Go back and read Parts I and 2 if you already haven’t, I’ll wait.
Day 1 (cont.): Mark and I do not interact with Rob too often, so we couldn’t very well walk up and ask, “Hey. What’s new?” right after he got the fax without arousing suspicion. We laid low, waiting to hear through the grapevine of Rob’s reaction. We heard nothing. Maybe that free internet fax thing didn’t work.*
*We didn’t know until much later in the week that the fax had actually gotten through. And when he got it Rob went up to our “receptionist”, who also forwards all the incoming faxes via email to the recipients, and asked who sent it, she couldn’t tell any more than he could from the ad supported cover page. He did say to her that it had Brian written all over it. Unfortunately my reputation proceeds me as I have really earned my in house nickname of Arts & Crafts Engineer.
Day 2: On Tuesday morning I prepared a second ransom note that we would slip in his mailbox or maybe to be sure, just stick it on his desk. Having watched enough Lifetime TV movies I knew that any good kidnapper would have a picture taken of the victim with that day’s newspaper to show 1) they actually had the victim and 2) they were unharmed (although #2 didn’t really matter in this case):
That afternoon when Mark walked by Rob in the hall, Rob was giving him a look. Mark asked ever so innocently, “What’s happening?” Rob tilted his head and followed Mark’s path said, “I’ve got my eye on you.” Later I received the same treatment as I casually passed by Rob’s cubical. He obviously suspects us, but cannot prove it…
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