Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
The next afternoon . . .
“Your girl has good instincts.”
“She’s not my girl.” Emmet shut his laptop and glanced up as the team’s tech guru made his way into the office.
Blake plopped down into one of the two chairs facing Emmett’s desk with his blue eyes looking as if they wanted to roll. “Fine. Our client has good instincts.”
Client. Exactly.
That’s what Janie Reynolds was. It was all she was. Hard stop.
She wasn’t his girl.
A sexy journalist with stunning eyes, gorgeous hair, and a smile that had made his heart flip at first sight? Oh, yeah. The woman was all those things and more. But they didn’t matter.
Janie had hired him and his team to help in the search for a missing White House intern. Period. Not only that, but she was also Echo Team’s first official client.
So no, he wouldn’t let the unusually strong attraction he felt toward the gorgeous brunette interfere with the ability to do his job. Leading R.I.S.C.’s newest team was an opportunity he had every intention of honoring.
“What did you find?”
Blake huffed out a breath as he sat back in the chair and put an ankle over one knee. “A whole lot of waving red flags, for one. And I’m pretty sure we’ve just scratched the surface.”
Red flags?
Emmett rested his elbows on top of the smooth surface of his desk and linked his fingers together. “Like what?”
“Draven just called. He and Gwen went to Amy’s apartment building, just like you asked.
They knocked on a few doors and talked to some of her neighbors.
About half of the people who live on her floor didn’t answer, so they’re going to meet up with the landlord at one of the guy’s other properties now and then swing back by for another try afterward. ”
“And the ones who were home?”
Blake shifted his body against the chair’s pristine leather.
“According to D, they all pretty much said the same thing. Amy’s a sweet girl who does things like opening doors and holding the elevators for others.
She always offers to help carry groceries if she’s around and is almost always wearing a smile.
” He paused. “They also haven’t seen or heard from her since the day she and Janie met. ”
Definitely not a good sign.
“What about cameras?” Emmett sat back in his chair, resting his elbows on the padded arm rests. “I’m assuming the building has them?”
“They do, but that’s where things really start to get interesting.
” A spark of intrigue lit up the man’s blue gaze.
“Gaining access to the building’s cameras was much harder than it should have been for your typical commercial housing system.
My interest was piqued even more when, after I finally got in, I discovered that the sixth-floor cameras appear to have .
. . malfunctioned . . . the night Janie was there. ”
Blake’s use of air quotes, along with the unexpected news in the Weaver woman’s building security, sent Emmett’s brows inward with a quick spike in his pulse.
“You mean, like a glitch?”
“That’s one way to put it.” The other man’s playful expression grew serious as he sat up straighter.
His strong features hardened slightly as he shared this next part.
“Forty-seven minutes before Janie was supposed to meet the Weaver woman at her apartment, someone hacked into the sixth-floor feed, uploaded a previous recording of that same hallway…empty…and then ran that recording on a constant loop.”
His pulse spiked with a kick of his heart. “So if someone from building security happened to check the feed at any point during that time, all they’d see would be—”
“A quiet, empty hallway.” Blake nodded. “And the only reason someone would go through that much trouble would be to gain access to the floor without any proof that they were there.”
Son of a—
“Janie was right.” Emmett met his teammate’s stare.
“There’s more.” Blake’s tone was solemn. “The Weaver woman had a separate security setup inside her apartment. High-end, expensive, and hard as hell to penetrate.”
“But not impossible?”
“Not if the person hacking into it knows what they’re doing.”
Despite the seriousness of their discussion, Emmett felt his lips curve into a slight grin. “Like you?”
“Me and whoever disabled the system three-and-a-half minutes after the loop of the hallway began.”
Three-and-a-half minutes?
The grin instantly fell. Blake was right. The red flags on this case were already flying damn high.
“First, the hallway feed is looped, and minutes later, Amy Weaver’s personal system goes completely dark?” Emmett blew out a breath. “No way that’s a coincidence.”
“My thoughts, exactly.”
A moment of silence passed between them before Emmett asked the brilliant man, “What’s your take on what happened?”
“Hard to say. I mean, there’s still so much we don’t know.
