Her Best Friend's Keeper (Finley Creek Book 1)

by Calle J. Brookes

  Because there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for his girls.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR.

  ***

  KEVIN drove Brynna in the next morning. He came into the lab and said hello to Gabby and to Benny. Their supervisor was flushed and harried, so Kevin didn’t linger. Gabby and Brynna didn’t, either.

  Both were aware of why Brynna had truly returned. They’d discussed it between themselves and Mel the day before. Brynna hoped to use her breaks to clean up the unaltered video, using the TSP’s more sophisticated programs. They’d considered sending it to her older sister in St. Louis, but decided that would take too long.

  Gabby was to help make sure Brynna had time to do the cleaning. Gabby was also going to get copies of everything the TSP had on file about the Marshall murders.

  They were going to compare the TSP files to the original FBI files Gabby’s stepfather had agreed to fax Kevin privately that afternoon.

  Chance had taken off to wherever he holed up when he wasn’t tormenting Brynna to gather everything he had amassed over the past decade. Elliot had sent him to empty their father’s personal safe of any remaining paperwork, as well. Chance had vowed to be back in time to pick Brynna up after her shift ended. He was taking his guard dog status seriously. No one had argued with him—even Brynna.

  Everyone was finally going to pool their resources and knowledge.

  Brynna was assigned to her regular workstation. Gabby got the small laptop station about eight feet away. Most of the work done at that computer was audio. She’d spend most of her shift with sound-cancelling headphones. It wouldn’t give them much time to talk, that was for sure. She would be able to run the audio from the unaltered video, see if she could clean up the fifth man’s last words.

  Maybe she’d recognize his voice, or something.

  If they figured out who he was, they might be able to tie him to Handley Barratt or something. Benny closed his door for the first hour of their shift. It was going to be just the three of them for the first three hours of the shift. Theresa was scheduled to come in at noon.

  Gabby reviewed the first audio file on her list—for the gang unit—and paused between it and the next. Something had been tickling her brain since the day before when they’d watched the videos.

  She pulled off her headphones and spun her desk chair around. “Bryn?”

  Brynna jerked around with a guilty look on her face. She pulled a memory card from her computer and shoved it into her pocket. “What? Sorry. Guess I’m nervous. Aren’t I?”

  “I think we both are.” Gabby thought for a moment. “What if it wasn’t Handley Barratt who had the video altered? Isn’t he super tall? None of the men on the video were that tall, were they?”

  “No. He was at least six-five, Gab. Taller than Chance.” Slade and his father had been the same height, close to Elliot’s height. She and Brynna had used what they knew of Slade’s height and weight to compare to the killers on the video. None of the men had been taller than six-one or six-two.

  Elliot’s brother was an inch shorter than Elliot, who Gabby thought was six-four, or so. “So if he wasn’t one of the men on the video, why would he erase the fifth man?”

  “Someone else did it.”

  “Someone who could access the file from the TSP. Someone who could do that ten years ago—and someone who could know that you signed the zip drive out now. Who knows Elliot is back and with me. Someone with the skills to alter a video like that.” There were only five in their department that had been with the Finley Creek TSP long enough. One was a woman. Gabby didn’t think any of the killers in the video were female. So that left them four choices, didn’t it?

  “We need to get to Elliot now.” Brynna stood up just as Gabby did. “Let him know.”

  Gabby turned toward Benny’s office. “Bryn—there’s only one who would have known me ten years ago like that. Just one, who has known everything you and I have done since Elliot came back. We need to get upstairs now.”

  Benny’s door opened. He looked at them and Gabby knew he’d listened to what they’d said.

  “Benny?” Brynna said. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m sorry, girls.” He held something in his hand. A cord? A remote? “I am so sorry.”

  He pushed a button.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE.

  ***

  ELLIOT was finishing his discussion with the superintendent and the brand new mayor—Handley Barratt’s nephew Turner. It had made for a tense few minutes. Turner had been the assistant mayor until two days earlier when Mayor Jacobi died from a sudden aneurysm. Elliot had just stood up when the building shook around them, and the glass of Elliot’s office windows shattered.

  “Everybody get out!” Erickson yelled from his position by the window. “Annex just blew!”

  Gabby. Elliot was already moving. “Gunnar, get people outside! Now.”

  He was going straight down. He wasn’t stopping until he got to Gabby’s side, until he found her and Brynna.

  Officer Journey and Jarrod were running behind him. “Foster, Journey! Take the second floor of the annex, search for survivors!”

  Gabby’s lab was on the first. The back of the first.

  That’s where he was going, and damn what anyone else thought.

  People were evacuating from the main building per standard procedure. The TSP building consisted of five floors in the main structure, basement, and the two story annex. He knew how many rooms were in the structure, how many departments, and how many people were on the clock every single day.

  Today was no exception.

  Journey tried to protest his order—it was her job to keep him safe, and he knew it. He waved her on. “Go!”

  He took the service stairs, aware of the people running behind him. The instant he got close enough to see the lab, Elliot knew Gabby and Brynna and anyone else who’d been in the computer forensic lab were most likely dead. It looked like a warzone. Like a bomb—that was exactly what had happened, wasn’t it? Where was she?

