Chapter Nine #2
Tanner straightened and helped Bree make it to the car, as Whitaker was getting her laptop out for her.
She collapsed, sitting cross-legged on the front lawn, and began typing at a frantic pace.
Tanner stood guard over her and let her work.
Letting her get the code out now, while it was still fresh in her brain was critical.
Ten minutes later Penelope walked over. Bree was still typing at a frantic pace. “You guys okay?”
“Yeah. Just give her a chance to work.”
“Did she get hurt? Her nose is bleeding.”
Tanner had been watching that drop of blood leak slowly from Bree’s nose for the last five minutes. There was nothing more he wanted to do than wipe it away but knew it wasn’t a priority. “Yeah, she’s taxing her brain pretty hard.”
“What exactly is she doing?”
“She has a unique gift in how she sees and remembers computer coding. Almost a photographic memory. She’s re-creating what she can remember and will extrapolate the rest from what she finds.”
Jeremy walked up beside Penelope. “Damn. I’ve heard of stuff like this, but never actually seen it.”
Tanner shrugged. “Bree is the best on the planet. She said we’ve got to catch this guy before the next transmission goes live or else he’ll be clued in that we are onto him. He may already be clued in.”
Penelope shot them a worried glance. “That’s less than thirty minutes. Do you have any idea how long this is going to take her?”
“No. But I do know she’s aware of the time crunch and is doing the best she can.”
“We won’t make the mistake of doubting her again,” Penelope said. “Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help.”
“Just be ready to move when she is.”
brEE FELT LIKE she was coming out of a dream.
But a dream where she had been held down and kicked in the head multiple times.
“I’m done.” Her voice sounded much weaker than she had intended it to, reminding her of the weeks after she’d been strangled, when her voice wouldn’t work no matter how hard she tried to make it.
She cleared her throat and tried again. “I’m done.” Much better. “The program I built is tracing his and we should have a location any minute now.”
She tried to stand up but dizziness immediately assaulted her.
“Whoa, there.” Tanner’s arm wrapped around her, and a water bottle was lifted to her mouth. She gratefully drank, then didn’t argue when Tanner forced a candy bar up to her lips.
“Did everybody make it out of the fire okay?”
It felt so good to rest against Tanner’s chest as he pulled her against him. “Yes. You, me and Whitaker were the last ones out. Bastard set the whole house to burn.”
“We’re going to catch him. What I was able to remember was more than enough.”
He kissed her forehead. “You’re spooky scary when that giant brain of yours gets going. Sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Now that was what she wanted to hear. “Then how about we catch this guy and you take me to the hotel and show me exactly how sexy you think it is.”
“That would be my pleasure.”
Bree’s computer chirped. She pushed away from Tanner, ignoring the dizziness.
“That’s it. We’ve got him.” She turned the computer toward Tanner. “This general area. It will get more specific as we get closer.”
Tanner took the computer and showed it to the blonde perfect lady. Bree didn’t even try to remember her name this time.
The blonde nodded and called out to everyone. “Warehouse district on the south side. Let’s move!”
Tanner helped Bree back into the car. She was having a hard time keeping her eyes open, much less focusing.
Whitaker climbed into the back seat and Tanner reached over from the driver’s seat and grabbed her hand, bringing it up to his lips.
“I know you’re tired. Hang with us just a few more minutes. ”
She nodded. But the next thing she knew, Tanner was squeezing her hand and shaking her awake.
“We’re closer, freckles. I need you to give me as much detail about the location as possible.”
Bree forced herself to focus, clicking the keys to get the information they needed. The characters were blurry and she had to blink multiple times to get them clear. Finally, she read him an address. Whitaker immediately repeated it over his phone to the other cars.
“My program isn’t running anymore, so that should be the final address,” she said.
“This place makes a hell of a lot more sense than a residential neighborhood,” Whitaker responded. “Much more isolated, much easier to move a kidnap victim or body.”
Bree nodded. It was all she could do to keep her eyes open. “You guys have to be careful. At the very least he knows somebody found his secret room.”
“But he doesn’t know you figured out what computer he was using,” Tanner said.
“That’s true. He’ll probably still want to shut everything down, but maybe he thinks he has more time and won’t do anything drastic.”
Like kill the victim outright.
Bree couldn’t stand the thought that they might lose her this close to saving her life.
