Then Zach looked to the door, where Jessica still waited. “Jessica, could you please bring two more cups?”

“Sure. Oh, and Mr. Ivers…” She motioned him to approach. “About the shareholders…” Her gaze drifted to the SEC staff.

Shit, he’d totally forgotten about them amidst all the commotion.

“Security downstairs has already announced them,” his assistant whispered. “What shall I do with them?”

“Is the large conference room available?”

Jessica shook her head. “The accounting department is using it.”

A soft ping coming from the direction of the elevator sounded. Crap! The shareholders couldn’t find out that the SEC was investigating him for insider trading, or they would withdraw all their support for the project he wanted to discuss with them today.

“Stall them. Tell them I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

As Jessica rushed outside, Zach quickly pulled the door shut before the elevator doors opened, and turned back to his visitors from the SEC.

“So, how can I help you?” He smiled at Rochelle.

Rochelle had joined her colleagues and now looked at him. “If you could please give my colleagues access to your computer, it would really make our work here much easier.”

“Of course.” He marched back to his desk and sat down. “Is it sufficient if I log you in, or would you like me to write down my password for you?”

Miss Vasquez approached. “Logging us in is sufficient.” She placed her briefcase on the edge of the desk and opened it. “I’ll go over the list of files with you, which we’d like to look at in order to…”

Zach waved her off. “That’s not necessary. I’m sure you know what you’re doing.” He rose and pointed to the comfortable leather office chair. “Please, take a seat.”

Then he rounded the desk and walked to Rochelle. “Oh, Miss Wright, since you’re the one in charge of the investigation, it might be good to get your cell phone number so I can get in touch with you.”

She patted her jacket pockets. “Oh, what a shame. It looks like I’ve left my business cards at the office.”

Zach reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his own business cards. “No worries. Why don’t you just write it on the back of this one? You have a pen, don’t you?”

He waited while Rochelle reluctantly pulled a pen from her briefcase and scribbled her number on the back of his card.

From Jessica’s office, Zach could hear voices that seemed to be getting louder.

“Well, then everything is settled,” he said and took the card from Rochelle. Much lower he added, “I’ll be in touch about tonight.”

Before Rochelle could answer, the door was ripped open.

“You know how much I hate waiting,” a woman with a high-pitched voice proclaimed. “Of course Zach has time for us. We’ve got a meeting scheduled.”

With a smile pasted on his lips, Zach turned toward the door. “Emily, impatient as ever,” he greeted her.

A wave of expensive perfume instantly permeated the room as Emily Grover, the rich and three-times-divorced heiress of a grocery store chain swept into the room. No had never been part of her vocabulary and it appeared that Jessica’s explanation that he was busy hadn’t gotten into Emily’s spoiled brain.

Behind her the portly Max Davenport and the spindly Chris Leech entered the office.

Zach noticed how Emily looked in the direction of his desk, where Miss Vasquez and Mr. Esposito were hovering over his computer.

“Oh, you actually are busy,” Emily said and gave her diamond-studded wristwatch a pointed glance. “And we’re not even too early.”

Zach forced his face into a friendly smile. “The IT department is installing a few new programs. Why don’t we leave them to their work?” He nodded to Davenport and Leech. “Max, Chris, nice to see you.”

Before the agents of the SEC could make any comments to his claim, Zach tossed Rochelle a meaningful look.

“Thank you, Mr. Ivers,” she said quickly. “We’ll make sure that your data will be safe.”

“Thank you, Miss Wright.” He turned to the three shareholders. “I figured I’ll show you how the renovations on the 45th floor are taking shape, while we talk about the new project.”

Zach motioned to the door. As the three shareholders left his office he almost felt like sighing with relief and pulled the door shut behind him.

“Three people to install some computer programs? Isn’t that overkill?” Leech asked, forehead furrowed.