  The glass doors were gone, the walls between each tiny department were buckled and cracked and none stood more than two feet high now. The sprinklers still rained down, but they wouldn’t be enough to stop the destruction. Debris piles were everywhere and as high as his shoulder. Were Gabby and Brynna underneath some? Being crushed?

  The computer lab where Brynna and his Gabby spent most of their time looked like a tornado had ripped through it. Gaping holes were all that existed of the ceiling now; the rooms themselves were half-walls and destruction.

  But where were they?

  Had someone already pulled them out?

  “Gabby! Gabby! Answer me, damn it!”

  He grabbed a piece of debris, sheetrock, and heaved it out of the way. He’d dig her out with his bare hands if he had to.

  Her office would be toward the back southwest corner of the building’s footprint, but she preferred the conference room in the center. Where should he look first? A mountain of debris and rubble stood between him and that corner. The only full wall that remained was one that blocked his path.

  Elliot grabbed another piece of the rubble. He’d clear a path around the wall if that’s what it took.

  Hands wrapped around his arms and jerked. He looked into Erickson’s face. “She’s in here!”

  “Who?”

  “Gabby. My...Gabby. And Brynna. They’re in here somewhere. I have to find them.” He wasn’t leaving them. He wouldn’t think about what it would mean if he’d lost her. If he’d failed her and Brynna. “I have to. They’re going to be terrified!”

  Erickson bent down and grabbed a huge piece of metal that had probably once been a computer. “Then let’s start digging. I’m here as long as you need me.”

  Elliot yelled again, then listened. Hoping.

  He heard nothing. They kept digging.

  The fire alarms continued to shriek, but the flames were dying down thanks to the sprinklers.

  The explosion had been contained to
the annex. To the forensics labs and the two rooms flanking them, to evidence storage above.

  Had anyone else been down here?

  The forensics department was usually empty this time of day, wasn’t it? With only a thin skeleton staff to run tests when absolutely necessary? They didn’t have a large scale forensics department. But there should have been at least one more person, besides Gabby and Brynna and Benny, right?

  Most of the time the first floor labs were relatively empty.

  Just the way Gabby and Brynna liked it.

  He prayed it was empty today. That somehow they weren’t in there.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX.

  ***

  GABBY looked straight up. Through the hole in the ceiling. Plaster ceiling tiles were still falling. She raised an arm to cover her face protectively. She rolled on her side, pulling her knees beneath her.

  She kicked something soft. Brynna’s bag. And that was when she remembered.

  Brynna. Dear heaven, where was Brynna?

  The alarms rang, drowning out everything else. The sprinklers were mangled, but still managed to rain out overhead.

  Smoke still blocked her view.

  She crawled to where she thought the door was. Toward where Brynna had last been. Where they both had last been.

  Was her friend dead? What had caused the explosion? They didn’t keep chemicals in the computer lab. There wasn’t a need. And the floor above them housed the evidence storage. Unless there was something up there?

  She heard shouting from somewhere. Then the rapid report of what she recognized as gunshots.

  Dear heaven, was the TSP under siege? What were they supposed to do?

  Brynna. She had to find Brynna. And the door.

  She wouldn’t let herself think of Elliot or Jarrod or Benny or anyone else who worked on the floors above her. Right then, she’d focus on Brynna. Gabby must have been knocked half across the room from her desk.

  The sprinklers were doing their job; smoke was clearing. There was a dark shadow toward the front of the room. The shadow moved, crouched low. Over Brynna. Who wasn’t moving.

  Gabby coughed and hurried closer. She froze when Benny looked over at her. When she saw what he was doing to Brynna.

  Their boss’s hand covered Brynna’s mouth and nose, squeezing. Was he suffocating her? “What are you doing? Let her go!”

  “I thought you were unconscious.” He tightened his grip. “It’ll be easier on her this way. She won’t be hurting anymore.”

  “Let her go.” No. It couldn’t be Benny. He’d given her the position, had mentored her over the last four years. He treated her and Brynna like they were his own daughters. Why would he be hurting Brynna? Gabby shook her head. The pain—it was almost overwhelming.

  Gabby jerked closer to her friend, nearly tripping on what remained of a chair.

  Brynna was completely still beneath his hand.

  “Let her go, Benny! You’re hurting her! You’re going to kill her!”

  “I meant to. Damn it, Gabby, do you think I wanted the two of you involved? She’s been through enough recently.”

  “Then why? Please, Benny. Let her go.” Gabby grabbed the chair. “Just turn around and get out of here. I won’t stop you. I just want to help her.”

  “The two of you should have left enough alone. The past is in the past. Why did you drag it all up again? Why did you look at Marshall and suddenly grow a damned spine? And Brynna, as curious as a little kitten! I never wanted to have to hurt either of you! But they made me do it.” His free hand slipped into his holster and he pulled his service weapon free. “I am sorry about this. I know you never truly knew...They have Alyssia now. I have no choice.”

  “You were one of the men on the video, weren’t you? One who went after Elliot’s family. Why? Why Sara?”

