Page 97 of Dial L for Lawyer
I did what you asked. Got the badge like you wanted
Maya:
You're the best. Radiance is going to love you
"She was dating him?" I feel sick. "She was sleeping with the IT guy?"
"Looks that way. But it gets worse," Logan says. "I tracked him down. Want to know what he told me?"
"Everything, because she dumped him the second she got what she wanted?" Caleb guesses.
"Bingo." Logan's grin is sharp. "Turns out Maya's been stringing him along with romance while promising him a senior position at Radiance. Double salary, corner office, the works. Except Radiance has never heard of him."
"She played him."
"Like a violin. He's pissed. And willing to testify."
"Where is he now?" Caleb asks.
"Downstairs. With Bennett." Logan's expression shifts to something I've never seen before—predatory. "Want to meet him?"
Kiernan Webb is exactly what you'd expect. Early thirties, nervous energy, the kind of guy who builds gaming PCs and paints tiny models on weekends. He's sitting in Bennett's office looking like he might throw up.
"Kiernan," Logan says, and his voice is different. Commanding. Which is weird as hell, and something I'll definitely be telling Audrey about. "Tell them what you told me."
Kiernan looks at me and immediately looks away, wringing his hands like he might squeeze a confession out of his own skin. "I didn't want to hurt you. I mean—not you specifically. But Maya said you'd be fine, that they just needed a scapegoat for a quick news cycle and then it would all blow over."
I blink, too stunned to be angry. "You helped frame me?"
He looks miserable. "I didn't know how serious it was at first. She said you were being poached by Radiance and wanted my help to upgrade her security clearance at Luminous so she could keep an eye on you." He swallows hard. "She said we'd both get promoted for keeping company data safe and everyone would win."
Caleb's jaw clenches, but Logan holds up a hand—the universal 'shut up and let the nerd work' gesture. "Walk Serena through the process."
Kiernan nods. "OK. So. One month ago, Maya came to me with this story about needing to monitor your computer activity. She said she had evidence you were working against the company and needed my help tracking what files you accessed." He glances at Logan, who's transformed from hacker gremlin to stone-cold interrogator. "She asked me to clone your badge so she could 'monitor' your movements. Said upper management approved it but it needed to stay quiet for legal reasons."
"And you believed that?" Logan asks.
"She was... really convincing." Kiernan shifts uncomfortably.
"Meaning she flirted with you and you started thinking with your dick," Logan says, pulling zero punches.
Kiernan goes tomato red. "She said we had a future together."
Caleb snorts, not even trying to hide his amusement.
"So you made the clone?" I prompt.
"Yeah. I made a duplicate access badge for Maya." He glances at me, guilt twisting his face. "But then I noticed the cloned badge was being used to access restricted files—stuff she didn't need if she was just monitoring your movements. When I confronted her, she said she was checking that the documents hadn't been altered because she worried you were changing things to make her look bad and get her fired."
"So you kept helping her," I say, trying to keep the anger out of my voice.
"Well, yeah, she..." He flushes deeper. "She started coming by my desk more. Bringing coffee. Saying how smart I was for catching things she missed. She started saying we were too good for Luminous, that they didn’t deserve us. Which is when she started talking about turning the tables, taking everything toRadiance ourselves and claiming the reward. I felt really weird about it at first, but she said when this was over and you were exposed, she'd need someone brilliant like me as her right hand. Then we started dating in secret since she didn't want HR finding out. And I was too stupid and in love to see what was really happening."
"When did you figure out she was playing you?" Caleb asks.
Kiernan doesn't answer right away. He just stares at the table, a muscle working in his jaw. When he looks up, his eyes are red-rimmed. "A couple days ago. I was surprised she was leaving Luminous so soon, hurt she hadn't told me. She didn't answer my calls or texts. Then I saw the press release—she was going to Radiance on her own. And she blocked my number the next day. No explanation. Just gone."
Even Logan looks a little sorry for him. "When I messaged him this morning," Logan says, "he was in the middle of wiping his company laptop, freaking out and convinced he'd be next in line for blame. If we hadn't reached out, Maya could have easily pinned everything on him the second anyone started asking real questions."
