by Janie Crouch
“Absolutely. I’ll start searching through it, ghosting and rebuilding as much as possible for any missing data.”
“What about us, boss?” Whitaker asked. “What do you want Tanner and me to do?”
“We’re going back to see if Elliot’s lawyer is here yet. Elliot is the one person who has answers and we’ve got to get them from him.”
Chapter Thirteen
Bree was already starting to sort through the data Elliot had saved to the cloud when Tanner walked over to her five minutes later.
“I’m going with Penelope and Whitaker to interview Elliot again.” He kissed the top of her head. “Are you okay? Do you need a break?”
It was impossible not to be concerned about her. Bree was a civilian. Law enforcement wasn’t her job. She’d already put in long hours yesterday and that didn’t even include the havoc she’d wreaked on her body trying to remember the coding at Elliot’s house. It was unfair of them to ask her to continue to work at this pace, but the lives of three women were at stake.
“I’m okay. My mind is starting to readapt to this pace. Jeter used to work me like this.” Her fingers never stopped tapping on the keyboard even as she spoke. “Not just me, all of his prodigies. He pushed us hard, way too hard, and then we were punished if we couldn’t do it.”
Tanner had seen some of the scars on her body from Jeter’s punishments. The thought that they were doing the same thing to her now made him physically ill.
He crouched down beside her. “Freckles, look at me.”
She did, but just for a second.
He reached up and cupped her cheek with his hand, forcing her to look at him. Her hands stilled on the keyboard. “This is not the same. You can take a break whenever you want to. If you need to go sleep for a couple hours, get up and stretch, hell, go take a shower? All of those are okay and everyone would understand.”
She twisted her head and kissed the inside of his palm. “I know that. I can tough it out. I like that, for once, what Jeter did to me is leading to something good, rather than something painful. Like you said, I don’t get to take any of my power back in court. Maybe this could be the next best thing.”
Any doubt that he’d had—and there really hadn’t been any—about whether he wanted to spend the rest of his life with this woman was erased in that moment. “I love you,” he said.
Hell, he was already down on one knee, he was halfway tempted to ask her to marry him right now. But that wasn’t the story he wanted her telling their grandkids. He would wait until the right time.
“I love you too, hot lips. Now go get some information on Elliot. We’ve got lives to save.”
He kissed her quickly and stood. She was already clicking away on her keyboard again.
Tanner jogged to catch up with Whitaker and Penelope as they headed toward the door.
“Bree okay?” Whitaker asked.
“She’s running on empty, but she’s strong.”
“No doubt about that.” Whitaker nodded, then turned to Penelope. “You know Elliot’s lawyer is not going to let him talk to us. Even if he’s not here yet, he would’ve given that instruction when they talked on the phone.”
Penelope pressed her lips together as she nodded. “We’re actually going to do this all off-the-record. Right now I care more about saving those other women’s lives than I do about making sure Elliot goes down. We’ll deal with the ramifications when we have to.”
“What’s your plan?” Tanner asked.
“I’m going to get into the room where the interrogation cameras are kept. I can probably buy us a window of ten minutes. Nothing will be recorded in that time. I’m not saying to hurt him—I’m just saying be as persuasive as possible.”
Whitaker stopped walking and grabbed Penelope’s arm. “Pen. If you get caught, that could mean your badge. At the very least you won’t ever be doing detective work again.”
She shrugged. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take, especially if it means we’re not going to watch three women drown in some sick water coffin. That’s why I brought you guys rather than anybody else on the team. If I get caught and you two get busted, you’re going to get a slap on the wrist and sent back to Colorado. I didn’t want to take a chance with anyone else.”
Tanner nodded, understanding. He believed in the justice system, but sometimes when your hands were tied, you had to use whatever tools you could reach. They weren’t always the best, but they were the only option. “You buy us ten minutes. We’ll get as much as we can out of him.”
They came to a fork in the hallways.
“Wait for my text, then move as quickly as you can.” Penelope took the turn to the left, and he and Whitaker continued down to the interview room.
“I hope this doesn’t blow up in our faces,” Tanner muttered as they arrived at the outside door.
Whitaker shrugged and opened it. “Penelope has the most to lose. But yeah, I don’t want to see Elliot walking free because of a mistrial.”
They could see Elliot through the two-way mirror, picking his nails. He definitely looked less confident than when they’d interviewed him before. Bree’s words had spooked him.
A few seconds later Whitaker’s phone chimed. “That’s Penelope. Let’s do this.”
They walked inside.
“Where’s my lawyer?” Elliot asked.
“I’m sure he’ll be here any minute.” Tanner sat down across from Elliot this time and Whitaker stood up against the wall. “We’re not here in any official police capacity.”
Tanner took his badge out and slid it across the table.
Elliot studied it for a second. “That says Colorado.”
Tanner nodded. “That’s right. Whitaker and I both work in the Grand County Sheriff’s Department in Colorado. We have no jurisdiction here. We just want to talk person to person before your lawyer gets here. Nothing you say here is going to be admissible in court.”
