Dream Girl by Kelly Jamieson Read Free Book Online

if he'd given them the stuff?"
    "Could be a deflection technique,” Dave remarked thoughtfully. “But we'll check it out. What's the name of the lab?"
    "Briggs Laboratory,” Connor answered. “But we figure if someone gave away our yeast, it had to be someone inside our company. We just don't know who."
    "No breakins?” Ralph asked. They shook their heads.
    "So, we want to find out if someone inside is leaking info.” Zach looked at Dave Farrell; the expression on his face was a puzzling mix of hope and regret.
    "Not just information,” Ashlyn put in. “You're saying they may actually have taken yeast?"
    "That's right."
    She pictured little envelopes of granules for baking bread, and a muffled giggle escaped her. “That just sounds so weird."
    She saw reluctant amusement in Zach's eyes.
    "You have to understand yeast,” he said.
    Ashlyn gave a little shrug, dragged her eyes away from Zach, and jotted down some notes.
    "Do you suspect anyone?” John asked.
    "No,” Connor said slowly. “We've thought about it, and we trust everyone who works for us. Why would someone do that?"
    "That,” Dave said, “is a very good question. And one we need the answer to. Generally, these things come down to money. Now, we need to ask you some questions."
    The investigators started asking about all the staff who worked for Surf Coast Brewery, the facility and their existing security. Ashlyn asked about computers and software and hardware. They all took notes as they listened to Connor and Zach.
    "All right,” Dave said finally, leaning back in his chair. “Here's what I think we need to do. You may choose to do some of this or all of this. We have names of everyone who works for you. If you can get us more details like social security numbers, it will make things easier. We'll do asset tracking for each of your employees to see if anyone has some unexplained large sums of money coming in. We also need to set up surveillance in your plant. John will need to visit to know what he needs to set up. That way we can watch what's going on. We could set up surveillance on everyone's phones and computers as well."
    Connor and Zach nodded, but Connor's brows drew together. “This sounds like a lot of money."
    "All right, let's discuss money,” John said, and gave them the cost details. “Ashlyn will look at everyone's computers and see what they've been doing on them."
    Ashlyn nodded as Zach's eyes turned back to her, her body tensing up again. She gripped the pen tightly in her fingers.
    "I'm sure they would have deleted anything incriminating,” he said.
    Ashlyn smiled. “They may have,” she said. “But I can find it even if they did delete it."
    His brows lifted, but he said nothing.
    "Seriously. I'll need more info about your computer systems,” she added in as businesslike a tone as she could manage. “Your hardware and software and what security you currently have in place."
    "When would be a good time to come to the brewery?” Dave asked. “We'd prefer to do it when your staff isn't there, obviously. For now, you need to continue with business as usual. Don't say anything to any of your employees. You two are the only ones who need to know about this."
    They nodded their agreement as Dave continued. “Once we have some information, we'll prepare a report and decide about further action."
    "I guess the best day would be Sunday,” Connor said. They all nodded, not surprised at having to work on a weekend.
    "Let's all meet at the brewery at nine o'clock Sunday morning,” Dave said. “We'll talk more once we've seen the place."
    Connor and Zach stood up to leave.
    "Ralph, John, Ashlyn, if you could stay a minute, I'd like to discuss a few more things with you,” Dave requested as he got up to show Connor and Zach out.
    Ashlyn watched Zach leave with mixed feelings of relief and disappointment. He hadn't even tried to talk to her or see her again. Maybe she'd ditched him one too many times. Or maybe he really did know