Chapter 5 #2
“Oh my god.” Claire sank into her chair. “My texts to my parents. I told them I was going away for work. I didn’t say where, but—”
“But your Bureau emails did,” Garrett finished. “Did you access work email from this phone?”
“Yes. I—I wasn’t thinking. I was packing, I checked my email one last time before I left D.C.” She looked at him, horror in her eyes. “He saw it. He saw the protective detail authorization.”
“Which is how he found you.” Garrett turned to Lynx. “Destroy it. Now.”
Lynx nodded before exiting the room with the phone.
Claire looked like she might be sick. “This is my fault. I led him right here.”
“You’ve been under a lot of stress.” Vivi’s voice was gentle. “And he would have found another way. Predators like this don’t stop. They adapt.”
“Doc is right.” Garrett sat down across from Claire. Made her look at him. “You couldn’t have known. But now we do. Which means we lock everything down. No personal devices. No outgoing communications. Nothing he can trace.”
“Agreed.” Claire took a breath, steadied herself. “What else do you need from me?”
He leaned back. This was going to hurt. But it had to be asked. “I need to know who you suspect.”
“What?”
“Someone installed that spyware. Someone with access to your phone. Your apartment. Your life.” He kept his voice even. “Who has that kind of access? A boyfriend? Neighbor? A coworker?”
“I don’t—” She shook her head. “There is no boyfriend, and no one from work has ever been to my apartment. I don’t know my neighbors that well.”
“Which means he either has keys or knows how to bypass your security.” Garrett had Lynx pull up building schematics on the screen. “Your apartment building—who has master keys?” he asked.
“Building management. Maintenance staff.”
Lynx returned and gave him a nod to assure him the phone and spyware had been destroyed. Too little, too late, but they had no option but to move forward.
“I need their names,” Garrett said to Claire. “All of them.”
Claire rattled off several. Lynx started running background checks immediately.
“What about at headquarters?” Garrett asked. “Who has access to your office?”
“Everyone in my unit. Support staff. IT department.”
“I need their names, too.”
“You need the entire FBI employee list?”
“I’ll handle it,” Vivi said, touching her tablet.
Garrett nodded. “Tell me about SAC Reeves,” he said to Claire.
Her head snapped up. “What about him?”
“How long have you known him?”
“Five years. Since I joined the Bureau.”
“How well do you know him?”
“He’s my supervisor. My mentor.” Her voice had an edge now. “What are you asking?”
“I’m asking if there’s any reason to suspect him.”
Her body went rigid. “Marcus Reeves has thirty years of service.” She stood, her hands flat on the table as she leaned toward him. “He’s one of the most decorated agents in the Bureau. He’s been my advocate, my teacher, my friend.”
“Which makes him the perfect person to have access to your location, your schedule, your vulnerabilities.” Garrett kept his voice level. He flicked his gaze to Lynx. “I need to know if he has any financial problems or relationship issues. Anything that could make him vulnerable to compromise.”
Claire’s voice rose a notch. “You’re accusing my SAC of being the Countdown Killer?”
“I’m accusing no one. I’m investigating everyone.”
“These are my people, Wolf.” Her voice shook with barely controlled anger. “People I trust with my life.”
“And one of them might be trying to end it.” He stood, placed his own hands on the table, and met her eyes. “That spyware didn’t install itself. Someone had physical access to your phone. Someone close to you.”
“It could have been anyone—”
“No. It couldn’t.” Lynx pulled up the tech specs on the main screen. “This is military-grade surveillance software. It requires specialized knowledge to install. Hell, I almost didn’t find it.”
Garrett studied it for a long moment, then turned back to Claire. “Whoever installed this is law enforcement or intelligence. My guess is intelligence. Someone with training and access.”
Claire stared at the data. He could see her mind working. Her profiler’s brain was connecting dots she didn’t want to connect. “You think it’s someone at the Bureau,” she said with no emotion now.
She was slowly coming on board. He hated forcing her to face facts, but it had to be done. “I think it’s someone with access, knowledge, and opportunity. That fits a lot of people at the Bureau.”
Her voice was so quiet, it was nearly a whisper. “Including Reeves.”
“Including Reeves.”
She turned away, arms crossed. He could see her shoulders shaking. Not with fear. With fury.
“We need everything on him,” Garrett said to Vivi. “His work history. His associates. His communications with Claire. Travel logs. Everything.”
Claire whirled on him. “You want me to investigate my own SAC.”