  “We didn’t know she’d be there. Or her brother. We thought they were planning to be out of town with their mother. That house they had in the gulf. When we realized...well, things had to be done, didn’t they? Just like now. I’m sorry, Gabby. I promise I’ll make it quick. For both of you.”

  “What you did will never be right. Get your hands off of her!”

  “Gabby, we both know you’re not going to stop me from doing anything. All anyone has ever had to do was say boo! to you and you freaked.”

  “Because of what happened ten years ago. Because of what you did.” He’d taken one friend from her. She’d be damned if he was going to take Brynna. Gabby shook, now from rage instead of fear. In that moment, she wanted Benny to pay for everything he’d done.

  To pay for what he was doing to Brynna.

  Brynna still hadn’t moved. She wasn’t going to just stand there and do nothing while Brynna died beneath his hands.

  She swung the chair at Benny’s shoulder, knowing not to go for his head. Too easy to miss the smaller target.

  She honestly waited to feel a .38 tear through her flesh at any second, but it didn’t.

  Benny stumbled away from Brynna.

  Faced the more immediate threat against him.

  Her.

  “I don’t want to do this. The bombs…they were supposed to kill all of three of us. Quickly. So the two of you didn’t suffer. I’ve always liked you. Loved both of you girls.”

  “Sure you have.” She held the chair up between them. It wouldn’t stop bullets, but maybe she’d get lucky. Not die right away.

  But if he killed her, who would help Brynna? Elliot would be coming. Jarrod, McKellen, Erickson—they were coming. She just had to keep herself and Brynna alive until they got there.

  No. Gabby wasn’t about to give up.

  She stepped back and threw the chair at him as hard as she could. Straight at his face.

  She’d only have a single opportunity to grab his gun.

  Hopefully it would be enough.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN.

  ***

  HER tears burned her eyes as she clawed at Benny’s arms. He had his hands around her throat, and was choking her. She didn’t know where the gun had ended up. Her second blow with the chair had gotten her lucky, and Gabby knew it. The gun had flown out of his hand and landed somewhere in the destruction.

  Gabby raked her hand down one of his cheeks, leaving furrows. It did little good; Benny wasn’t going to let go. Not until she was dead. She tried to bring up her knee, but he stopped her.

  He was that desperate, that determined. Benny blocked her, knocked her to the ground with a backhanded blow.

  People were shouting on the floors above them, as they tried to find their way into what remained of the annex’s two floors.

  Even if she screamed, would anyone be able to help her?

  She kicked and scratched, but it did little good.

  Her last thought before she lost consciousness was of Elliot.

  Of how much she would have liked the opportunity to love him.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT.

  ***

  EVERY part of her that she could think of hurt, but Brynna rolled onto her side anyway. What had happened?

  She had been talking to Gabby, the both of them trying to pretend that it was just like any other day at the TSP. Brynna had never been all that great at pretending. She used to think it was just her, but after meeting her sister Carrie she suspected a lack of artifice was just a part of the Beck genes.

  Someone cursed and she forced her eyes open the rest of the way

  Gabby screamed.

  Brynna’s gaze found her. Beneath Benny.

  Benny held Gabby by the throat, madness in his eyes. Just like she’d seen in those men in the woods. Madness, or was it evil? How was someone supposed to tell the difference?

  Suddenly everything made a sick sort of sense.

  Benny had known every move she and Gabby had made. Because he’d kept them close, watching, all these years.

  There was a gun nearby. Why was there a gun? Was it loaded? Brynna screamed, loud and long and as hard as she could. Benny jerked toward her.
<
br />   They needed that gun. Brynna could use a gun. Her dad had made them all learn years ago. Brynna had hated it then, but she understood his logic behind the lessons now.

  His hands came off of Gabby’s neck. Brynna scrambled to her feet, looking at the hell that surrounded them.

  “Get the gun, Gabby! Get it!” Brynna yelled.

  People were yelling from somewhere. She knew they were coming for them. Benny reached for Gabby and she tried to pull away. People were coming to help.

  If Benny didn’t kill them first. “You’d better run, Benny. They’re coming for you. Do you want to go to jail, Benny? Do you?”

  If they kept his attention divided between them, they might have time to stay alive. Might.

  Brynna pulled herself to her feet, but Benny was on her, yanking on her shirt until it ripped. He forced her to the floor. She cried out.

  Fire ran through her back and into her side, robbing Brynna of all breath.

  Something dug into the flesh of her side. Brynna kicked at him.

  Brynna shot out her foot and it connected with the target. The small, deadly metal. The gun skittered across the floor.

  Right toward Gabby. “Gabby!”

  CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE.

  ***

  THANK God Brynna was ok. That was the only thought Gabby was capable of making right then.

  She screamed along with Brynna, hoping that the man wouldn’t be able to deal with the both of them at once. That might be able to buy them time. Elliot and the others would be coming for them, right?

  Time, they had to buy themselves some time. Keep his attention divided between them.

  She knew procedure, and knew Elliot would say screw procedure. He was out there, trying to get to her. She had no doubt about that. They just had to keep Benny from killing them before help could arrive.