“What did he have, Phyllis?” Oscar asked.
“I can’t say. It’s too mortifying!” Phyllis buried her head in her hands. Pam patted her reassuringly on the back, “You don’t have to tell us.”
Dwight, Michael, and Andy, of course, thought differently.
“Of course she has to tell us!”
“Pam, stop spouting nonsense!”
“This is a murder investigation. Every detail is important.”
Everyone looked at Phyllis expectantly until she stood up and away from Pam and nodded her head. “All right. But keep in mind that this happened a long time ago. Before I met and married Bob Vance.”
The whole office hung on to her every word. “I….I had a one night-stand with Toby! And he took pictures of us without me knowing!”
Jim and Pam looked at each other, open mouthed. They looked around and saw that their co-workers apparently felt as shocked as they did. Well, almost everyone was shocked.
“That’s it? That was what Toby had on you?” Meredith asked with a sneer. “Just some naked pictures?”
In an offended voice, Phyllis said, “They were very explicit. And he threatened to show them to Bob if I didn’t pay him!”
Meredith sipped from the cup in her hand, “He was trying to blackmail me, too, with a couple of videos of us. I didn’t care. Ya seen one, ya seen ‘em all.”
Now everyone gaped at Meredith but she just shrugged, “What? Been there, done that. I don’t know why he thought I would pay to get it back.”
Creed just nodded and smiled appreciatively at no one in particular. “I thought the redhead looked familiar.”
Jim and Pam looked at each other once again, mouthing, “Oh…my…god.”
Angela looked at both Meredith and Phyllis with distaste.
“Wait, so you were also blackmailed by Toby?” Ryan asked Meredith.
She replied, “Didn’t you hear what I just said, temp? But I didn’t kill him. No reason to.”
“I didn’t kill him either. I told Bob Vance about it and he gave me the money to get the pictures back from Toby.”
Stanley spoke up, “Plus…both of them were standing next to me near the copier when the lights went off. And I don’t think they could move fast enough to do anything to Toby.”
Michael looked at him in disgust, “Really, Stanley? You couldn’t tell us that earlier?”
“Nobody asked.” Stanley replied drolly.
“Well, that’s just great.” Dwight said sarcastically, “There’s the end of that lead.”
“Not exactly.” Andy said. “There’s one more. And Jim can help me with this one.”
Jim looked at Andy questioningly, “What do you mean?”
“Look at the knife, Tuna.” Andy pointed, “Doesn’t that look familiar to you?”
Dwight scoffed. “What does Jim know about knives? You should be asking me instead.”
Kevin and Oscar also leaned in for a closer look at the knife and recognition washed over them.
“That belongs to Dwight!”
