation. The rest were asked different questions to throw them off. She kept their questions more generic; what was it like working for a small company, how they liked working for Trevor, and how they liked working in landscaping. Then she broached the real questions causally and sprinkled them in, in a more conversational way. She asked them about what was occurring at C & C like: Have you noticed anything different or unusual around
here recently, is anyone unhappy with the schedules or jobs they get and do you know anyone who would want to change things, including what teams get which jobs or what teams they were assigned to.

The first person she sat down with was Jake. She was afraid it would be awkward with him and knew she had to start by clearing the air. She knew before she even went to the bar that night, it wasn’t him and she wasn’t sure if Trevor had told him she suspected him at one point, but she wanted to clear the air either way. She also wanted to talk to him and see what he had heard while on jobs with the guys since Trevor couldn’t always be at every job site.

“Thanks for coming in and talking with me,” Elle gestured for him to sit down.

“Did I have a choice?” Jake said looking serious but sounding like he wanted to laugh.

Elle didn’t know what to say…did he laugh? So she just stared at him with a blank look on her face.

“I’m kidding. I know you just wanted to talk to me so others wouldn’t get worried, I get it.”

“Before we start I want to say sorry though.”

“Sorry for what?” Jake said sounding slightly confused.

“That before I met you I thought you could have been sabotaging the schedules. I know you’re not but I wanted to apologize for even thinking it.” Elle said looking honestly regretful.

“I didn’t even know you ever thought it was me, but don’t worry about it,” Jake said with complete sincerity.

“Thanks that means a lot. You didn’t know?”

“No, Trevor never told me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry I mentioned it then forget I said anything.” Elle said blushing.

“It’s fine really. Let’s try and see if we can help him.”

“Okay if you say so.”

Elle pulled out her notes and asked her first question, “Do you know who would do this to Trevor? I mean you are his best friend so you know most of the people in his life, any ideas?”

“No, everyone who knows Trevor loves the guy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say anything bad about him and he would give a stranger the shirt off his back. It makes no sense someone would do this.” Jake said leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

“Have you heard anything that made you suspicious or have you heard of someone else logging into the schedules besides the people who normally have access?”

“No nothing. That’s what gets me, I haven’t heard anything. I didn’t even know all of this was going on until Trevor told me. Everyone genuinely loves Trevor and loves working for him, all the guys say nothing but good things about him and the clients all seem to love him too.” Jake said sounding annoyed at himself for not being able to help add anything else, besides telling Trevor about Becky and the schedules and Rob’s gambling.

“Okay, thanks for answering my questions. Let one of us know if you hear anything different.”

“No problem and no doubt I will.”

“Can I ask you something?” Jake said sounding protective and unsure all in one tone.

“Go for it.” Elle replied.

“You’re not going to hurt him are you?”

“Trevor?” Elle asked shocked he would ask that.

“Yeah. He hasn’t been this happy in a long time and I don’t want him to get hurt.”

“Well I don’t plan on hurting him; he makes me happy too so I guess we’re even. But I’m glad he has you looking out for him.” Elle said smiling at him.

“Okay now it’s my turn.” Elle said, as she looked right at Jake.

“Okay.”

“Are you going to hurt Taylor?” she asked pointedly.

“I don’t want to and am gonna try not to.” Jake said raking his hand through his hair.

“Good, I don’t want Taylor to get hurt any more than you want Trevor hurt.” Elle said and added in, “She needs a good guy who will care about her and you’re a good guy who seems to care about her.”

“I do but we’re just not there yet and I don’t want to hurt her or give her the wrong impression, I want to do the right thing by her.”

He seemed reserved when she met him at the bar and Trevor had told her Jake wasn’t too outgoing. She took it as a good sign he volunteered the information about Becky and the schedules and Rob’s gambling issues, and about Trevor and Taylor. Before he even answered she could tell he cared for Taylor by the way his face changed when she mentioned her name, he had a sweet smile and his eyes twinkled. It definitely made her think yet again how good they’d be together.

Jack was one of the last people she talked to. He had been with Trevor since the beginning, he knew Trevor well but he also knew the other guys as well.

“Hi, Jack. Thanks for sitting down with me.” Elle said as she gestured for him to sit.

“Hi, no problem. I know something is going on here and I want to help Trevor out. He’s a great guy and doesn’t deserve this.” Jack spoke honestly and sincerely.

