Page 83 of Shadow of Doubt
“Then he’ll join you in the enclosure with the pretty jaguar. But only piece by piece until he does confess the location of my item.”
All breath left Brooklyn’s body, and she had to grab on to the wall so as not to drop to the ground. She’d imagined Kane had something awful planned for her, but would he have fed her to his jaguar like this guy wanted to do? If so, it couldn’t get much more horrific than that. Or maybe going body part, by body part like Albertelli had planned for Kane was worse. So much worse.
20
Colin couldn’t stop pacing. Stop beating himself up over his last conversation with Brooklyn, when he’d spoken harshly to her. Did she think he wouldn’t support her, and his words somehow encouraged her to leave? He couldn’t live with himself if anything happened to her. Not only from knowing he’d been harsh, but because he really did care for her and couldn’t imagine not getting a chance to get to know her.
A pounding on the condo door had him racing to fling it open. “Nick. Good. Please tell me you can help.”
“I don’t know.” Nick, wearing a scowl and carrying his laptop, rushed past Colin. “But I aim to try.”
“You’ll need to do the best work you’ve ever done.” Colin trailed after him.
He went straight to the dining table and opened his computer. “We first need to determine if she’s left the building. I called Pete on the way up. He hasn’t seen her, and she didn’t exit through the lobby.”
“But you have security camera feeds that you can look at for other exits, right?” Reid asked as he joined them at the table.
“Pulling them up now.” Nick’s fingers flew over the keys, the clicking sound grating on Colin. “We have three exits. Front door. Parking garage. And one rear door.”
“No matter which exit she took,” Colin said, “your doors are tied to fingerprints for entrance and exit. Her prints wouldn’t match your database, so how could she leave and not have set off an alarm?”
“Good question.” Nick paused typing and looked up. “We haven’t changed over the garage to a print reader yet. It’s still a number keypad. She might’ve gotten the code somehow.”
“But how?”
Nick tilted his head and tapped a finger on the table. “She could’ve watched Blake when he let you in.”
Was that what she’d done? “But that would mean she was planning to leave before she even got the news from Tarver.”
“Not likely then. So maybe she hacked our database and copied a keycode.”
“Your system is locked down tight, right?” Dev asked. “Wouldn’t you know if she did that?”
Nick frowned. “Normally I would, but she’s a super hacker and knows how to hide her trail. Still, I think I would’ve gotten an alert. But when she toured my lab after dinner and used one of the lab computers, she could’ve gotten the garage keycode without kicking off an alarm.”
“So check that door first then.” Colin moved behind Nick to look at the screen. Reid and Dev joined him, there to support him.
If there was a way to find Brooklyn, these guys would help him. He should take comfort from that, but his brain kept shoutingifthere was a way, and his nerves were too fried to even begin to feel a hint of comfort.
Pray. Yeah, pray. Please. Please, let her be okay and let us find her. And if she’s afraid right now, give her comfort.
As Nick brought up the computer feed for that camera, Colin waited for some comfort of his own to come, but it didn’t. Was he not trusting God to have Brooklyn’s back? Were his old issues blocking it? His inability to trust at all. Was he just going through the motions of trusting but not really believing it?
“I’ll fast forward until I see some action or reach the current time.” Nick clicked the arrow. Time flew by, but movement made Nick stop at the timestamp about an hour earlier. Brooklyn appeared in the hallway and approached the door.
“No. Oh, no.” Colin’s heart fell. “She really did leave.”
She peered up at the camera and mouthed the words, “Sorry. My family.”
“She knew we would see this.” Colin’s throat closed, and he could barely speak the words.
He watched as she tapped in a code, and the door opened. She slipped outside and disappeared into the lot.
“Switching camera feed to the parking entrance.” Nick’s voice was choked with the same emotions threatening to swamp Colin.
The feed filled the screen. Nick moved it ahead at two times the speed, then slowed when she appeared on screen, leaving the garage on foot.
“Going to the parking lot feed,” Nick announced.
