“No’ yet,” Ryder said.
Con stared at him for a stretch of silence. “Dmitri filled me in on Kinsey Burns. I’d like to hear it from you now.”
“There isna much to tell,” Ryder said. He hadn’t wanted Con to know of the time he and Kinsey had been together in Glasgow, but it was inevitable.
“I knew you were seeing someone during your stay in Glasgow. I gather the woman was Kinsey.”
Ryder nodded. There was no such thing as privacy in the world of the Dragon Kings.
Con’s gaze moved to Kinsey where he studied her for several minutes. “We’ll talk more about that later. Catch me up on what the two of you’ve found.”
“I have nothing,” Ryder said and motioned to the screens. “There is nothing that I can find to link Ulrik to Kyvor. Yet.”
“Then he’s hiding it,” Dmitri stated.
Con glanced at Dmitri and said, “I agree. Ulrik is too smart to leave a trail leading back to him. That is, if you believe Kinsey.”
“She didna put in the work order,” Ryder said.
Dmitri crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the wall. “She’d have to be a good actress to fool us. The shock was genuine. She was sent here.”
“To Ryder,” Con said with a small frown. “Why?”
“Aha,” Kinsey said with a bright smile as she pushed the rolling chair back from the table and threw up her arms. Then she saw Con and Dmitri. She lowered her arms and turned to Ryder. “I found out who put in the work order.”
Ryder scooted his chair next to her. “Who?”
She grabbed the table and pulled her chair forward. Kinsey then pointed to the screen. “The name is Clarice Steinhold. She’s a new employee hired at the start of October.”
“So?” Con said.
Kinsey spared him a brief look. “The work order is dated December fourth. After a little checking I ascertained that Clarice called in sick on the fourth.”
Ryder smiled and nodded. “Nice catch.”
“Someone used her computer so it wouldna trace back to themselves,” Dmitri said. “Can you find out who?”
Kinsey bit her lip. “No.”
“I’ll see what I can find,” Ryder said.
“You learned something new?” Kinsey asked excitedly.
Ryder had kept a lot of his skills from her before. He paused, unsure of what to say.
Kinsey then rolled her eyes. “Ah. I see. You’ve always been able to do that. You just failed to mention that part three years ago.”
“Three years,” Con murmured with a raised brow.
Ryder inwardly winced. Con was going to piece it all together. So much for Ryder keeping what had occurred a secret. Then again, nothing stayed private at Dreagan.
He ignored Con’s penetrating gaze as well as Kinsey’s censoring stare and focused on his task. It took him but a few minutes to hack into Kyvor’s private server. He then went back to the date in question.
From there he was able to discover Clarice’s employee number that led him straight to her computer. Then he looked back through the camera to a week earlier, hoping that Kyvor was like most companies and recorded their employees.
“Shite,” Ryder said as he glared at the screen.
Con walked around the side of the monitors to stand beside Ryder. “What is it?”
“Someone was smart enough to cover the camera on Clarice’s computer screen while they were there. Once they finished…” Ryder punched a button to show them. “The surrounding area was visible once more.”
Dmitri grunted. “Then someone knew you would be able to hack into the system.”
“Or they just didn’t want to take a chance of being discovered,” Kinsey said.
Ryder stared at his monitor. “It has to be someone who works there. I’d wager it’s someone higher up in the corporation.”
“No’ necessarily,” Con said. “Ulrik could easily get to someone much lower on the corporate ladder.”
Kinsey wrinkled her nose. “That’s true. It could be anyone. There are tens of thousands of people working for the company. We can’t go through each one.”
“We can, but it willna do any good,” Ryder said.
Kinsey’s head tilted to the side. “Why do you say that?”
“They went to great lengths to conceal their identity. There willna be anything to find.”
“So how do I find out who set me up? And why?” Kinsey asked. “I don’t like this, Ryder. Someone intentionally sent me here because they knew about us.”
Con turned the gold dragon-head cuff link at his left wrist. “How much do they know? That’s what we need to determine,” he said, looking at Ryder.
“Obviously they know enough,” Ryder muttered.
Con shook his head. “No’ especially. The wanted us to think Kinsey wrote the work order, but they also had to know her skills—and yours, for that matter. It’s why they hid themselves at Clarice’s computer.”
“Then knew we’d clear Kinsey,” Dmitri said, his gaze riveted on her.
Ryder frowned. He didn’t like the direction the conversation was turning. “Nay,” he stated.