27. Chapter 27 #2
I kept my sight pinned to Emile as he explained how the facial identification software he’d invented worked.
Facial features were clipped and scanned from the videos through the software and ran through a hacked government system to match the owner’s profile.
It was up to me to add the growing, assorted list that the rest of the CIPHER team had been working on.
Running them through searches to see if they had been reported missing, found dead, or alive and accounted for.
It seemed simple enough, and at least I wouldn’t be subjected to watching every gruesome and gory detail Wrangler documented.
I peeked over at Dax, who looked like he was fuming.
I didn’t care. I was the one who came to him to ask for his help, and I couldn’t just let them do all the work.
I could be useful, and I needed to prove that.
No matter what he thought, how protective he was… I was capable.
Emile set me up in the living area near the fireplace with a computer and a couple of monitors.
He showed me how to organize the profiles, and I followed his lead.
After a few minutes, I was confident I could handle the task.
My heart ached to see the photos connected to these women.
There were so many victims. But even though it set me on edge, I knew I was doing something important.
It was too late for the ones who had been found dead, but the ones who were alive still stood a chance to be rescued, to recover.
I still didn’t understand all the ins and outs of what CIPHER did to protect people like them, but I’d believed Emile when he said they would do whatever it took.
I sorted through the profiles. The first profile I ran immediately made my stomach churn.
A pretty brunette from Maine named Danielle Thomas was found dead two years ago.
I moved her name and profile into the assorted file that Emile showed me.
I took a deep breath and moved to the next one.
Catherine Beaumont was alive and married with two children in West Virginia.
Bittersweet relief tickled the back of my neck.
Okay, there is some hope.
I spent the next several hours sorting through different profiles.
Some of the victim’s bodies had been found in various locations across the United States according to my research.
There were several who seemed to be alive despite the horrors they had endured at Wrangler’s hands.
Just like Emile said, many of them were missing, some had been reported, others just inactive or untraceable online.
I tried my best to disassociate but failed.
In each of these women’s eyes was a story of darkness and depravity.
Even those who had been lucky enough to escape, there was a hollowness to their features that reminded me so much of the way Tara looked when she stepped through the door of our apartment early that morning.
I paused as the next profile loaded and popped up on the screen. My heartrate pulsed as I realized I recognized the face staring back at me from the computer. A beautiful blonde-haired woman with sparkling blue eyes and delicate features.
Holy shit.
I remembered immediately where I’d seen her photo before. The government ID of the woman on the screen was none other than Phoebe Griffin.
I called over Emile and Dax, whose eyes shot to the monitor perched in front of me.
Dax instantly read the name attached to the photo of the stunning woman on the screen. My fingers were twitching as my eyes locked on him, his jaw clenched tight.
Emile looked like he’d seen a ghost.
“Can someone explain to me what’s going on?” His usual blasé tone was replaced by something darker, more chilling.
“Emile, pull up the video this was from, we need to figure out when and where it was taken. Where’s the new phone you brought for me?” Dax asked.
Emile was already heading back toward the equipment on the kitchen island to get to work.
Bianca picked up on the first ring. “About time you fucking called,” she spat through the phone. “I can’t believe you left me stuck with this brute. He’s completely overbearing, and I thought Ricky was gonna have a coronary when he walked in the room.”
“He’s awake?” Dax and I both spouted at the same time.
“Yep. It happened not even five minutes ago.” Something muffled sounded on the other line. “He wants to talk to you,” she said.
“Put him on!” I shouted and heard the rustling through the speaker.
“Is that the queen I hear?” a weak, scratchy voice asked.
My shoulders sagged with relief. “Oh my god, Ricky. I’ve been so worried, are you okay? Do you even remember what happened?” I was breathless.
“Only vaguely.” He coughed. “Bianca said it wasn’t an earthquake, that Bellissima was attacked.
Did you guys figure out who did it and why?
” The fragility of Ricky’s voice made my heart clench.
It sounded like talking was painful for him, which was crazy considering that usually not talking was painful for him.
“We’re still trying to figure that out,” Dax said in his gruff timbre. “I’ve been analyzing the security feed before the bombing to see who went through the kitchen. There was nobody who looked suspicious, just the usual staff. Somebody must have snuck in and knew how to avoid the cameras.”
“Hmm…” Ricky coughed a couple more times. “Or maybe the person who did it was an employee.”
Dax stiffened at this. I knew he was convinced it was someone from the outside.
He trusted his staff. But there had been a part of me wondering if what Ricky was suggesting might be true.
A staff member would have been able to get through the restaurant without being noticed, plant a bomb in the kitchen, then send the other through the front window on their way out.
After a moment of silence, Ricky spoke again, “My bets are on the sous-chef.”
Dax stiffened. “Mateo? Why would you think that?” There was genuine skepticism in his words.
I couldn’t say I blamed him. Mateo seemed like a perfectly normal, hardworking man from the few interactions we had.
Then again, I was starting to learn that things were definitely not always what they seemed.
“He messed up basically every order I sent that night,” Bianca piped in. I’d nearly forgotten she was there. “I had to refund a table for an overcooked steak. The mussels weren’t scrubbed properly and customers complained about sand particles. He even forgot to garnish the damn scallops.”
I watched the crease on Dax’s forehead deepen. I could tell what he was thinking. That wasn’t like Mateo.
“Yeah, and when I brought the kitchen their shifties at the end of the night, he didn’t even take a shot.
He kept telling everyone it was time to leave and got real pissy when I told him me and Bianca were staying for a while.
” I heard Ricky take a stuttering breath, like it was taking all his energy to tell us that.
There was a long pause while Dax and I registered what he was saying. If there was really a chance Mateo was the one who bombed the restaurant, why would he do it?
“Mateo’s been a loyal employee at Bellissima for two years.
It doesn’t make sense.” Dax seemed to be muttering to himself more than anyone.
Even then, I felt it. The realization that for one reason or another, he might have been betrayed by someone he considered a friend.
And in Dax’s world, that word wasn’t used lightly.
It was bad enough to think someone came into the place he called home and destroyed it, but it was catastrophic to think it could have been someone he trusted.