“I want you to help me eliminate him as a suspect. If he’s clean, the investigation proves it. If he’s not—”
“He’s clean,” Claire snapped. “Marcus Reeves is a good man.”
He nodded. “Then proving it should be easy.”
“You don’t understand. These people are my family. My team. They’ve had my back for five years. They’ve kept me alive.”
Garrett couldn’t keep the frustration out of his voice. “Until someone in the group began stalking you. Or at the very least, gave your stalker a way to follow you no matter where you go.”
Claire flinched. “SAC Reeves is the one who sent me here. If he’s the Countdown Killer, why would he do that? You’re not being logical.”
Vivi stood. “Wolf is right, Agent Dawson.” At Claire’s fiery look, she cleared her throat. “Claire. And you’re right, too—it doesn’t make sense that Marcus would send you here if he were the killer. But we have to consider all possibilities.”
Claire looked at Vivi. Then at Garrett. Then down at her hands. Garrett watched the wheels in her head spinning. She was damn good at her job, but she was also too close to this. It was messing with her head.
“What do you need?” Her voice came out resigned.
He and Vivi exchanged a loaded look. They’d won this scrimmage, but not the war. Not yet.
Vivi sat again. “I’ll do the background checks, but we need you to tell us everything you can about your team. Your support staff. Anyone with access to your case files or your location. Especially their personalities and any odd quirks or insight into their psychological strengths and weaknesses.”
Claire nodded, sat back down, and after a moment, started talking.
Lynx took notes. Vivi ran searches in real-time. Garrett listened to the tone of Claire’s voice, mentally noting when she talked about anyone who made the timbre change or made her tense. She probably didn’t even realize she was doing it.
It took an hour. By the end, Claire looked exhausted, defeated.
But they had what they needed—a list of suspects. People to investigate. Leads to follow.
“One more thing,” Garrett said. “I’m instituting a new protocol. I’m moving into your room. Twenty-four-seven protection.”
Claire looked up. “Moving in?”
He nodded. “Until we neutralize the threat.”
“Can’t you guard me from the hallway like you’ve been doing? I can leave the door unlocked.”
“No.” He pulled up compound schematics. “Your room has a window and is part of the ventilation system that connects to the outside. If he breaches the perimeter, I need to be directly between him and you.”
Her voice rose again. “You think he could breach the perimeter? How? You’ve got layers and layers of security.”
“We do, and I trust it, but systems fail. We will not underestimate him.”
“We can put you in a closed environment with no windows,” Vivi said, “but it’s still connected to the ventilation system, and it’s rather…sparse.”
Claire studied the schematics. “Fine,” she said on a heavy sigh. She was an agent. She understood tactical reasoning. “But I need boundaries. At least a little personal space.”
Garrett had expected no less. “Understood. I’ll stay near the door. I won’t follow you into the bathroom, but you’ll have time limits on showers, and you can’t lock the bathroom door. You won’t even know I’m there.”
She looked at him—six feet two inches of armed SEAL—and something that might have been amusement flickered in her eyes. “Right. I definitely won’t notice you.”
Was that almost a smile?
He moved his gear into her room an hour later. Go-bag, weapons, tactical equipment, all ready. Then, he set up a position near the door—chair, sleeping bag on the floor.
“I’ll be here,” he said as much to himself as to her. “Between you and any threat.”
Claire slumped onto her bed, arms wrapped around herself. “This is surreal.”
“It’s also necessary.”
“I know.” She looked at him. “I’m sorry I fought you about Reeves. About the team. I know you’re doing your job.”
“No apology necessary. None of us wants to consider that our friends, family, or coworkers could be monsters.”
“Yeah. It hurts.” She pulled her knees up to her chest. “These people are my family. The idea that one of them could be—”
“I hope you’re right about them,” he said. “I hope they’re all clean. But I have to check. You understand that.”
“I do.” She was quiet for a moment. “For what it’s worth, thank you. For taking this seriously. For protecting me.”
“It’s what I do.”
“It’s more than that.” Her eyes met his. “You could have assigned this to Grizzly or Hawk. But you’re here. Why?”
Because I promised your best friend I’d take care of you. Because I failed once, and I won’t fail again. Because you’re CJ, and I can’t lose you, too.
“I’m the Commander. I lead by example, and your safety is on me,” he said.
The weight of those words hung in the air.
Claire nodded slowly. “I feel safer with you than anyone else.”
His chest squeezed. He gave a nod. “Good. That’s exactly what I’m here for.”
