Chapter 9 - THE SECOND PHONE
Bradley denied everything.
Then he made a mistake.
He said, "You cannot prove I talked to Halcyon."
I had not mentioned Halcyon.
He saw my face and knew it.
"Maddie -"
I closed the door.
Serena's team began a formal internal investigation that afternoon.
IT imaged Bradley's laptop, company phone, and cloud account.
But one gap remained.
For several months, Bradley had often left his company phone at home during dinner.
I used to think it was considerate.
Now I wondered what device he was actually using.
Lily from IT found the answer through Wi-Fi logs.
A second phone had connected to our home network almost every night.
Unknown device.
Same manufacturer as Bradley's personal phone.
I searched the bedroom after he went downstairs.
Nothing.
Then I remembered the gym bag he never let the cleaning service touch.
Inside one shoe was a cheap prepaid phone.
I did not open it.
I photographed it where it was and called Serena.
"Do not touch anything else," she said. "We need proper collection."
I left the room.
Ten minutes later, Bradley ran upstairs.
Too late.
Marco, our outside forensic investigator, was already waiting at the front door with local counsel.
Bradley blocked the staircase.
"You are not taking my personal property."
Serena appeared on video through my laptop.
"Nobody is taking anything without consent or appropriate process. But if that device contains company data, you are under a written preservation obligation. Deleting material now would be a very bad decision."
Bradley looked at me.
"You brought lawyers into our bedroom."
"You brought my company into your secret phone."
His face changed.
Then the phone rang inside the gym bag.
Everyone heard it.
Bradley did not move.
It rang again.
I could see the screen through the half-open zipper.
BARBARA.
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DID SHE FIND THE TRANSFER FILE?
