Page 78 of Shadow of Doubt
“That makes the most sense to me,” Nick said.
“But you won’t agree to that,” Colin stated in no uncertain terms, so she wouldn’t even consider it.
“I don’t think I have an option.” Tears wetted her eyes. “Not if I don’t want him to poison my family or other people in my hometown.”
Colin couldn’t let her contact that creep. “All we have to do is warn your family not to drink the water.”
“No!” Her anguished cry cut into him. “Kane said he was monitoring their communications. He would know.”
He still wasn’t going to let her meet with Tarver, so their only option was to make sure no one drank the water. “What if one of us went to visit your parents in person? He’s not likely hanging out at their house but monitoring their calls and electronics.”
“I can’t risk that,” she cried out, her agitation nearly at the breaking point. “He could be watching them, and we don’t know it. Besides, what about the rest of the town? Would they warn all the people not to drink it? Could they shut it down? Could they do it in time?”
“At the very least we can warn the officials at the water treatment plant to be on the lookout for any tampering,” Colin said.
“Come on, Colin.” Nick shook his head. “You know this guy has the capabilities to electronically interfere with water treatment plants without the locals being any the wiser, even if on alert. The possibility of cyber-manipulation by him is quite high.”
“I know he has the skills, but can he actually poison the water?” Colin met and held Nick’s gaze. “It’s possible, yes. Probable, no. I sat on task forces for the FBI where we studied the likelihood of such an attack. First, the plant would need to use a SCADA system—Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition—for there to be digital controls of pumps and treatment facilities.”
“Which is possible,” Nick said.
“Possible yes, but less likely for a small town like we’re talking about. But even then, Tarver would need huge quantities of a biological agent to counterbalance the dilution effect of thelarge body of water, and he would have to somehow override the filtration too.
“I assume there’s a local water tower.” Sheriff Day’s voice came from the iPad. “And could he target that?”
A question Colin didn’t like, but had to answer. “A post-purification drinking water storage facility in a small municipality is likely to be more vulnerable to a hazardous attack. A water tower has smaller quantities of water, but, and I think you need to consider this, it would still be difficult to pull off.”
“But no matter what we do,” Brooklyn said, her voice holding real sharp hints of panic now, “the chance of him killing someone who doesn’t get the word about the water or ignores the warning isn’t zero, right?”
“Right,” Colin had to admit but didn’t like it.
“The risk of him taking my life to save others is something I might have to do, if it comes to that.”
Colin clenched his hands. “A decision we’ll all make together and find a way to protect you.”
“If he wants to see me in person, I can’t imagine that he’ll let you all come with me.” She gripped her hands together and fidgeted with them.
“We’ll figure that out.” Colin had no idea how, but he wasn’t going to let Brooklyn risk her life.
“And we’ll provide official support as well,” Sheriff Day said. “No one is getting hurt on my watch.”
Colin couldn’t let it go at that, and he eyed Brooklyn. “But, and hear me, Brooklyn. Hear me loud and clear. You’ll have nothing to do with him unless we approve it first.”
She lurched back from him.
Fine. He’d done it. Spoken more sharply than he intended, but hopefully hurting her, which he’d obviously done, wouldhave the result he needed. She had to stay away from Tarver if she was going to stay alive.
Problem was, could he live with himself if he stopped her from going to see this lunatic, and her parents or other people in her hometown died?
Nearing three a.m., Brooklyn stared at her laptop screen while propped up on the big bed in the condo bedroom. She’d put a towel down at the door so Colin couldn’t see that she was up and using her computer.
She’d typed her response and just had to hit send, agreeing to the last message from Kane. Then she would need to find a way to sneak past Colin to go meet him. She could tell Colin that she was going down to Nick’s lab, but Nick would have to come up to get her, and Colin would demand to see him. He would probably also insist on accompanying her.
So how did she get out? Was she even going?
Yes.Yes, she was. That was a given. The DNA results had come back. The gun, bullet, silencer, and casing all matched to Kane, and his DNA was also found on the black box, the burner phone, and on the index finger inside. The finger also matched the skeleton, which was now positively identified as Matteo Albertelli, and AI had matched the partial print on the door to Albertelli as well. So Kane was likely a killer. A killer of Matteo Albertelli. And also a man who would snip another man’s finger off for his own motives. Probably took pleasure in it.
So yeah, he would gladly kill again, and she couldn’t risk a single person losing their life due to her fear of meeting with him. Blake had already warned the water management division in her hometown about the potential threat. They’d inspectedtheir facilities, found nothing amiss, and decided at this time not to notify the public.