Garrett checked his watch. Two A.M. Neither of them was sleeping.
He sat in the chair, weapon in hand, blocking the door and keeping an eye on the window. He’d checked the lock three times and made sure the curtains were drawn tight.
Claire lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. “Wolf?” Her voice was quiet in the darkness.
“Yeah?”
“About earlier. When I asked about your sister.” She paused. “I’m sorry I pushed. That was out of line.”
His stomach tightened. “Don’t worry about it.”
“For what it’s worth, I understand that pain. Losing someone and wondering if you could have saved them. If you could have done something differently.”
“Yeah. I know you do.”
He felt her shift to look at him. “Do you ever stop wondering?” she asked.
“No, but you learn to live with it.”
“How?”
“You save the next person. And the next one. And the one after that.” His eyes met hers across the dim room. “Until maybe one day, the scales balance.”
Claire tugged the blanket closer around herself. “Do they ever? Balance?”
“I’ll let you know if I get there.” He saw her nod. “I know it’s hard to shut down your brain, but try to get some sleep. We have a long day tomorrow, and I need you sharp.”
“What about you? When will you sleep?”
“I’ll sleep when you’re secure.”
She sank back down, turning toward the wall. “Thank you.”
The words settled into his chest. He leaned back in the chair and focused on her breathing as it smoothed out and grew deeper.
A few hours later, there was a knock on the door.
Garrett moved automatically, weapon out and positioning himself between the door and Claire. “Who is it?”
“Vivi,” came the reply.
He popped open the door. The doctor had been up all night. Her hair was pulled back, exhaustion in her eyes, but something else too.
Fear.
“I need to show you both something,” she said.
Claire was already out of bed and standing next to him. “What is it?”
Vivi entered. “I’ve been working on the Trident profile since we parted. Cross-referencing the Countdown Killer’s behavior patterns with historical case data.” She pulled up her analysis. “The way he targets survivors. The way he references their original trauma. The specific details he knows.”
“And?” Garrett asked.
“He knows too much.” Vivi’s voice was tight. “Details about the victim’s orginial attacks. Details about Lily Harper’s murder that weren’t in public case files.”
Claire went pale. “I’ve been over those case files and didn’t pick up anything like that.”
“Not about Lily. About you.” Vivi met Claire’s eyes. “About what happened between you that night. Outside of the facts you shared with law enforcement and your family that were never reported to the public, things only you and the killer would know.”
Garrett’s blood went cold.
“My interviews were all sealed,” Claire said. “None of it was made public.”
Vivi only nodded, staring at Claire, as if she could will her to understand.
And then Claire did. “You’re saying the Countdown Killer has access to sealed case files?” Claire asked. “My files.”
“Or he was there,” Garrett said. “He was a witness. That’s how he knew about the bracelet.”
Claire stumbled back several feet. “No, there was no one there. There were no witnesses besides me and Lily.”
“And the killer, Collin Brands,” Vivi added.
Claire was shaking. “But he’s dead.”
Vivi was quiet for a long moment. “I think the Countdown Killer didn’t just study Lily’s case.
” She glanced between them. “I think he knew Brands. He may have even worked with him, learned from him.” She paused, focusing on Claire.
“You were highly traumatized that night. You suffered from a concussion. He might have been there, Claire, and you just don’t remember. ”
All the color drained from her face. “You’re saying the Countdown Killer was there the night Lily died?”
“I’m saying he knows things only someone there could know.” Vivi pulled up more data. “In one note, he mentions you slipped and fell. In another, that you lost your shoe when you ran.” Her eyes met Claire’s. “He was either there, or Brands shared those details with him before he died.”
Claire’s voice shook. “So the Countdown Killer has been watching me for fifteen years?”
Garrett forced himself to stay calm. “Why wait till now to target her, Doc?”
“Because something has triggered him. It might even be the fifteenth anniversary.”
Claire pinched her eyes shut. “Of course. The anniversary of Lily’s death is in three days.
” She opened her eyes and locked on to Garrett’s.
His stomach was a rolling ball of centipedes.
He’d been marking off the days, but it hadn’t clicked for him either until right now.
“That’s what all of this has been building up to, and I didn’t even see it. What kind of agent am I?”
He couldn’t stop himself. He reached out and squeezed her arm. “He’s been playing a game with you. It’s time for us to turn the tables on him.”
She moved closer, staring up into his eyes. “How?”
He forced a grim smile. “Thought you’d never ask.”