I Married a Billionaire: Lost and Found(42)

"So, what do you know about this stolen prototype business?"

"Uh…" I quickly walked into my studio and shut the door. "I’m sorry, what now?"

"The prototype. The original…" she drifted off, for long enough that I was just about to check to see if the phone had disconnected. "Wait, do you really not know about this at all?"

"I guess not," I replied. "Care to enlighten me?"

"Okay." She sounded like she was shuffling through some papers. "So I’ve been doing a little digging, and I came across a little bit of a kerfuffle in your husband’s past. It happened back in college. The court records were sealed, but…well, you know, I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I couldn’t get to them anyway."

"Hold on, hold on. I hired you to investigate Florence, not Daniel."

"Yeah, well, I leave no stone unturned. And it’s a good thing, too. Listen to this. The details are all a little bit muddled, but the accusation is that Daniel pretty liberally…’borrowed’ a pocket organizer prototype from some college buddies, and ended up using a lot of the specs when it came time for him to develop the very first Plum device. Remember that monstrosity?"

I forced myself to speak. "Yes," I said. "But…"

"But," Kelly repeated. "So here’s the deal, the case settled in court, and one of the conditions was that nobody involved could talk about it. So that kind of explains why no one ever brings it up." She hesitated. "But, that doesn’t mean they’re not thinking about it."

"Who?" I switched my phone to the other ear. "Who’s thinking about it?"

"The guys," she said, patiently. "From college. The ones he…maybe, sort of, kind of, might have stolen from."

All of a sudden, I remembered our honeymoon in St. Lucia. I remembered the journalist, and how he’d alluded to this very thing.

"Shit," I said aloud, as it all clicked into place.

"Now, granted," Kelly went on. "I don’t know if there’s any connection here. I was actually sort of hoping that you could shed some light on it, but…"

"I’m sorry," I said. "I mean, he doesn’t talk about it."

"Understandable," said Kelly.

I hesitated. I wanted to tell her about the journalist, but I was also slightly terrified about starting a shitstorm over something that Daniel clearly wanted to forget about. I was already starting to regret getting Kelly involved at all. I didn’t know her. I couldn’t trust her, really. What if she decided to go public with what she found, capitalizing on a short-term payday from the media? It might end her career if anyone found out, but if she played her cards right…

"You want to tell me something," said Kelly, after my long silence. "I can tell. Just spill it. Nobody’s going to find out. I take my detective-client privilege very seriously."

"Is ‘detective-client privilege’ even a real thing? I don’t even recall signing a contract."

"Do you really want a record of this on paper?"

"Okay, fine. But I still think you made up the ‘privilege’ part."

"Yeah, maybe. But I want to keep working in this town. I won’t betray you, Scout’s honor."

I sighed. "Okay, so there’s this thing. When we were on our honeymoon…" I hesitated again.

"Go on," said Kelly. I could hear her grinning.

"Ha ha," I deadpanned. "This journalist came up to us while we were eating. Well - before that, he’d been taking pictures of us on the beach. He claimed it was just a coincidence that he was there."

"Yeah, sure," Kelly cut in. "But he knew something about the lawsuit, you think?"

"Oh, he definitely did. He sort of led Daniel into the topic, and then started asking about it. Daniel got really upset and we left, but he wouldn’t tell me anything - he just said it was a long time ago, and it was settled with a non-disclosure agreement. That’s literally all I know about it."

"You got a name?" I could hear papers rustling on her desk.

"Whose, the journalist’s? I think…Ryan Brewer. That sounds right. He introduced himself to us before things went south. Of course I don’t know if it’s real."

"I’m sure it’s real," said Kelly. "Or at the very least, it’s what he uses on his byline. He wouldn’t resist the opportunity to plant his name in someone’s head."

"I wouldn’t even venture a guess as to how he found out about it," I said. "I looked it up online afterwards, because of course I was curious. But there was nothing."

"Sure," said Kelly. "If you don’t know where to look."

"Granted." I plucked a pencil from my desk and examined it like I’d never seen it before. "Obviously Mr. Brewer does."

"Could be," she said. "Could be. Well, thanks for the information. I’ll call you once I have something."

"Thank you," I said.

I’d been so absorbed in all of this mess that I’d completely forgotten about Ryan Brewer, freelance journalist. It hadn’t even occurred to me that he might be involved in this, or even that it might have something to do with the lawsuit he’d alluded to. But now, I couldn’t help but wonder.