“Look,” Whitaker added. “If your partners kill those women, you’re going down with them for conspiracy to commit. The only way to save yourself that charge is to tell us who and where they are.”
Elliot crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know.”
Tanner put his elbows on the table. “Don’t know who or don’t know where?”
“Both, okay? I met them online. I don’t know who they are and they don’t know who I am. We all agreed to some rules—patterns we all had to follow—and thought it would be a cool game.”
Whitaker took a step closer. “You thought it would be a cool game to drown women slowly in a coffin-sized box?”
Elliot shook his head wildly. “I wasn’t ever going to let her drown. She never saw my face. I was going to let it go on as long as possible, then let her go.”
Tanner slammed his hand down on the desk. “You turned the water on high when we infiltrated the building.”
“That was an accident, man!” Elliot squirmed in his seat. “I was trying to turn it off when I found out you guys were coming but you got there quicker than I expected. I panicked and ran. I never wanted that woman to die.”
Whitaker walked forward and leaned all the way across the table into Elliot’s space. “What about Shelby Durrant and Kelly Quinn? Did you accidentally kill them too?”
Elliot’s eyes grew big. “Who? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t kill anyone, man! I just wanted to mess with the cops. Get in and out of their system without them being able to trace me. That was how this all started. I wasn’t going to let her drown.”
Tanner glanced over at Whitaker. Damn it, he almost believed the kid.
“The other people, Elliot, your partners. Who are they?” Tanner demanded. “This is your one chance to do the right thing before your lawyer gets here and stops you from talking to everyone. Who are the other three people you’re working with?”
“I promise I don’t know. I don’t know their names or what they look like or where they’re doing their part of this. We met in an online chat room and—”
Whitaker’s phone chimed multiple times in a row. “That’s Pen. She must have—”
The door burst open and a uniformed police officer escorted a man in a suit inside.
“Are you talking to my client without his representation present?” The suited man raised an eyebrow so far it looked like it was about to find a new home in his hairline. “I’m going to have a field day with this.”
Tanner crossed his leg and Whitaker leaned back casually against the wall. “No, no questioning. We aren’t even Dallas PD, just fellow officers consulting from Colorado. So of course we wouldn’t be questioning Mr. Webster, especially not once he’d asked to call you.”
“Absolutely.” Whitaker gestured to the camera. “I’m sure the recordings from this room will back us up. We were just in here keeping Elliot company. If he wants to make any sort of official statement, he’ll need to make it with the Dallas PD, with you present, of course.”
The lawyer glared at both of them, then turned to Elliot. “Is this true? They weren’t harassing you into talking?”
Elliot studied his hands. “Everything’s cool. But I should tell them—”
The lawyer held out a hand. “No. You say absolutely nothing.”
“Tell us what, Elliot?” Tanner pushed. It would be worth the cost to save three lives.
“Do not talk to my client. If you have questions, you can refer them to me and I will advise him as to whether—”
“It’s a chess game, man.” Elliot ignored his lawyer and looked right at Tanner. “Chess.”
“Mr. Webster!” the lawyer screeched. “I highly advise you not to say anything at all.”
Elliot nodded. “Don’t worry. I’m done.”
Chapter Fourteen
They were barely outside the room when Penelope came rushing around the corner.
“We’re okay,” Whitaker reassured her. “Elliot actually covered for us a little bit when his lawyer arrived.”
Penelope let out a sigh of relief. “When I saw the lawyer was Curtis Lowman I nearly had a heart attack. He’s known for getting clients off the hook on technicalities. Did you guys get anything from Elliot?”
“Not anything of consequence,” Whitaker said.
Tanner looked over at him. “I don’t know about you, but I kind of believe the kid when he says he never planned to let Jean Adams drown.”
They began walking back toward command central.
Penelope turned to them. “Did he have anything to say about the first two victims?”
Tanner ran a hand through his hair. “Look, he could be totally playing us, but I don’t think he knew anything about them. I think for him this entire thing has been about seeing if he could get away with taunting the police. Some sort of game.”
Whitaker nodded. “I think you’re right—I don’t think he ever planned to kill Jean Adams.” Whitaker glanced at Penelope. “And unfortunately, I think he was telling the truth when he said he didn’t know who or where his ‘partners’ are.”
Penelope let out a curse. “Another dead end.”
“We know Elliot met them online. Maybe Bree will find something.” Tanner hoped it was true because they were running out of options pretty quickly.
“Leon is checking missing persons. Maybe that will get us something,” Whitaker said.
Penelope reached for the door of the command area. “Let’s see if we’ve gotten anywhere here. If not, I think we’re going to need to question Jean Adams. I’d hoped to be able to wait—God knows she’s been through enough. But we’re running out of time.”
The command center was still bustling with activity. Tanner’s eyes automatically found Bree. He wasn’t surprised to find her still working frantically at the computer like she had been when he’d left.
