Page 31 of Cold Silence
“What is it?” he asked, dreading her answer.
She lifted her phone. “A call. I got a call. It was the person who stole the prototype.”
Anger roared through Travis, but he swallowed to keep it in check and not scare Claire even more. “Did you recognize the voice?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. It was distorted. You know like you hear on those TV shows. So I couldn’t identify the voice but the cadence was familiar.”
“Cadence?” he asked.
“A distinct pausing after certain words was familiar.” She shuddered and clasped her arms around her waist.
It took everything he was made of to stand there instead of sweeping her into his arms. He had to look away from her, but his imagination flared, seeing her on the phone with this guy.
Unacceptable.
He gritted his teeth and tried to radiate calm. “And who does this cadence resemble?”
“Mike. Mike Robb.”
Travis sucked in a sharp breath. “Your stalker.”
“Maybe stalker.”
Travis didn’t care about that little detail. As far as Travis was concerned, the guy was a stalker, and he would be talking to Mike Robb as soon as he could get eyes on him.
8
Nearing eight a.m. and the arrival of staff, Claire scrubbed her fingernails in the restroom down the hall from her office. The black fingerprint powder left her hands and circled the drain. Was she really cleaning away the gritty powder or the very thought that someone had invaded her office? Her sanctuary away from home? Not that it would ever be that again.
“Focus, Claire,” she said to the mirror, ignoring the residual fear in her reflection. “Keep your mind on the job, and that’s how the guy will be caught.”
She turned off the water, dried her hands on brown paper towels, then headed for her office where Gage and Travis were going to meet her after they washed up too. Cleanup had gone well, but the insidious black fingerprint powder had permeated every area it touched. Still, Sierra was as meticulous in cleaning as she was in making the mess. Hopefully, they’d done a thorough enough job so no questions were asked.
And she also hoped their network manager didn’t see Nick’s adventures recorded in the logs. Nick said he didn’t have time to hide his work, but he did disable the report that would normally have been sent to their manager notifying him of after-hours network access. If he discovered Nick’s work, she’d gotten permission from Colonel Vogler to tell him about the theft.
She entered her office, where Gage straddled a chair, and Travis sat on the corner of her desk. She held up her hands. “Sorry. Took longer than I thought to get clean.”
“No worries.” Travis smiled at her. “Gave us time to review the security log books from the front gates.”
“Locate anything?”
He shook his head. “So we should get to planning our investigative steps for today.”
“Don’t forget that I’m going to be testing that simulation software to take over the top slot.” Gage smirked at Travis.
“Like that’ll happen.” Travis rolled his eyes and then focused on Claire.
She sat behind her desk. “I guess one of the first things that needs to happen is we need to talk to Mike.”
“Not we.” Travis came to his feet. “I’lltalk to him while you remain here with Gage.”
She tried to hide her frustration as Travis was only doing what he thought best for her. “He’s not going to hurt me.”
“You can’t know that,” Gage said. “Not if he’s the guy who tried to abduct you.”
“I just don’t see him doing that.”
“I do.” Travis planted his feet. “Having worked here, he knows the value of the software. He knows where the device is stored and what it takes to get to it. He knows that no one can access the software without you. A reason to abduct you, and if not for that, he’s stalking you. So he’s the most logical suspect.”
