Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Emmett paced the length of his office trying to figure out the next step. It had been over an hour, and they were no closer to finding Janie than when they’d left the hospital.
Boone was on a much-needed coffee run at a small shop down the block that was open twenty-four-seven. Blake was at his computer, using his tech knowledge and skills to hopefully find something that would lead them to Janie.
While he did that, Gwen was in her office, scouring Janie’s phone for any possible clues. In the meantime, Lucas and Draven were in the conference room with their laptops, both men going back through CCTV footage.
The hope was they’d catch a break and get a glimpse of the van or the man from the hospital. Anything that might help, they were willing to try, no matter how bad the odds.
It hadn’t been said, but Emmett was pretty sure his team knew Janie was more than just a client. But even if she wasn’t, Emmett and the others would be putting forth the same, unwavering effort.
The reason was simple. They were Echo Team. As he’d recently told Janie, this was what they did.
Rescue, Intel, Security, and Capture.
It was the very core of every R.I.S.C. team.
Emmett’s desk phone rang, and he went over to answer it. Pushing a button, he placed the call on speaker.
“Yeah?”
“Hey. So I backtracked the file’s origin, but as I suspected, all it shows is it was originally downloaded onto the flash drive from a server within the White House. No surprise, since Amy worked there.”
His chest grew tight. “What about Janie?”
Please, God. Please let us find her before it’s too late.
Blake’s tone softened with regret. “Nothing yet, but I think I might be onto something. I’ll call you the second I know.”
Emmett pushed the button again and raked a hand through his hair. The waiting was absolute torture, but until they either got lucky or Blake’s genius finally paid off, he had no choice but to wait in his own personal hell.
He stood in that same spot for an indeterminant amount of time. His mind remained filled with worry and his heart hurt for a woman he didn’t want to live without.
Emmett’s desk phone rang again, snapping him out of the punishing trance.
“Yeah?” he answered the same way as before.
Blake’s voice held a touch of excitement that wasn’t there before. “Meet me in the conference room,” he said in a rush. “I think I’ve got something.”
There were no questions asked before Emmett dropped the phone’s receiver back into its cradle and rushed out of his office. In the conference room, he immediately found Blake, who was sitting across the table from Draven and Lucas.
Gwen came in half a beat after him.
“What’s going on?” The woman asked as soon as she came into the room.
But Emmett derailed her question with one of his own. “Were you able to trace the file’s origin?”
Blake turned his head their way. “Aside from knowing the download to the flash drive came from somewhere within the White House, no. I’m still running a few different programs, each one using a different algorithm to cross-reference signals found by—”
“In English,” Gwen cut the man off as she took the seat next to his.
With a roll of his eyes, the frustrated man relented and tried again.
“Anyway those programs are currently working in the background to find the areas of the city with the highest mathematical probability of being a kidnapper’s haven.
In the meantime, I went back to the conversation you and I had earlier.
” Blake’s attention was on Emmett. “Remember when you called from the hospital the first time, you asked me to look for info on Devon’s means of travel? ”
“I remember.” Emmett made his way closer to the table but didn’t sit.
“Boone and I were trying to figure out when and how she got to D.C. because Capitol Police didn’t find her car or any rental registered in her name.
And, as he put it, it wasn’t exactly the kind of neighborhood frequented by tourists, so it’s assumed whoever took her, drove her to that location for the sole purpose of doing a dump and run. ”
At the mention of the assault on Janie’s friend, Blake’s features grew hard as stone. A muscle twitched at the side of his jaw. But then he blinked, and just like that, the intriguing look was gone.
“Okay, so I started with commercial flight passenger logs,” the tech genius continued,” but she wasn’t listed on any flights coming in or going out of D.C. in the last week. I expanded that search, on the off chance she was somehow connected to the jerks behind the treasonous file.”
“And?” Lucas chimed in from across the table.
“And based off of what I just shared, her bank statements, and her car’s GPS system, this is the first time Devon’s ever been to the city.”
“Welcome to our Nation’s capital,” Gwen muttered sarcastically.
“Rental car?” Emmett guessed.
Blake shook his head. “Nope. No dice there, either.”
“Then how did she get here?” Lucas demanded. “I mean, it’s not like the woman walked.”