“Do you know who would want to do this? Maybe a current or former employee or customer?” Elle asked.

“No, no one. Everyone loves him, I don’t know of anyone who would want to do this. If it’s a previous customer I would be shocked, they always end their business with us on good terms, so do employees actually. He has this way about him that makes people like him.”

“Have you heard anyone complain about not being happy here or act differently around Trevor?” Elle continued asking him her questions.

“No one; and I haven’t heard anything. Everything and everyone seem the same as always, which I know doesn’t help you or him.”

Elle finished with Jack and sat down with a few more of Trevor’s employees who all said the same things as Jake and Jack, everyone loved Trevor, everyone was happy. However, two of their three suspects gave her reason to be even more suspicious, which at least gave her something to build on. Rob refused to sit down and talk to her about anything even though he knew her; he had a doctor’s appointment he said, but when she tried to reschedule with him he told her he didn’t know anything
so it would be pointless. Then Becky walked out of the interview when Elle asked her about the sabotage. Becky said she had to take care of something and would be right back but never came back and no one seemed to be able to locate her later. She could tell Becky wasn’t interested in the interview or helping because she acted bored the whole time and even though she kept eye contact she had a glazed look like Elle was wasting her time.

The other twenty people cooperated though; Elle came to the conclusion that they all liked Trevor and thought he was a good boss but didn’t care much for Rob. She did remember he could be cocky as hell back in the day, and he tended to put people off because of that, but his personality problems didn’t mean he was guilty of anything. She had some new insight but really didn’t have a lot of brand new information or leads.

Before she left Elle stopped by Trevor’s office and found him just walking in.

“I finished talking with everyone,” Elle said as she followed him in his office and shut the door, she plopped down in a chair and blew out a breath, glad that part was over.

“How did it go?” Trevor asked.

“It went good, but we still have nothing to go on. Becky walked out halfway through and Rob basically refused to talk to me, but the good news is that your guys love you. I was thinking we should see if anyone emails Max or anybody else to let them know I talked to them and that you know what’s going on.”

“I’m glad my people like it here; I’ve worked hard to have a good rapport with them. But what’s the deal with
Becky and Rob, that makes them look like they have something to hide. I’ll call my IT guy again and have him put out an alert on email; if anything goes out he’ll know and tell you.” Trevor rounded his desk and sat down before saying, “I talked to Max earlier by the way.”

“You did?” Elle sounded surprised.

“Yeah, I figured I’d call and see how he was and see if he mentioned anything.”

“Did he?” Elle asked.

“No not a word, but he did ask if Becky was seeing anyone.”

“Guess that didn’t help anything, did it?” Elle asked, concern filling her voice.

“Not even a little.”

Thursday Elle wasn’t at Trevor’s office because she needed to make notes in their files of what his employees had told her. She had to think of a way to verify for sure it was the people they suspected and at this point her list hadn’t changed, Becky, Rob and Max. She had different angles to consider since Rob was in the field, Becky was in the office and of course Max was away from it all. She also threw other people in the mix to understand what they did to see if they could possibly play any role in this. She couldn’t rule anyone but Jake and Jack out at this stage. What frustrated her was the lack of any real evidence, up to this point everything was circumstantial and that could get Trevor a lawsuit if he made an accusation without real proof of wrongdoing.

She did find out the batch of invoices that didn’t match their corresponding sales orders were all just
a computer-generated glitch, the customers ended up receiving the correct invoice for the services they had received. So there went that portion of her theory.

Her day was crazy from the minute she walked in the door. Taylor had an appointment with another client and had to go meet them but called Elle in need of help. The problem wasn’t just that the board of a home health-care staffing agency on the outskirts of town had been firing people without cause, but the company president was rumored to be having an affair with both his secretary and an intern. This kind of job usually kept them busy for at least two months; they had to bring in outside investigators and do three times the work than for a case like Trevor’s. She did have to admit on her way out of the office, that she loved these complicated clients.

Elle was sitting at her desk later in the day and thought of how things had gone for her up until now. Growing up in Creekside she knew she wanted to end up here but didn’t think it would have been possible so soon after college. Considering the long road between school, the job hunt, the awful first job and finding her path afterwards she had made some big steps in a short time. Here she was back home with her own business at twenty-five. She felt totally happy for the first time in a while; she had more than she thought she would have five years ago. She had her business, family, friends, and a guy she was head over heels in love with. In love…she prayed he was too.