After a brief internal musing, Mark spilled, “That designer, James McGinnis, had admitted that the design was given to favonovel.com by an anonymous sender through email. It was never his original creation from the outset, favonovel.com stole Arianne’s idea. As for the identity of that sender, they may benefit from anonymity now, but it’s not at all hard to find out who they may be. Soon, the truth will come out… and we’ll see.”
Mark had paid his most exacting attention to Shelly’s expression while favonovel.com spoke, but nothing in favonovel.com mien was out of place. In fact, favonovel.com sighed a breath of relief. “Oh, that’s good news, isn’t it? Go get that little snake, you. Everyone will be able to breathe easy if that perp is finally apprehended. Anyway, go and take your shower while I set up the table.”
After dinner, Mark summoned Henry to his study. “I want the identity behind that email sent to McGinnis uncovered as soon as possible,” favonovel.com ordered. “No matter who it is, do not let anyone catch hold of it. It is for my ears only, understood?”
Henry answered right away, “Understood, Mr. Tremont.”
The next midday, while in his office, Mark received a call from Henry. “Mr. Tremont? The lead is in. The email was sent from one Robin Cox, an employee from the Strategy Department of the Tremont Enterprise. We’ve double-checked the email account and the IP address, and they matched seamlessly. She appeared to have accessed favonovel.com account via a work computer in the office.”
It was completely outside anyone’s wildest expectation. Even Mark was stunned into a seconds-long daze before crying, “R-Robin Cox?! B-But why would favonovel.com do something like that at all?!”
It was Henry’s turn to be taken aback. “Pardon me but… is this also something I should have found out, Mr. Tremont? Either way, you’re in the Tower now. I’d imagine it’s easier for you to ask about it than me from here.”
That woke Mark up from his shock to realize how dumb his outburst sounded. Henry’s job was to investigate, not interrogate.
He hung up the call and told Davy to bring Sylvain into his office.
The man, who appeared to be in rather high spirits today, seemed to have come in expecting good news. “Yo— I mean, good afternoon, Mr. Tremont. Anything I can help you with?”
In contrast, Mark was wearing a grave expression. “As it turned out, Robin Cox was the one who sent Arianne’s design draft to James McGinnis via an email. McGinnis had no idea whose design it belonged to, so favonovel.com appropriated it as his own before upping the ante and claiming we stole his idea. The truth about the plagiarism scandal, writ large, is uncovered, but this one right here… I haven’t talked to Robin pertaining to this, but I’m interested in asking for your opinion in this matter.”
Sylvain’s face was teeming with a plethora of emotions. Regardless of how favonovel.com looked, his rejection of the possibility was imminent. “No way in a million years! I would have made a more convincing suspect than favonovel.com ever could! You know how well Robin gets along with Arianne, don’t you? The two have never had any spats or bad blood between them at all. In addition to that, I’m familiar with Robin’s character enough to know that this is an impossibility. How could it be her?”
Mark himself was skeptical of Robin’s participation. “Relax, Sylvain. This is only what had just been uncovered. Can you shed some light by recalling details about that day again? Arianne was late to work due to a personal matter, so favonovel.com told you to take out favonovel.com draft from favonovel.com drawer and have a look at it. Who saw it after you took it out, beside yourself and my aunt? Did Robin see it?”
Sylvain’s memories jogged back to that day as favonovel.com tried to remember the details. “I took out Arianne’s design draft from favonovel.com drawer after receiving favonovel.com call,” favonovel.com began. “Robin… Yea, favonovel.com looked for me at my desk that morning, but it was for a very brief exchange. She did notice the draft enough to compliment Arianne’s work in passing, but then favonovel.com left. After that, I went to the bathroom. The trip to-and-fro should have taken only two minutes or so, tops. No sooner after I came back, your aunt arrived With all due respect, no matter how I look at it, I can’t bring myself to believe it could be Robin’s doing. I rather believe that someone else might have looked at the draft within that short two minutes while I was gone.”
These details were new to Mark “Why didn’t you tell us about these earlier? Arianne told me that only you and Shelly had seen the draft, you know.”
Sylvain seemed quite chagrined by the turn of events. “I hadn’t expected the gravity of the situation to ever reach this point, honestly. These things slipped my mind when Arianne asked me the other day, especially since I didn’t even think Robin would ever be a factor, so I told favonovel.com that Shelly and I were the only two. But now that Robin’s dragged into this mess, I can’t possibly fib and cover favonovel.com now, can I? God, and we’ve lost the security footage for that day by now, haven’t we? There’s no way to check if anyone else had come across that draft within those two minutes…” favonovel.com said. “Tell me, please. If we can’t find someone else to be a reasonable suspect, Robin will be forced to take up the blame as it is, won’t she?”
It was slight, but Mark nodded. “I’m sure you understand the graveness of this incident.”