Leon met them as soon as they made it through the door.
“I found two other missing persons who fit the size and weight description. One—Betty Neighbors—actually lives in Waco. She’s forty-five years old, divorced, lives alone. Her friends are not exactly sure how long she’s been missing but definitely more than three days. I’ve already sent Morris and Gonzales there to interview.”
Penelope nodded. “Good. Who’s the other one?”
Leon grimaced. “Twenty-one-year-old Christina. We don’t have a last name. She’s been residing at a women’s shelter out near Arlington and is working for tips at a local bar.”
“Are you sure she’s a legit missing person?” Whitaker asked. “Homeless? No real job? Maybe she just took off.”
Leon nodded. “That was my thought at first, but evidently one of the ladies who works at the shelter has become close with Christina. Watches her eighteen-month-old daughter for Christina when she works.”
They were all silent. Damn it, this case just kept getting worse.
“The lady at the women’s shelter said there’s no way Christina would’ve left the baby behind,” Leon continued.
Penelope nodded. “Good. You and Whitaker head over there and see if you can get any further details. And keep searching for other possible victims. Search outside state lines if you have to.”
Leon nodded and walked over to the whiteboard, adding the pictures and details of Christina and Betty Neighbors.
Identifying possible victims was good for the case overall, but definitely didn’t make it any easier to bear. Maybe in both cases it would end up being a mistake and the women would be found unharmed.
But Tanner had been in law enforcement long enough to know that wasn’t likely.
“I think it’s time to go visit Jean Adams,” Penelope said.
Tanner nodded. “Anything she can remember might help. It’s probably a good idea for you to talk to her. She might not be interested in being near any man right now.”
She nodded. “Why don’t you come with me? If there’s any male she might want to talk to it would be you and Whitaker since you two saved her life.”
Tanner didn’t really want to go. He didn’t want to leave Bree in case she needed him. But he also wanted to do everything in his power to get these other victims home safely.
“Let me just check with Bree and make sure she’s okay.”
Penelope raised an eyebrow, but just nodded. He jogged over to Bree’s computer station.
“Any luck with Elliot?” she asked.
“No. I don’t think he knows who or where the other victims or suspects are. He said he met them online. How’s it going for you?”
She let out a frustrated sigh. “I thought I was going to have to do a lot of extrapolating and rebuilding. That Elliot would’ve destroyed data and not left it available online. But I was wrong. He left damn near everything there.”
“You mean there’s more information than you thought?”
“Exactly. Actually, it’s kind of smart. There’s so much for me to sort through that it would be easy to overlook something important.”
“Do you want us to get you some help?”
She shook her head rapidly. “No. I have a system.”
He knew much better than to try to make changes in any system she’d created.
“Plus,” she continued, “I’m building some programs right now to help me filter through stuff. It’s not foolproof, but it’s propelling me through information quicker than sorting it all myself.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I have all the equipment I need.”
Tanner trailed a finger down her cheek. “I mean, are you okay, freckles?”
Her shoulders slumped. “They think one of the victims is someone from a women’s shelter,” she whispered. “Someone with a baby.”
“I know.”
“That’s like the w
omen Cassandra and I help. As a matter fact, Christina reminds me of Marilyn, the lady Cass and I have been talking to about living at and running New Journeys once the renovations are done with our new building.”
“She’s going to live there, not you?”
She gave him a look that said she obviously found him deranged. “I live on the ranch. It never even crossed my mind for me to live at New Journeys. Unless you don’t want me on the ranch any—”
He reached over and kissed her before she could finish the word. Kissed her hard, claiming her mouth in the most thorough of fashions. He didn’t care that it was probably inappropriate or that they were in the middle of an important investigation.
“I want you there. Every single day, I want you with me,” he said when he finally eased back from her lips.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good.”
She glanced back at her computer. “Marilyn would never ever leave her kids. I don’t think this Christina lady would either. I’ve got a really bad feeling that she might be one of our victims.”
“We’re going to get to her in time. To all of them in time. You just keep working. Penelope and I are going to go talk to Jean Adams. One way or another we’re going to help these women.”
* * *
“WE DO APPRECIATE all your help you know,” Penelope said as they pulled up at the hospital thirty minutes later. “You, Bree and Whitaker.”
Tanner nodded. “Thanks, although I’m not doing anything anybody else on your team couldn’t do. Bree is the one with the true talent here.”
They got out of the car and walked toward the entrance. “She’s something else.”
Tanner couldn’t stop his smile even if he had wanted to. “That, she definitely is.”
“I know you guys are together, but after that kiss at the station... I’m assuming it’s pretty serious.”
Tanner gave a one-shouldered shrug. “She’s it for me. From the first moment I saw her, I knew she was my one.”
Penelope gave a half smile. “Yeah, I get it. But Bree just doesn’t seem like your type, you know? You guys are pretty opposite.”
