“Any hostile takeovers?” Shane asked.
She switched her gaze to him. “Not that I know of. But, again, I don’t have anything to do with the board.”
“Would your father tell you,” Gavin asked, “if a takeover play were going on?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I would like to think so.”
“And what about espionage?”
She wrinkled up her face at that. “Another nasty element of humanity I don’t like,” she said. “But we did have a problem a couple years ago. I don’t know all the details, but one of the scientists was selling some of our work to a competing company.”
“That competing company,” Shane said, “do you think they would be involved in something like this?”
“They went broke about six months ago,” she said.
“So a dissatisfied scientist who wanted to advance?” Gavin asked. “Or a plant from outside perhaps? Is there a noncompete section in your employment contracts when you hire someone?”
She stared at him. “I guess you’ll have to run through the personnel files and talk to the admin staff,” she said. “I have no clue. Again, dealing with people isn’t my thing.”
“Got it,” he said. “That doesn’t necessarily let you off the hook though.”
“In what way?”
“I’ve got more questions,” Gavin said with a smile. “Did you know any of the people who worked for that other company? Were any of them trying to get on with your company? Did you have to fire anybody recently at your family’s company?”
She stared at him for a long moment. “I don’t think you understand,” she said. “I have a large lab, where two people work with me. They have worked with me for over a decade. We all finished school together. I trust them, and, as far as I know, they have no ambitions beyond the type of work we are doing. We are very dedicated to the research.”
“Well, we’ll need names and contact information,” he said.
She shrugged. “That’s not hard. Get everything from my assistant.”
“And is the assistant one of those two people?”
She shook her head. “No. I do tend to go through a few of those,” she admitted.
“Why?” Gavin asked bluntly.
“Because they don’t like doing their work,” she said just as bluntly. “I don’t have any tolerance for lazy ineffectual people with a million excuses for why the work didn’t get done.”
“Interesting,” he said, though inside he agreed. He felt the same way about a lot of the world. “And your current assistant,” he said, “how long has she worked for you?”
“Two years thankfully,” she said. “The last one was about six months, and the one before that about three months.”
“So you’re happy with this one?”
“So far, yes,” she said. “I just don’t know when that’ll change.”
“Are you expecting it to change?” Gavin asked, with a quizzical expression.
“She’s got a new boyfriend,” she said, “so chances are it will change. One of the things I will not tolerate is personal interactions during the day. If you’re working for me, you’re not on a chat forum, and you’re not on a social media site, and you sure as hell had better not be texting all day long.”
“Right,” he said with a smile. “Got it.”
Chapter 3
Rosalina knew the line of questioning was necessary, but surely he had something else, another avenue to look at. “My parents could have been taken for any number of reasons,” she said suddenly. She had both Gavin’s and Shane’s attention with that. They were waiting in the parking garage at the moment. She knew teams were already coming to look at the forensics, the cameras, and all the rest of that stuff. It was amazing how much tourist foot traffic was here, with people coming and going from the hotel and taking their own transportation.
Waiting until they were alone for the moment, she lowered her voice. “I don’t like Melinda’s husband,” she said.
“Steve?” Gavin asked. “Steve Arbrey?”
She shook her head. “No. Steve is fine. Great even. I didn’t like Barry. Her legal husband. Of course they’re divorced by now,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I forget how fast time flies.”
“And why didn’t you like him?”
“He was arrogant and had nothing good to say about women in the workforce. Personally I think he is a racist and a sexist, not to mention a misogynist.”
Gavin smiled. “All those together?”
“They tend to go together,” she said seriously. Because, in her experience, they did.
“All right, but you must have another reason beyond that to think he’d do something as extreme as this.”
“My parents made it very clear, when Melinda and Barry divorced, that my parents would support their daughter and grandchildren in whatever way necessary, but that Barry wouldn’t get a penny. Not from Melinda or the company.”
“Did he have any money of his own?”
She shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“So they lived off her money?”
“She has our grandparents’ home,” Rosalina said. “It’s worth quite a bit. He worked, but he didn’t make nearly the money she did.”
“Any dissent between them?”
“Lots,” she said. “They fought all the time. When it became obvious that it was time for them to part, he wanted the kids, and she wouldn’t let him have them. My parents went to bat for her with expensive lawyers, and Barry ended up out in the cold with nothing.”
The two men gave her a flat stare.
She shrugged. “What can I say? That is my parents for you.”
“That gives us insights into their characters in a big way.”
“But you have to round that out with the human factor that their grandchildren’s health, happiness, and welfare were at stake,” she said.
“Reason for the divorce?”
“Just a marriage breakdown, as far as I know,” she said. “I don’t think he was ever violent or anything like that.”
“So, just that it was time to be apart because they were better alone than they were together?”
“I believe so. Though I think jealousy was getting to be a big issue.”
“In what way?”
“Melinda was moving on with her life and moving up in the company. But, of course, it’s her parents’ company,” she said, trying to distance herself from the scenario so she could get a more detached view. “So, yes, obviously it’s my company too, my parents’ company as well,” she said. “But, from an onlooker’s viewpoint, it looked like Melinda had the golden pathway provided for her, and she could do no wrong and didn’t have to earn it.”
“And was it like that for her?”
Rosalina hesitated. “Yes, in a way,” she admitted. “Two sisters, one large company. Both of us in the field.”
“But she wasn’t originally?”