Hardison pulled Lucille in front of SenTech's building and parked, grabbing his briefcase off of the passenger seat as he got out. Sophie and Parker hadn't found anything out of the ordinary with any of the other employees, so the hacker was hoping he'd have better luck on his end.
He was dressed in standard 'IT guy' apparel, deciding to go with the direct approach to gain access to the company's servers. He adjusted his glasses one last time as he entered the lobby, and the receptionist gave him a warm smile as he approached the front desk. "Welcome to SenTech, how can I help you?"
Hardison reached out and shook her hand. "Alan Thomas from Network Solutions. I'm here to get started on those server upgrades, could you point me in the right direction?"
"The other guys already started. I think they said they'll be done in the next hour or so?" she said.
Hardison looked at the wall clock behind her and then at his watch, coming up with the only cover he could think of on the fly. "Shoot, I can't believe I'm late! This darn watch must need a battery again...ugh..." He tapped the face of it a few times to feign frustration.
She smiled, then leaned forward to point him in the right direction. "Sorry about that sir, but if you take the elevators at the end of that hall they're on the fifth floor."
The hacker gave her a quick wave and started towards the elevators. "Thanks a million, I better get going before my boss finds out. Have a good one!" She nodded back to him as he departed, turning her attention to the ringing telephone on her desk.
Once Hardison was out of earshot he filled in the mastermind via the coms. "Nate, looks like someone got here first. Receptionist said they're almost done with the server upgrades."
"Convenient timing, right before any investigations might kick off. Can you find out who authorized the upgrades?"
"Can I find out, of course I can find out..." Hardison muttered to himself as he quietly ducked into an unoccupied office. He pulled out his phone and skillfully hacked into SenTech's outside contractor list and started scrolling.
Thirty seconds later he found what he was looking for. "Got the work order for the servers, and...huh, that's odd."
As always, Nate was impressed with how little time it took Hardison to work his magic. Pretty much no time in this case. "What'd you find?"
The hacker scrolled through the work order. "Normally it's the head of IT who makes those kinds of decisions, but it looks like the CEO himself ordered the work on this one," he said.
"Interesting," Nate replied. "Check his schedule and look for anything unusual, I'll give him a call and see what I can dig up."
.
.
.
Caldwell exited the elevator on his way back to the office, having just finished up at a meeting with a new materials supplier. His assistant smiled at him as he walked in. "Welcome back, Mr. Caldwell. You have a call on line one."
"Put it through to my office," he said as he passed her. He stepped into his office and closed the door behind himself, taking a seat at his desk before picking up the phone. "Good afternoon, this is Caldwell speaking."
Nate's voice came over the line. "Mr. Caldwell. This is deputy director McCumber, FBI."
"I just spoke with two agents yesterday, what's this about?" Caldwell said, a bit of hostility in his voice. Thanks to Hardison's hacking skills Nate had already read that report, all two lines of it. Caldwell had gotten lucky; the real FBI had only asked him who he thought were the most likely suspects. It was a disgrace of an interview, really.
Nate kept his voice professional. "I just have a few follow-up questions. Mainly regarding your lead engineer, Scott Leitinger."
Suddenly the CEO's demeanor changed. "Why certainly, I'd be happy to help," he said, his tone much more pleasant than it was just a few seconds ago.
Nate made a mental note of the switch. "I'm sure you must be a pretty busy man, so I'll keep this short. Anyway, this is my last case before I retire next month so we're really hoping to get this wrapped up."
"Of course, I completely understand," Caldwell replied. "To be honest, I've worked for a lot of companies over the years but something like this has never happened."
"I'm sure this must be quite a shock to you and your company, but we have our best agents on this one," Nate assured him.
"Glad to hear," the CEO said. "So, what questions do you have for me?"
"I was just assigned to this case, so could you give me a quick rundown of what Leitinger was working on?" The mastermind already knew the details of the project, but he needed to establish a baseline to determine when Caldwell was telling the truth. The project itself was a topic he knew the CEO was unlikely to lie about.
"It's a bit technical, but in a nutshell he was developing a new battery system for electric cars that would weigh 30% less than our current offerings and would charge in roughly half the time, without sacrificing vehicle range. If it wasn't for the theft, the project would've put SenTech in a lead position in the EV and hybrid battery supply sector."
Caldwell wasn't lying, and with a baseline established Nate moved on to a direct question. "I see. Was there anyone else in the building after hours the night the plans disappeared?"
There was a momentary pause before Caldwell answered. "Well, our security footage didn't indicate there was anyone else in the building that night."
Gotcha, Nate thought to himself. The pause, the evasive response, and answering a direct question with 'well' rather than 'yes' or 'no' all told the mastermind that Caldwell was very likely being deceptive. That's the funny thing about liars, Nate thought. Even they don't actually like to lie.
"Alright," Nate paused as if he was writing that down, then moved on to the next question. "How long has Leitinger worked for your company?"
"Fifteen years," Caldwell said. A truthful and direct answer, the mastermind noted.
"And have you had any theft-related issues with him during that time?"
"Did we have issues with Leitinger? Well, I hardly knew him, but he always seemed like such an honest person," the CEO answered. "Last year he even set up a holiday giving tree in the lobby to help out disadvantaged kids through the Boys and Girls Club. The south side one. He bought all the tinsel and did most of the decorating, too. I mean, I absolutely did not expect him to just thieve us like this, considering how long he's been with SenTech."
Nate smiled, Caldwell just gave him several indicators that he was lying. Skipping contractions, repeating the question, embellishing insignificant details while avoiding important ones. Yet again he dodged a direct question, probably because the answer was 'no' and that wouldn't help keep the investigation's focus on the engineer.
The mastermind had heard enough, but he couldn't let Scott's presumed guilt stand. "While Mr. Leitinger is our lead suspect, he's still entitled to the presumption of innocence," he said.
"Yes, yes of course. Do you have any other questions for me?" Clearly the CEO was ready to end the conversation as well.
"That's it for now, we'll contact you if we have any further questions. Thanks again for your time, Mr. Caldwell."
"You're welcome, good luck with your case." The line went dead.