Page 33 of The Orc of Wall Street

Then, I hear a familiar voice. It’s staticky and muffled, but I recognize it without a doubt.

“What is it?”

My eyes widen as I sit upright in my chair. I lean in closer to my computer and strain to listen.

“...Some lady… her school?”

Ugh. Bugging a teddy bear has many flaws, the major one being that it involves stuffing a mic into several inches of fluff. And with the gift still in its bag, that’s just another layer muffling everything.

“... on my desk,” Craig says.

A door slams shut. Moments later, the mic picks up the sound of a phone ringing. My heart races as Craig answers it.

“Hello?” he says. A pause. Then his voice picks up again. “...meet me at… Don’t be late.”

Meet him at what? I hold my breath and hope he’ll eventually repeat himself.

More static fills my headphones. I let out a frustrated groan. Maybe this whole scheme will be a waste of my time after all.

Then, Craig speaks again. “... this weekend.” I hear the click of a phone hanging up.

This weekend. I recall Clarence’s conversation I’d overheard at the cafe, and everything all falls into place.

Whoever Craig was chatting with on the phone, they very well might be the spy we’ve been trying to bust. More importantly, they’re going to meet him at a charity gala this weekend!

Once I narrow down where exactly that gala is – which shouldn’t be too hard with the internet – we’ll be all set. All we’ll need to do is show up at the gala and catch them red-handed.

With a victorious grin on my face, I grab my phone and type out a text to Tarek.

Hey, I hope you have something nice to wear, because we’re going to a charity gala this weekend. I have a strong feeling our spy is gonna be there.

CHAPTER 17

Tarek

“So, my best guess is that he’s planning to meet up with the spy at that gala this weekend,” Sloane finishes.

I lace my fingers together and ponder what she’s just told me. This could be our chance to uncover whoever the spy is.

“It seems we’ll need to keep an eye on Craig at the gala,” I say.

“We may be able to catch whoever it was beforehand.” When I raise an eyebrow, she continues. “We can pull up security footage from around the office and see who else was on the phone when Craig was called.”

A smile tugs at my lips. Always so clever. I begin to pull up the security cameras on my computer.

“It was about twenty minutes ago, so look for anything just before then,” she says, coming to stand behind me.

I hum thoughtfully. “In that case, I can eliminate two already. Gage and Valentina were in a meeting with me then.”

Even though we’ve already technically cleared Lewis, we check in on where he was anyway. Eventually, we find that he was sitting uncomfortably between two other accountants in the break room and never even pulled out his phone.

“What about Angel? Do you know where she was?” Sloane asks.

I shake my head. “Not that I can recall.”

We scan through more of the footage from around the time. We check the cameras in the breakroom, copy room, halls, and conference rooms, but there’s no Angel in sight.

“Where in the world did she go?” I mutter.

---