PHB 28
Lucas was taken aback. His hand was already poised to input the numbers to unlock Deasy’s laptop. However, upon hearing his name being called, he turned. To his surprise, he found Deasy standing there, gazing at him with a look of curiosity.
“Lucas… what are you doing with my laptop?”
Thinking quickly about how to respond, Lucas couldn’t admit that he was currently inspecting his boss’s laptop without permission. That would surely get him in trouble.
“Me? What am I doing? I’m just hunting down germs that might be lurking on Ms. Deasy’s belongings.”
Deasy glared at him. Why did Lucas always respond with such silly answers whenever she asked something serious? Couldn’t the guy stay focused on the matter at hand? It was baffling!
“I’m serious. Why were you trying to access my laptop without permission? You’re caught.”
Lucas then pulled out his phone, opened the messaging app, and showed something to Deasy for her to read.
Sofia: Lucas, there’s a missing LJ report. Can you send the remaining part right now? I need it urgently for Legal to process. I’m waiting for your reply ASAP.
“See, Ms. Deasy? I was asked by Ms. Sofia to send the remaining part of the report urgently. So, my intention was to borrow your laptop to send it. I even tried calling you for permission, but it seems you were busy taking a shower, so you didn’t hear me.”
Deasy then read the short message from Sofia, her colleague. Believing the message to be genuine, Deasy nodded, approached her laptop on the table, entered something in the password field, and handed it back to Lucas.
“I’ve unlocked the password. Please use it outside. I need to get dressed. It wouldn’t make sense for you to send your work from my room, right?”
Lucas nodded repeatedly. Instead of receiving a scolding, Deasy gave him access to her laptop. Luckily, Sofia had indeed requested him to send the report urgently. So, this could serve as a valid reason for him to have accessed something he shouldn’t have.
Not wanting to waste any time, Lucas quickly got up and left the room. While Deasy dressed, he hurriedly accessed whatever was stored on her laptop. As he carried out his task, Lucas silently prayed, trying to open every storage device and searching for what he and Felix had been looking for all along.
“Come on… it must be here. I’m sure everything is stored in this laptop.”
However, after nearly ten minutes of searching through various storage locations on the laptop, Lucas didn’t find anything suspicious. In fact, he ended up copying all the stored documents to review later with Felix.
“How’s it going? Are you finished?”
Deasy, who had finished getting dressed, stepped out of the room and approached Lucas. She wanted to make sure her subordinate had completed his task.
“Is it done, Lucas? Have you sent the report to Ms. Sofia?”
Lucas nodded. “Yes, I’ve sent the report to Ms. Sofia.”
Deasy nodded in acknowledgment. “All right then, please turn off the laptop and put it over there,” she said, pointing to the sideboard next to the bedroom door. “You can go home once you’re done. I need to rest after this; I’m really tired.”
Lucas agreed with a nod. He gathered his belongings and intended to leave promptly.
“Have a good rest, Ms. Deasy. I’ll be back later tonight with dinner. Is there anything specific you’d like me to bring?”Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.
Deasy sighed deeply. It seemed she had made a mistake by granting Lucas access and allowing him to come and go to deliver meals.
“Whatever you want. I don’t feel like thinking right now.”
Lucas then bid farewell, feeling a mix of nervousness and curiosity. He hoped that his investigation would yield results at another time.
***