28. Gabriel #2
“No, thank you for informing me right away.” He nods and steps toward me. “Hello, my name is Agent Scott Callahan. I work with the Federal Bureau of Investigations and am the one who has been assigned to Victor ‘Snake’ Cordova’s case for the past four years.”
I stand and shake his hand. “Gabriel Ellis, Ronnie’s partner.”
At that moment, Ronnie and Noah re-enter the room. “Agent Callahan?”
He turns and smiles warmly at her. “Hello, Veronica. It is nice to see you in person again, although I’m sorry it must be under such circumstances once more.”
“So am I.” She sighs, shaking his hand, then sitting back down on the couch.
“Noah Adler, Veronica’s partner.” Noah takes his hand as well.
Scott chuckles when he catches on to our relationship. “Agent Scott Callahan.”
Noah takes his spot as well as we look up at everyone standing in our living room. “What do we do now? How the hell did he even get into the penthouse? You need a keycard to access the elevator. How come your men and cameras didn’t pick him up?” Noah asks Julian furiously.
“Because he never came into the building,” Julian says calmly.
“What do you mean he never came in?! He was clearly here!” I’m getting aggravated. They are supposed to be the best in the business, yet Victor got by them.
“What I mean is that he never entered nor exited the building, at least not in a way that can be detected. We have access to every camera in this building. Jessie and his team have been going over this past week’s footage with facial recognition, and he has not appeared once.
Not even someone with a similar look or build. ”
“How is that even possible…” I mumble to myself.
“As for the lobby footage, the only people who have used your private elevator are yourselves and a man by the name of Graham Stevenson, who escorted a deliveryman with groceries. Which means he came in from the underground garage. Unfortunately, the camera for the garage does not give us a clear view of the elevators, but we will be rectifying that immediately.”
“Oh my God… he’s still in the building…” Ronnie stares ahead with wide, terrified eyes.
“That’s what we believe. I’m working on getting a search warrant for every condo in this building, but it will take some time,” Agent Callahan informs us.
“But wait, that dress he picked out was one I wore a week ago. He was clearly at the club or near it to have seen me, which means he had to have left the building that night.” Ronnie shakes her head with confusion.
“Like Julian said, he wasn’t on any of the cameras. So if he is coming and going, he’s doing it in a way that can’t be seen,” Jessie says.
“Which means?” I ask.
“The only way I can think of is in the back of a car, which tells us he has inside help. And since he clearly has a keycard, I’d put my finger on it being an employee.” Jessie sits down beside me and turns the laptop toward him, typing away on it once more.
“Jess, get your team to go through everyone who lives in this building, every employee, every friend of a friend of a friend. Distant family, everything,” Julian instructs his brother.
“Already on it.”
“We will be changing the codes for the pad to the elevator and giving you new cards,” Julian tells us.
“Isn’t that all kind of illegal?” I raise a curious brow.
Jessie chuckles. “Let’s just say it’s in the gray zone.” That’s what I thought.
“And you’re letting them do this?” Noah asks Agent Callahan.
He shrugs. “Look, my only goal is to catch this fucker. If I have to turn a blind eye to this in order to catch him, I will.”
“Should we move out? Go stay somewhere else until he’s caught?” Ronnie asks next.
“No. Staying here is our best option.” Callahan shakes his head.
“You’re joking, right? You want us to just stay here and sit around until he shows his face again?” I gape at him, completely astounded by his decision.
“I understand you are all worried right now. But my guess is he won’t show his face again for a few weeks. If he’s smart, which unfortunately he is, he’ll lay low for a while in hopes that we give up our thorough search. You running will only make it harder for us to catch him.”
“He is right,” Julian starts. “We have it narrowed down now to where he can be; it will be easier to search for him this way, rather than starting off somewhere new. He may be smart, but his obsession with Veronica is what will get him caught.”
“And you guys acting as if his presence isn’t bothering you will only make him act out more, make him come out of hiding.
He wants you afraid, he wants you to run.
But once he sees that his plans aren’t working, he’ll make himself known, and that’s when we’ll be able to catch him.
” Jason speaks for the first time since he entered the room.
That man is so quiet, despite his huge form, it’s easy to forget he’s even here.
Ronnie chews on her lip, still not certain that staying is the best option for us.
“Look, Ronnie.” Jessie reaches over and places his hand on her knee.
Noah and I both look at it with a frown.
“I get that you don’t trust us for now, but I promise you, we’re the best at this.
We’ll catch him, and we’ll keep you safe.
Do you really want to keep running forever?
Or would you rather stick this out a bit longer so that you can finally be free of him for good? ”
“I want him gone… I don’t want to be scared anymore,” she admits in a quiet, broken voice. Fuck, I hate seeing her like this.
“Then trust me when I say this will work. We’ll get him, and he’ll never bother you again.” He smiles tenderly as she nods.
But the fucker still hasn’t removed his hand, so I pick it up, squeeze his wrist a little harder than necessary, and throw it back his way. All he does is chuckle and shake his head, going back to his computer. Asshole.
“We will be adding two more guards to your watch, and Jessie’s team will be keeping an eye on camera footage around the clock.
So please, limit your late-night activities to the bedroom until this is all over,” Julian says, then pulls out his phone, tapping away on it once more, then placing it back inside his suit jacket’s inner pocket.
“Jess, can you head down with Agent Callahan and get to work on the new keycards as well as putting up a camera near the elevators in the garage and inside the cab? I want full coverage of the underground space, no blind spots.” Julian comes over just as Jessie stands and walks to the elevator with the agent.
He sits down in Jessie’s spot and pulls something up on the laptop screen before passing it over to Ronnie.
“Veronica, I want you to go through all these pictures. Tell me if someone stands out that you recognize outside of here. Not because they work or live here, but because you have seen them in the past somewhere else.”
“Okay.” She leans in, going over every single image. There has to be at least two hundred of them, and I don’t recognize three-quarters of these people.
After about twenty minutes of her scrutinizing every picture, she sits back and shakes her head. “I don’t recognize any of these people outside of here. No one stands out. I’m sorry.”