Chapter 26 #2
Odin listened to my off-the-wall rambling, but instead of calling me crazy, he looked thoughtful. “I think you might be on to something here. Call Black.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. I don’t know his number.”
“It’s in my phone,” he said.
I again shook my head. “I’m just going to go to the station. They’re only a couple of blocks away.”
His eyes looked worried. “Ask Bells to go with you.”
I looked out the front door. “Is he still there?”
He shrugged. “Might be.”
I left. “I’ll keep you updated. Also, I didn’t lock the office door.”
Odin called out, “I got it.”
Bells wasn’t at the door. He was back across the street talking to some other person who wasn’t Mr. Salesman.
I didn’t bother to go over there. Instead, I took off at a jog and arrived at the police station long minutes later wheezing and promising myself that I would seriously start working out one of these days.
I didn’t stop to talk to Kelly, just hurried past her despite her yelling out, “You can’t go in there!”
I burst through the doors, spotted Gentry in a glass room off to the right, and all but ran inside.
I didn’t notice who else was in the room with him when I set everything out on the table and verbal word vomited everything to him.
Well, and Black, who had come closer at some point during my rambling.
It was only after I was done, and the silence became quite oppressive, that I realized that I wasn’t in the room with only Black and Gentry.
There were several other people in that room as well. A gorgeous blonde female. A redheaded man who looked like I’d just stuck his dick in an ant pile, and a studious-looking nerd guy that looked ever so thoughtful.
“It could work,” the nerd said.
The woman and the angry man, however, didn’t agree.
The man stood up and leaned over the table. “Who are you?”
I looked to Gentry to answer, but Black had somehow maneuvered him out of the room in the few seconds I’d been looking away.
Black was talking to him and pointing to the room to the left. When Gentry looked ready to come back inside, Black poked him in the chest, leaned in, and whispered something that had Gentry stiffening.
“You are?” the man repeated.
“Sage Kelly,” I blurted out without thinking.
I instantly cursed myself for using Kelly, seeing as it was supposed to be Ryan now.
Black came back inside and said, “Sage is a nurse in town.”
I looked at the scary FBI people, then Black, and back to the scary FBI people.
“How did you know where to look for this woman?”
I bit my lip. “What do you mean?”
Was I in trouble here? I was just trying to help!
“What do you mean how did I know?” I asked. “I found it using the available information handed to me. How about we focus on the information I brought in just now?”
Because, why weren’t they all jumping on this?
“You had to know where to look and who to look for,” the man reiterated. “This isn’t just a thing you go searching for and say ‘oh, hey. This lady looks like a good person to stalk on Facebook.’”
I nearly rolled my eyes.
But then a thought occurred to me. Did they suspect me here?
“I looked for her on social media because I was semi-sort-of brought into the investigation,” I pointed out.
“I mean, I wouldn’t have thought to look for a woman linked to the little boys’ kidnappings.
I would’ve been looking for a man. I wouldn’t have known to look for a woman if I hadn’t gotten the information from a reliable source. ”
“And who is your source?”
I couldn’t very well say Gentry.
I mean, technically, he hadn’t been the one to tell me.
I’d gotten up one morning and seen all the files on the kitchen table.
When I’d gone to snoop, I’d read the information in the files and just started to put two and two together.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I asked.
“Yes,” he leaned forward. “I would. Or I wouldn’t be asking, Mrs. Ryan.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “What did you say that your name was again?”
“FBI Special Agent Ambrose Dunn.”
“Listen, Mr. Dunn…” I started, rubbing at my temples.
“I’m not quite sure why I’m being questioned here when I brought some really valid information to the table.
I’m a nurse. I pulled those kids’ files.
And I found that parkour teacher. It’s awfully coincidental that she’s on bereavement leave for a child no one knew she was pregnant with.
She has no husband or boyfriend in any of her social media posts.
And leading up to just two months before she went on ‘maternity leave’ she wasn’t pregnant in any of the photos that she was pictured in. ”
Agent Dunn threw up his hands. “I’ve told you why you’re here several times!”
“No, you want to know how I knew where to look for this woman. I told you that I got the information that y’all were looking for women of a certain age group, a certain demographic, and someone that has a lot of contact with children.
So I started doing a social media search after I found this woman’s name in patient files.
I just got into some groups and just started… researching.”
“You don’t just get onto the internet and start looking like that unless you have an idea of what you’re looking for.”
I snorted. “No, you’re wrong. I’ll bet every single woman you know between the ages of thirteen and forty-five can get onto the internet and sleuth their way through social media trying to find information on people.
I’ll bet your partner there has done her fair share of social media stalking herself. ”
Agent Dunn looked at his partner, Agent Guerrero.
She shrugged. “I’ve done a lot of research on dates.
Before the FBI, I used to be in a group that was named ‘Are we dating the same guy?’ You posted the guy’s name and everyone came out of the woodwork to share everything they know about said guy.
Trust me when I say, if a woman wants to know the information, she’ll find it. Which I already told you.”
It was good to know that this woman seemed to be on my side here.
Kind of?
Black finally spoke. “I think we should stop questioning Sage here and start looking into Paola Marren.”
“Agreed,” the nerdy guy spoke up again. “While you’ve been pissy, Dunn, I’ve started compiling a little list. I think all of this fits. Contact with children. Fake pregnancy. Trying to fill the hole with kidnapped children.”
He said some more stuff, but Black was inching me out of the room.
Black had me in what looked like his office without the three mean FBI people noticing.
Gentry was there with his arms crossed over his chest looking pissed.
I looked at the man who was supposed to have my back. “What the hell? Why didn’t you share with them how I got that information?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Because Black told me not to.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because Dunn’s a smart cookie,” Black answered for him, coming into the room and shutting the door. “So is Dempsey. We don’t need them looking into Gentry as an officer.” He leveled me with a look. “For obvious reasons.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it.
He was right.
Gentry didn’t need a spotlight shining on him.
Then again, neither did I…
“The same could be said about me,” I pointed out.
“Yes, but you’re a civilian. It’s easier to explain away you ignoring protocols since you’re not law-bound to follow the rules.
You can get away with things that we can’t.
You are a loose cannon, they think ‘oh, she’s just a crazy lady.
’ Gentry gets tagged as a loose cannon, and all of a sudden my department, Gentry, and the entire town gets a light shined on it.
And I know you know as well as I do that we need this place to have as low visibility as possible. ”
I sighed. “I felt humiliated. They treated me like a criminal.”
Gentry pulled me into his arms. “Was this what the call was about earlier?”
I narrowed my eyes up at him. “The one you ignored?”
His lips twitched.
“Black!”
Black sighed. “I’ll handle this. Gentry, you hold down the fort here while we go check it out.”
Black’s office door closed, and then I focused once again on Gentry.
He looked down into my eyes as he said, “I’ve missed you.”
I pouted. “You’ve been busy.”
He leaned down and rubbed his lips against my own. “I know, but that’s not a really good excuse. I’ve been all over the place.”