Page 72 of How to Play the Player

“How so?”

“You call her and invite her to dinner tonight. Say you want to bury the hatchet. Make her think you’re none the wiser and sound desperate, like you’re struggling without her.”

She slowly nods in understanding. “What makes you think she’ll say yes? Bethany hardly does anything without some valid reason.”

“Oh, we’ll give her one. Before you call her, you’ll wipe your old laptop clean. If I do it, she might get spooked. This should trigger an alarm on her end. And when she realizes she no longer has access to you via spyware?—”

“I call her, she’ll see my invitation as the perfect opportunity to install it again in my new computer.”

“Exactly,” I say with a small smile.

“But how can she do that if we’re at dinner? I don’t think I’d be bringing my new laptop there.”

“That’s the thing. In reality, there will be no dinner.”

She looks confused again. “Huh?”

I continue. “When you’re on the phone with her, give her the address to your new office and ask her to carpool with you.”

“I don’t know if she’ll take that bait. She could see that as going into some kind of lion’s den.”

“That didn’t stop her from installing the spyware in the first place. If we disconnect you from her, and she’s as desperate as I think she’ll be to get it back online, she’ll do as you ask.”

“But how does that catch her in the act?”

“Have her come into your office on her own and start chitchatting. Give it a few minutes, and excuse yourself for a fake call. You’ll need to leave her alone with your computer.”

“That’s great and all, but how do we catch her doing that?”

“We’ll have a hidden camera capturing everything before she arrives. So when you leave to take your ‘phone call,’ we’ll give her a good window of opportunity to strike. And when she does, the camera will be facing your computer, so it’ll capture everything she’s doing on your laptop.”

“And if she’s suspicious?”

I tap my phone. “Then we wait. Monitor. She’ll try something eventually.”

Quinn stares at me hard. “But yesterday, you were ready to crucify me. What’s changed? Why are you willing to go to these lengths for me?”

The question is hard to hear. There are several reasons why. Business, pride, ego, and maybe… Love takes over most of them. But I settle on a simple answer to give her instead. “Like you, I need the truth to come out once and for all. I need to know for sure.”

She studies me a moment longer, then glances down at her hands before bringing her gaze back up to me. “Where will you be when she arrives?”

“I’ll be watching everything from the parking lot the moment she sets foot in your office.”

She pauses. “Say it works. That we get her. What do we do in that moment?”

“We confront her together. I’ll let you do the talking if you’d like since this hits closer to home for you.”

Her eyes flash with determination. “Let’s nail this bitch.”

Quinn’s office

Quinn

“Remember, we need to act normal in case she’s listening. Stay on script,” Nathan says in a low voice behind me as I unlock my office door.

Before I open the door, I turn to Nathan. “Be sure to park in the back of the building. If she comes, she won’t see you when she pulls into the parking lot.”

“Got it! And while you’re doing your thing, and we get whatever other evidence we need, I’ll send it to my head of security. He knows a guy in law enforcement.”

---