An Affair

Roland immediately forwarded his findings to Barov and Carter; they needed to investigate this while he continued to track down the perpetrator.

…

After sharing a brief joke with one of her new colleagues, Anna took the document from him and returned to her desk. The false smile she was wearing soon faded.

She, along with Carter, had been studying Veronica's finances, but to no avail. There were minor inconsistencies, but in comparison to Veronica's total assets, the inconsistencies were truly negligible, nothing that could be considered evidence.

The countless paper trails were like a maze with no end. No, a maze is at least intentionally confusing. It was more like she was abandoned in a confusing jungle of paper and money.

As a result of the days of tedious work and no results, Anna was not in the best of spirits. Her and Carter's coworkers could feel that tensions were high, but they didn't know why.

While Anna was untangling yet another seemingly endless paper trail, Carter jumped up from his desk and walked over to Anna.

In as calm a voice as he could muster, he whispered into her ear, "I need to speak to you in the interrogation room."

He turned to walk in, but noticing that Anna hadn't stood up to follow him, he turned around and hissed impatiently, "Now, Anna. It's urgent."

Hearing his impatience, Anna, who was already in a fool mood, put down the document she was holding with a huff. She shoved her chair back and stood up, following him into the room.

The rest of the staff, curious about that short, heated interchange, gathered together and began whispering passionately.

"That was intense. They've been on edge recently; what do you think's got them both so worked up?"

"I don't know. They've been working late recently, so maybe they're working on some secret project."

"A secret project? Ha. Like I've said, it's an affair."

"Shut up, Jeff."

"Jeff, we've said before, it can't be that; Anna got sent here because of her feelings for Roland, right?"

"Tut. I'm telling you guys, sex is the answer; it's always the answer."

"Sigh. Let's just watch through the one-way window."

"Oh, yeah, why didn't we think of that sooner?"

"It's like someone wanted this pointless yet mildly amusing dialogue to play out first."

…

In the interrogation room…

Carter walked around to the far side of the table then turned to face Anna. Surprised, he said, "What are you annoyed for? I have good news."

The fuming Anna calmed down slightly when she heard that.

"What's the news?" she asked somewhat coldly.

"I'll cut right to the chase; Roland found evidence that Nightingale hacked the company—"

"But we already knew that, why—"

"Let me finish. Nightingale hacked the company from within the company. It seems that Nightingale has been inside the Graycastle building. I think this supports what you've been telling Rolan—"

Interrupting him again, Anna kept forward to give Carter a hug with a bright smile.

A shout suddenly came from outside.

"I KNEW IT!"