Page 17 of Cold Silence
She lowered her head, eyes awash with apprehension.
“Did you come up with someone else?” he asked, her concern making him dread the answer.
“Maybe…I don’t know.” She paused and bit her lip. “There’s this guy. He’s not on the team anymore, and his security access has been revoked. He probably couldn’t pull off the theft.”
“Would he have knowledge of the security system and the technical skills to alter it?”
“Yes. He’s a software engineer.”
“Maybe he could bypass it, then. Tell me about him.”
“His name’s Mike Robb. He’s retired Army. Delta Force. He worked for us as a civilian. He kind of had a thing for me. It got to be a problem, and I had to fire him.”
Travis’s intuition sat up and took notice. A spec ops guy with stalker intent lifted his concern to a new level, but he played it down.
“A thing?” he asked casually to hide his unease.
“Okay, maybe it was more than a thing.” She clenched her hands and took a deep breath. “His interest crossed the line and became an obsession. When his performance suffered at work, I had to let him go. That was about three weeks ago.”
Travis’s gut started churning, the sandwich he’d just enjoyed sat like lead in his stomach. “Have you seen him since then?”
“Sort of. I mean, he’s called me and shown up here a few times since I let him go. Plus, I often run into him when I’m out. I suppose he could be following me.”
“And you’re just mentioning him now?” Travis’s words shot out like an accusation before his chest constricted.
She eyed him for several moments, her cool expression in direct opposition to his turmoil. “After I was attacked this morning, I considered telling the cops about him. But then you were so certain the attack was related to the theft. Mike is off the team, and I thought it wasn’t important to the investigation.”
Travis sat forward and resisted the urge to shoot to his feet and pace away his anxiety. “I don’t care if he’s involved in the theft or not. He’s bothering you, and I intend to have a word with him.”
“Why?”
“He’s stalking you, for crying out loud. That’s not okay.” He jerked his hands free and slammed a fist on the table.
Claire jumped, and he regretted the loss of control, but he doubted any man who’d once loved a woman could hear about a man potentially stalking her without exploding.
Breathing deeply, she stared at him while endless seconds passed. He wanted to beg her to speak, but he waited and cringed inside over her upcoming answer.
“Let’s be clear about one thing, Travis,” she finally said, dead calm in her tone. “Your assignment doesn’t involve my personal life. Any problems I’m dealing with that aren’t connected to the theft are none of your business.”
“Fine. Leave the fact that he’s obsessed with you out of this.” Travis grabbed the pen and wrote down Mike Robb’s name in big, bold letters, then circled it with a thick slash of the pen. “He’s got a personal vendetta against you for firing him. In my mind that makes him our primary suspect, and I intend to have a conversation with him ASAP.”
“Okay,” she said, still calm and detached.
Unbelievable.How could she be so relaxed? More important, how could she keep this from him all afternoon? This guy was the perfect suspect. Or maybe Travis wanted Robb to be guilty because he was interested in Claire.
Interested, my foot. He’s a stalker. Plain and simple.
Travis gave in to the need and got up to pace. He would spend the night researching Robb. Maybe ask Gage to have his cyber person do the same thing. But one thing he would do for sure. After dropping Claire off here tomorrow, he would go talk to the guy.
All right, maybe he’d do more than talk, even if Robb wasn’t the thief. Travis didn’t care what Claire said. He’d let the jerk have it for bothering her.
And if Robb turned out to be the thief after all? Then he was an imminent threat to the woman Travis would do just about anything to protect, and he would stop at nothing to keep her safe.
5
Claire instantly liked Sierra Byrd, but Travis seemed wary of the entire team. The Veritas partner and trace evidence expert had dishwater blond hair below her shoulders and thick bangs, and she was several inches taller than Claire’s five-five. She wore a blue polo shirt with Veritas Center engraved on the chest and khaki cargo pants, as did the other partner who’d arrived with her. Nick Thorn, their computer and cybercrime expert, stood over six feet tall, was built, and had brownish hair with a matching close-cut beard. He was more detached than Sierra.
“If you’ll show us to the computer where you think the software was downloaded, we’ll get to work,” he said, all business.
