Scandalous Desires

Chapter 11

When Alex and Micah arrived at their apartment that night, she decided not to head to bed but to do some more research. Her time with the girls, and being at Cherry's revived her energy.

So when she received the voicemail from Rick while at the restaurant, it barely phased her. In fact, she was happy to hear it. He left a message telling her his time tomorrow would be limited. In fact, she was relieved that they'd barely have much time to interact.

Alex was happy to hear the message too. She snatched the phone just to hear his voice, "Ooo...sexy!" she said with a wink. "It's all baritone, just how I like it! Don't delete this one."

Micah rolled her eyes, "Girl, you are too much! How about I forward it to you."

"You do that. I'll play it back when I'm in bed and…"

"TMI, girl… I don't need to hear all that!" said Micah covering her ears.

Alex laughed as she made her way to her room.

Micah set up her laptop at their small kitchen table and started reviewing the files again.

She became so involved in her research, that she didn't even hear Alex behind her a couple of hours later…."Hey," said Alex, hugging her from behind. "Don't stay up too late," she warned.

"Yes, ma'am," she said, but Alex could tell she was very engrossed.

"I really need to work on not letting people sneak up on me," she said, as her eyes continued to read the info on the screen.

"What are you working on?"

"Preparing for a press conference coming up over this big scandal at South City. The water was contaminated, and there's a class action lawsuit, because of this guy," Micah explained. She scrolled down to an image of Russell.

"Why does he look so familiar?" said Alex with a yawn.

"He has been in the news a lot lately," Micah said, with a shrug.

"Nah, that's not it. You know I don't care for news much…. But, whatever. I'm exhausted!" She yawned again. "Goodnight." She kissed her cheek and left.

"Night."

Micah sighed as she scanned through news stories. She reread over the lawsuit, and even checked through the profiles of key players and not so key players.

She felt like she wasn't getting anywhere until she decided to research into the secretary's background further.

Alice Gooding was the secretary's name. She decided to start with a basic Google search. Two LinkedIn accounts showed up. One was for Alice Gooding, one was Alice Gooding, nee Alice White.

Further searching showed she married a man named Gooding two years ago, but they quickly divorced. "No luck in the relationship department, hunh, Alice?" said Micah to the computer screen. "First your husband divorced you, and then an affair with your married boss."

Looking closer, Micah found that she had worked for various private companies, including one called Baden Chemicals, before settling at South City Waste and Water Management. "Hmm… interesting. She has a history with chemical processing companies? Coincidence?"

Micah's investigative wheels began turning, as she decided to check back to the company that leaked the chemicals in the first place… ChemCorp. It turned out that ChemCorp was under a larger company called ChemLabsCo, also known as CLC. Micah decided to search all of CLC's other subsidiaries.

"Bingo!" Micah said out loud. "I knew something was up," she grinned. Baden Chemicals was also on their list of subsidiaries. "Coincidence? I think not!" said Micah. "Why were you working for the same company that poisoned the water, Alice?" Micah said, as she looked at the secretary's picture. She knew she was onto something.

Her investigative mind went into full gear when she decided to check the CLC Board of Directors…. There were a bunch of old men with their names and bios listed in alphabetical order. Micah scrolled down to the last person on the list. There was a picture of an old wrinkly white guy with a cheshire cat grin….

"And there we have it!" said Micah with a laugh, "Alice, you sneaky bi*ch!" she said, and she began writing down her new questions for the press conference.