” Blake leaned forward to rest his forearms on his knees, linking his fingers loosely together.
“But do I think someone gained access to a White House intern’s apartment for the sole purpose of cleaning it spotless, the way Janie described?
No.” He shook his head from side-to-side firmly. “I don’t.”
Smartass.
“You said whoever did this is smart.” Emmett frowned. “And meticulous, from the sounds of it. So why not shut the door behind them when they left?”
“Maybe they got interrupted,” Blake guessed. “Or things could’ve taken longer than expected. Plus, if the person or persons responsible also somehow knew about Amy’s planned meeting with Janie, they would’ve known they were on a limited timeframe.”
The room grew quiet as the two men mulled over the possibilities regarding Amy Weaver’s disappearance. As of now, they were virtually endless, which in turn, made their job that much harder.
“How would they get her out of the building without anyone noticing?”
“They hacked into building security,” Blake started, working through the steps as if he had first-hand knowledge.
“Once that feed was on loop, they broke in without leaving so much as a mark before immediately disabling her personal system. Next, they moved in on their target, either killing the Weaver woman right away or rendering her unconscious. Once she was subdued, they either shoved her body into a large duffel bag or had some other means of removing her that didn’t cause suspicion.
From there, they accessed the service elevator.
The one solely used by the super and other building employees.
They took her to a vehicle that was parked in the alley out back, and poof.
” He settled back in the chair. “Just like that, she’s gone. ”
“You sound pretty sure of yourself.”
“I am.” A low smirk lifted one corner of Blake’s mouth.
“Why?”
“Easy.” The other man shrugged. “It’s how I would do it.”
Oddly, the statement gave a lot of credence to the man’s proposed scenario. To someone else, Blake probably sounded cocky as hell. That confidence, however, came with the receipts to back it up.
The man truly was a genius.
“They’d intercept the feed in the hall,” Blake surmised. “Take out the system inside the apartment and move in on their target.”
“You thinking this was done by a team?”
“No.” The former Naval Intelligence officer’s answer came without pause.
“At least, not for the snatch and grab. I mean, obviously, we still have no idea what’s even going on yet, let alone who’s involved.
There’s a good chance the suspect had someone working the tech stuff behind the scenes, but sending two people into Amy’s apartment immediately doubles the risk of being seen.
” Blake briefly considered his theory before adding an efficiently summed up, “One person went in, grabbed her, cleaned up the place, and left.”
But where did they take her . . . and why?
“CCTV?” Emmett stared at his friend from across the desk.
He had a litany of follow-up questions rolling through his mind, not the least of which was whether Amy Weaver was even still alive. The only path to finding a definitive answer was to figure out where she was taken.
“There’s a camera down the block from the building,” Blake shared.
“It caught a glimpse of a utility van approaching from the east. Its windows are heavily tinted, so it’s impossible to see anyone inside.
But it slows way down, as if it’s going to turn into the alley running along the back side of the building and goes out of view shortly before the feed to Amy’s hallway was tampered with.
Several minutes later, it exits the west side of the alley before going south. CCTV loses the van a few blocks later.”
It was thin at best, but at least it was something.
“You get a look at the plate?”
“There wasn’t one,” the other man revealed. “Not on the front, at least. Couldn’t see the back from that angle. But there is a bit of good news. Maybe.” A slight pause ensued before he explained, “There’s a logo on the side of the van. Bad news is, it’s blurry as hell.”
“Can you clean it up?”
“That’s the hope. I got it running through one of my programs as we speak. With any luck, I’ll have more on that front before I head home for the day.”
He glanced down at his watch, surprised to find the afternoon had all but flown by.
“You said Gwen and Draven were going back to the apartment building to have another go at the neighbors?”
“Yeah.” The new leather from Blake’s chair creaked as he stood.
“Oh, and Lucas is reaching out to Talia to see if she has an in at the White House. The hope is to get us more info on Amy’s job with the press office from a source we can trust. It’s possible she was working on a story that’s tied to her disappearance. ”
The woman he was referring to was Talia Foster-Brooks. Until recently, she was R.I.S.C.’s Homeland handler and had led both Echo Team and the men of Delta in a joint op at Chicago’s international port.