Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 195

Chapter 195

The three of you followed Garrison out of the conference room and down the hall, though not in the direction of his office. Instead, he led you toward the elevators. He thumbed the Up button and then waited.

You wanted to say something. 'Thank you' was at the top of your mind, followed by several dozen other things. But you also didn't want to sound... you weren't even sure how to describe it. 'Weak' wasn't right, but it felt close. So you kept your mouth shut and decided to let Garrison take the lead, and Gemma and Sabrina seemed to be doing the same.

After an agonizing half-minute the elevator finally opened and all four of you piled in, and Garrison hit the button for the next floor up. It probably would have ended up being faster to take the stairs.

"If I might, sir," Gemma said, breaking the silence. "Where are we headed?"

Garrison, for the first time since you'd entered his office that morning, broke a soft half-smile. "Couldn't hold it in anymore, Gemma?"

"I was about to crack if she didn't," Sabrina said with a smile.

"John?" Garrison asked.

"I am zen. I am centred," you said. "I am curious as hell."

He snorted a little and shook his head. "We're heading to IT," he said as the elevator opened again one floor up. You'd only been to IT once since starting, to collect your company laptop and get your credentials sorted. Gemma and Sabrina had been up here more. There were some Partners who had offices up on this floor, making use of the corner rooms, and some First Year associates in a bullpen who didn't rate high enough to be on the Coffee Run lists. Most of the floor was dominated by a big conference room that doubled as a legal library for the firm, along with the IT office and a small gym tucked away from senior associates and Partners to use.

You followed Garrison through the winding hallways, past the First Year bullpen which seemed to be a flurry of activity while one of the other partners seemed to be dictating something to them. Then you reached the glassed-in IT area with its bank of servers. Garrison walked right in, knocking offhandedly on the glass door as he entered. "Jacobs," he said.

"Sir," Jacobs turned from where he seemed to have been working on a computer that looked like it had been torn apart at the seams. He had been standing with his back to the door at a standing desk, and when he saw Garrison and the rest of you he looked... you weren't sure. It was a weird mash of emotions.

"We need to do a quick search of the internal databases," Garrison said.

"Sure," Jacobs nodded, moving over to the other standing desk where his main rig seemed to be set up. "Legal records, or-?"

"Emails. Internal emails," Garrison said.

Jacobs hesitated, then slowly turned with a raised eyebrow. "Sir? Isn't that..."

"I'm a Senior Partner of the firm, Jacobs," Garrison said. "I own those servers. I own everything on those servers. I own the four very expensive standing desks I see in here, as well. So if I want you to look in the database for emails, you'll look in the damn database."

"Sir," he nodded, eyes going wide as he turned back to his computer and brought up some sort of program.

Garrison turned to you, Sabrina and Gemma. "Let's try a key phrase first," he said. "Something relatively unique."

"Um, how about 'We find her activity extremely suspect and out of the norm,'?" you hedged.

"Or, 'We do not accept the so-called results of her fabricated performance reviews,'" Gemma offered.

Jacobs quickly typed into the program and hit enter, and a loading bar quickly scanned across the screen as, you assumed, the database was scanned. It came up with 0 results.

"Nothing," Jacobs said.

"I can see that," Garrison grunted. "Is this searching all emails?"

"Everything in the every account archive," Jacobs said.

"What about deleted emails? We keep those, correct?" Garrison asked.

Jacobs hesitated, but it extended.

And then Jacobs looked like he physically cracked. He didn't just deflate emotionally, the guy straight up had a physical reaction as he curled forward and let loose a sob as he grabbed at his hair and just started bawling.

You had no fucking clue what to do with that. And judging by the look on his face, neither did Garrison. Gemma looked a lot like the two of you.

Sabrina looked like she wanted to offer some sort of support to the guy, but stopped after a step like she was afraid if she finished putting a hand on his shoulder it might burn her.

"I'm so sorry," Jacobs heaved. "I'm- Oh, God, you're going to fire me. I'm going to get fired. I can't lose this job, I just can't."

"Jesus," Garrison muttered. "Jacobs, get a hold of yourself. What do you need, a shake or a slap or a damn hankie?"

"I'm- I'm sorry," Jacobs said, trying to wipe his eyes and catch his breath at the same time. "Please don't fire me. I just- I can't lose this job! But I had to do it."

"Had to do what?" you asked, though you definitely were starting to piece things together.

"I deleted the emails. All of them," he admitted. "I used the backdoor into the system and erased every trace of them. You can't find them in any inbox or folder. Just like I did with the others."

"Others?" Garrison asked darkly.

Jacobs nodded silently.

"How many others?" Garrison asked.

"A few every year," Jacobs said.

"For how many years?"

"The last three."

"Why?" Gemma asked.

Jacobs blinked and took a long, sad breath. "Because she blackmailed me."