Her entire body tensed as the meaning of Linda’s words hit her. “What? You’re not saying—”
“I didn’t do it,” Linda interrupted sharply.
Heather swallowed hard, trying to compose herself in light of Linda’s revelation. She wasn’t naïve. The hacker could be anyone who worked at Dover, but she also knew what it was like to be wrongly accused. To be thought of as a traitor despite showing loyalty over and over. And Linda was by far Dover’s most loyal employee. Heather hadn’t worked at Dover long, but she knew what Linda meant to the company. She had been at Dover even longer than Simon had.
She blew out a breath and finally said, “Of course, you didn’t do it. But why are you a suspect?”
“As a department head I have access to that account,” Linda said. “Every department head has access. So do executives, board members, a handful of assistants, and the CEO.”
“Simon would never—”
“I’m not accusing Simon,” Linda said quickly. “You don’t need to worry about that.”
Heather chewed her lower lip. It was another piece of the puzzle, but instead of getting answers she felt like the news had only raised more questions for her. “Where do we go from here?”
“I’m going to give this information to Miranda on the legal team and tell her to keep it under wraps until we gather more evidence.”
“Shouldn’t we tell Simon?” Heather frowned. “Or the board? I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave them in the dark about this.”
“Heather, we can’t. If the hacker is a board member, we can’t have that kind of information getting out just yet. It could spook the hacker and make them cover their tracks.” Linda paused. “We can’t tell Simon, either.”
“But—”
“No.” Linda shook her head. “I don’t know the nature of your relationship with him, but you have to put your personal feelings aside if you want to get to the bottom of this.”
“But I trust Simon,” Heather insisted.
“So do I, but we have to keep this information as contained as possible,” Linda said. “Right now, only four people know and that’s because they have to. One of our accounts knows since he brought it to my attention, one of Dover’s lawyers knows to protect the company, and I’ve just told you because you were wrongly accused. I thought out of all the people at Dover who needed to know, you were the one who needed to know the most.”
Now she was torn. Linda had gone out on a limb to give her this information, and she was beyond grateful for that. But keeping a secret from Simon didn’t sit well with her at all. She had given him hell for not trusting her, yet here she was, about to treat him the same way.
Linda looked at her meaningfully, her eyes narrowing. “Well?”
Heather sighed. “Fine. I won’t tell Simon. I insist on helping you get to the bottom of this, though.”
“Okay.” Linda stood up and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” Heather asked.
“Accounts department.” Linda threw her shoulders back like she was preparing for a battle. “We have to catch a hacker, and I know the one person who can help us do that.”
ONE ELEVATOR RIDE LATER, Heather followed Linda through the accounts department until they stopped at a cubicle.
“Good morning, Drew,” Linda said to the man who was seated in the cubicle.
Drew looked up from his work on the computer. “Good to see you, Linda.” His gaze fell on Heather and smiled. “You must be Heather. I’m Drew Cooper.”
“Lovely to meet you, Drew.” Heather shook his hand.
He grabbed a manila envelope from his desk, got to his feet, and motioned for them to follow him. “We can talk in the conference room.”
They followed after him, and he was so tall that Heather struggled to keep up with his stride.
Drew opened the door for them when they arrived at the conference room and they sat down at the conference table.
Heather studied him as he opened the envelope and took out several documents. He was very handsome, with rugged good looks, but she had to look beyond that if she wanted to figure out if he was trustworthy. His golden hair was slicked back, and his green eyes had a warmth to them that put her at ease. Hopefully that warmth wasn’t deceptive, because right now she needed all the allies she could get. Trusting Linda was one thing, but Drew was a total stranger to her. And even though he had brought the account discrepancy to Linda’s attention, Heather still worried about trusting a stranger with such a sensitive investigation.