The Only Witness

“Nice, I’m impressed,” Miles said, admiration clear in his tone. His smile of approval warmed her heart. “Numbers aren’t my strength.”

“Numbers make sense, at least most of the time.”

“What company? It’s nice that your boss lets you work from home.”

“I work for Larson and Avery, they’re a group that supports several small businesses.” She dragged her fingers through her hair, thinking about what to say to convince her boss to give her a few unplanned vacation days. “I like it a lot better there than Sci-Tech.”

“What?” Miles snapped his head around to stare at her in shock. “You used to work at Sci-Tech as an accountant?”

“Yes. Why?” she replied, confused by his reaction. “It was several years ago. I left shortly before my divorce, knowing I needed a more flexible schedule, and Sci-Tech made it clear that working from home wasn’t an option.”

“Did you have access to sensitive information while you were employed there?” Miles pressed. “Something that would cause them to come after you?”

It took a minute for her to figure out what he meant. “Not at all. I handled their purchasing and accounts receivables, nothing related to payroll or anything like that.” She couldn’t believe Miles would think that the gunmen had come after her because of her old job.

“What sort of supplies did they purchase?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Nothing exciting, trust me. Lots of computer parts, mostly, some robotics. I only handled the smaller accounts...my boss handled the bigger clients.”

“Do you know if Sci-Tech had any government contracts?”

“If they did, my old boss, Steve Kane, would have been the one who worked on them, not me.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“This,” she waved her hand in the air, “isn’t related to my work at Sci-Tech. Why would it be? I’ve been gone for a long time. There’s no reason for anyone there to worry about what I might have stumbled across, especially now.”

“You’re probably right,” Miles agreed. “I was just surprised to find out you once worked there.” He was silent for a moment before asking, “You’re sure you didn’t know Jason Whitfield?”

She slowly shook her head, thinking back to the time when she’d been employed at Sci-Tech. “I’m sure. I didn’t associate with the tech team who worked for Travis. Our marriage was rocky even back then, so I avoided contacting him at work. I’m sorry. I wish I could help.”

“It’s okay. I just needed to be sure.”

She nodded, wondering again about Travis. She wanted to ask Miles about her ex but hated to bring up the subject in front of Abby. Especially since her daughter was finally relaxed enough to watch a movie.

Was Travis still missing? Or was he simply off somewhere with his latest girlfriend? She hoped the latter, because Abby had been through enough and losing her father might send her over the edge.