Five minutes later they were pulling up in front of what looked to be an abandoned warehouse. Bree tried to focus but found herself continuously closing her eyes.
“You rest now.” Tanner kissed her forehead. “You’ve done your part. Let them do theirs.”
“You’re not going in?” The thought did not make her sad at all.
“I’ll do whatever they need me to, but this is Penelope’s call.”
Penelope. The blonde. Bree’s eyes drifted closed, a scowl on her lips at the other woman’s name.
“IS SHE OUT?” Whitaker asked as he opened the door.
Tanner got out too. “Yes. Her body is done.”
They jogged over to the other car parked a few yards from them.
“SWAT wants us to wait,” Penelope said. “But they are twenty minutes out. We definitely don’t have that kind of time.”
“Bree says the guy definitely knows we’re onto him. He might not know we’re closing in on him now, but he’s going to be much more wary,” Tanner told them.
“Even more reason to move in now.” Penelope turned to the uniformed officer who had followed them from the house. “Kelly, you stay here. Keep an eye on Bree and make sure our perp doesn’t get away if he comes running out the front door.”
Young officer Kelly nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Penelope looked over at Tanner and he gave her a nod. Knowing someone had Bree’s back freed him up to go inside.
Penelope turned to them. “Okay, people, we’re going in there blind, so be careful. Leon and I will take the front door. Whit, you and Tanner take the back.”
They didn’t waste any time. Tanner and Whitaker made their way around the back of the building, opening a rusty door as quietly as possible.
As soon as they were inside, they realized there hadn’t really been any need to be quiet.
Someone was screaming their head off so loudly, hearing anything was damn near impossible.
“Please! The water! Please, he turned it up!”
Tanner and Whitaker both darted in the direction of the voice. They both knew it could be a trap, but they weren’t going to leave a woman to die.
Thankfully she kept screaming, leading them deeper into the warehouse, where four walls had been set up to give the appearance of a small room. There wasn’t even a proper door.
This was where the footage had come from.
As Tanner and Whitaker stormed inside the facade, the woman let out a terrified shriek garbled by the water that was now about to cover her face. There was no sign of the killer anywhere, and nowhere he could hide.
Tanner kneeled down and reached under the woman’s head to lift her farther out of the water.
“There’s a man,” she said, struggling to get in air. “I—I—”
Tanner nodded. “Shh. Just focus on breathing. We’ll catch the guy who put you in here.”
Whitaker already had his phone out and on speaker. “Penelope, we’ve got the victim alive, but there’s no sign of the kidnapper.”
“We just spotted him coming out of the Northwest corner of the building.” Penelope’s voice was labored, obviously running. “Stay with the victim. Leon and I will catch him. Backup is en route.”
Whitaker turned to Tanner, taking in the situation. “Let me get the water turned off and find something for us to bail out some of it, before it covers her face.”
They wouldn’t be able to get her out of her shackles until more specialized help arrived.
All they could do was keep her alive until then.
Whitaker shut off the hose that was raining down the water then found an empty cup.
It wasn’t much, but now that water wasn’t filling the box, it was enough for them to keep the woman from drowning.
They both tried to talk soothingly to her as they got out as much water as they could.
Tanner didn’t recognize her as anyone famous, but he didn’t live around here.
His best guess was that she was in her thirties.
She had reddish-blond hair and, like Shelby and Kelly Quinn, was about five foot three and one hundred pounds.
Tanner reached down into the water and grabbed the woman’s hand, both to offer comfort and to stop her from pulling at the restraints. “Hey, what’s your name?”
“Jean Adams,” she finally managed to get out.
“You’re doing so great, Jean, okay? We’re not going to leave you. Someone is going to be with you every second until they get you out of here, okay?”
She nodded, her breathing already a little bit steadier.
Tanner looked over at Whitaker and raised an eyebrow. Whitaker shook his head and shrugged. Evidently Jean Adams wasn’t a celebrity to him either.
Whitaker continued to bail out water and Tanner held Jean’s hand, talking to her about almost-nonsensical things.
He didn’t want to question her about anything important or difficult and cause her to get upset again.
It wasn’t long before the other members of the Dallas PD were coming through the door.
But nothing was as good as the text Whitaker got just a few minutes later from Penelope. He turned it around so Tanner could read it himself.
Fleeing suspect apprehended and in custody.
It was over.