“You’re right.” Blake turned his attention to their team medic. “She didn’t. Which means the most likely mode of transportation had to be . . .”
He waited for someone to guess.
“Private jet?” Draven gave it a shot.
“Bingo.” Blake tapped a few keys and grabbed the nearby remote.
With the push of a button, the screen on the wall flashed to life and several digital documents appeared.
“These are the flight logs for every private jet that has flown from St. Louis, Missouri to D.C. within the last few days. There haven’t been many.
Six, to be exact. And only one of those is leased to a business here in town. ”
Blake pressed a few keys, and all but one of the documents vanished. All eyes zeroed in on the name typed in the third line down.
“Turner Psychiatric Group, LLC,” Emmett read the name aloud.
“Turner?” Gwen looked at Blake. “As in Dr. Michael Turner?”
Before the man could respond, Draven piped back in with, “Isn’t that the shrink who signed Amy Weaver’s trumped-up mental health records?”
Blake’s nodding head confirmed the man’s recollection.
“When did Turner’s jet make the trip from here to Missouri?” Emmett asked next.
“According to this, that same jet landed in St. Louis three days ago. And just two short hours later, it made a return flight back to D.C.”
Emmett processed what the verified data most likely meant. “So we’re thinking they grabbed Devon, put her onto the jet, flew her back here, and then what? Held her captive for more than two days before beating the hell out of her and tossing her into the street?”
The same look from before flashed across Blake’s chiseled features. When he spoke again, the man’s voice was lower and had grown much more serious.
“They held her because they were trying to see if she knew anything about the file.”
Gwen frowned. “If Janie really didn’t know the flash drive was in her purse, it only stands to reason that Devon had no idea, either.”
“A good point,” Blake agreed. “But if these guys looked into Janie the same way I did, they would have seen Devon dug into Amy Weaver’s background the same day she went missing.”
Draven grunted angrily. “Explains why they beat her.”
Emmett crossed his arms with a slight shift of his stance, his attention remaining locked on Blake.
With his elbows on the table, Lucas linked his hands together and looked Emmett’s way. “Just the fact that Devon looked into Amy at all would be enough to make these guys nervous.”
“Especially given the timing.” Draven’s head bobbed with agreement. “But since Janie’s already in D.C., they try going after her first. When that doesn’t work, they go after her friend.”
Gwen lifted a hand a few inches into the air. “But why try to kill Janie at all? If they needed information they thought she had, then taking her out makes no sense.”
Blake’s attention went back to Emmett. “That’s the other thing I found.
The guy who broke into her hotel room could have shot her and took off before we ever got off the elevator.
But he didn’t, and it got me thinking. So I pulled up the pics I took from the scene at the mansion to see if there was something we missed. ”
“You took pictures?” Gwen frowned. “For what? You have some sort of creepy-ass scrapbook?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Blake teased back.
Emmett sent them both an admonished scowl. “Can we please stay focused?”
The pair gave simultaneous apologies as matching looks of chagrin fell over both their faces.
“Sorry, boss,” Gwen offered softly.
Blake muttered a low, “My bad.”
Emmett blew out a breath and got back on track. “Blake, you were saying you found something from the safe house pics?”
The other man nodded. “When I looked at the spot where the first bullet hit the kitchen window, I realized the angle was off.”
“Off how?” Emmett wasn’t following what the genius was saying.
“Given the shooter’s height, where you said he was standing when he pulled the trigger, and where you said you and Janie were in relation to him . . .” Blake paused before finishing, his expression growing ominous. “I don’t think she’s the one he was trying to kill.”
He ran a hand over his jaw. “You’re sure?”
“As sure as I can be.”
Emmett’s back teeth ground together. “The hotel . . . the safe house . . . We had it wrong this whole time. The goal was never to kill her. They needed her alive, so she could give them what they want.”
He hadn’t anticipated an abduction attempt in the middle of a busy hospital. But he should have. He never should have let her out of his fucking sight.
An overwhelming sense of failure threatened to take control as the painful revelation struck.
“Don’t do that to yourself, Shaw.” Lucas sent him a knowing glance. “This isn’t on you.”
“I was supposed to protect her.”
“And you did,” his teammate countered. “No way you could’ve known some guy was lurking around the hospital bathroom on the off-chance Janie had to pee.”
“I should have known.”