Page 75 of The Cinderella Secret
“The signs are unmistakable,” read Aiden. “We’re losing confidential data. Particularly on the Frixion…” Aiden trailed off and read ahead. “Where is the rest?” he asked, flipping the page over.
“It was just the one page,” said Evan, flipping through his stack.
“Let me see,” said Jackson, and he grabbed the sheet. “I might have a matcher. I’ve been sorting mine by category and date. All my email print-outs are over here.”
“I’ve been sorting mine by Dad vs. Randall,” said Evan.
“I’ll take the Owen pile,” said Dominique. “Maybe he sent a reply.”
“What’s the date again?” demanded Aiden as he took the sheet back from Jackson. He checked the subject line and looked around the table. “Pull anything about a project named Frixion.”
“I know I have some of those,” said Evan, switching piles.
There was tense silence as the cousins tore through the stacks of documents.
“Frixion,” said Dominique. She placed a stapled report in front of him and went back to her stack.
“More Frixion,” said Jackson, adding a single sheet.
The pile grew, and Aiden tried to skim each item as it arrived. Frixion had been a Department of Defense project looking into energy storage. It was essentially giant batteries. Aiden didn’t understand the techno-babble, but he got the concept—storing energy was the holy grail of the energy market.
“Got it,” said Jackson, holding up a single piece of paper.
Aiden grabbed it from his hand and read the contents. The others gathered around him, reading over his shoulder.
“Industrial espionage,” said Evan.
“Wait,” said Jackson, “is he talking about Bo Zhao?”
“Yes,” said Aiden.
“That’s not industrial espionage then,” said Evan. “That’s regular espionage. Randall is saying he thinks his data is being sold to the Chinese.”
“Why didn’t we ever hear about this?” asked Dominique, looking to Evan. “It seems like this would have been a big deal. Did you hear about it?”
Evan shook his head. “I don’t remember Dad ever mentioning it. I would have been about thirteen or fourteen?” He checked the date. “I feel like I would have remembered if he’d said something. DevEntier was important to Dad, even if he wasn’t working there.”
“So what happened?” asked Jackson as he read the email. “He suspected someone was stealing info. Why didn’t Randall do anything?”
“Because Bo Zhao died,” said Aiden. “And then Randall and Owen died the year after.”
“Where’s my phone?” asked Jackson.
“Sideboard,” said Dominique. “Hot date to cancel?”
“No. I’m going to get the case file on Zhao’s murder. I said I was going to do it earlier, but I got side-tracked.”
“Jackson, maybe not…” said Aiden, trailing off too late.
“Why not?” demanded Evan, his voice harsh.
“Not relevant to the current case,” said Aiden with a smile.
“You think Dad or Randall killed him.”
“No,” said Aiden, but it didn’t sound convincing even to himself.
“Doesn’t matter if they did or not,” said Dominique. “That’s what the Zhao’s think. That’s why they’re here, isn’t it?”
