Page 25 of Constant Risk
Tanner tilted his head toward the doorway. “Cover me. I’m going in.”
Whitaker moved into place, drawing his weapon and holding the door open. Tanner moved slowly through the opening, ducking since it was only about half the size of a normal door, his own Glock pointed in front of him.
It didn’t take long to realize the small room, about half the size of the closet, since that was exactly what it was, didn’t have any people in it. There was nowhere to hide anything in here.
But there were definitely computers. A dozen of them. A comfy chair. A well-worn desk.
Thiswas Elliot’s personal space.
“It’s clear. But we need to get Bree and Jeremy in here right away. We’ve definitely found our link to the killer.”
Chapter Nine
Once the room was deemed secure, Penelope brought Jeremy in. He was typing on the main computer system sitting on the desk. Whitaker, Tanner and Penelope were hanging farther back, staying out of Jeremy’s way.
“We need to get Bree in here,” Tanner said. “You heard what she said about how the killer might set up the computer system to warn him.”
Penelope shook her head. “Not yet. We let Jeremy work. He knows what he’s doing. No offense, but your girlfriend is a civilian. She may know computers, but she’s not a forensic expert. Plus, she couldn’t even remember my name.”
“She got us here, didn’t she?” Tanner knew how hard it could be trusting someone outside of your own department. But if it wasn’t for Bree, they’d all still be sitting watching a woman drown drop by drop.
And despite any names she might have forgotten, Bree was the genius when it came to computers.
“Penelope, let her observe,” Whitaker said. “Tanner’s right. She got us here. She may see something nobody else does.”
Penelope shrugged and turned back to Jeremy. “Fine. But she doesn’t touch anything unless she’s given the go-ahead by Jeremy.”
Jeremy gave a smug little nod, but Tanner didn’t call him on it. They were running against a clock, and egos weren’t important.
He climbed back out of the secret room and made his way outside. Bree was leaning against the car, laptop in hand, when he got to her.
“This isn’t it, is it?” she asked, looking around. “This neighborhood is too busy. There’s no way he could have gotten her in here without anybody noticing.”
“The house is empty. No sign of the victim or the killer. But it’s definitely the right place. We found some sort of secret closet with all sorts of computers.”
Her big green eyes got even bigger. “Can I come in? If I have access to his system, I’m sure I can master a backdoor entry and trace where the actual transmissions are coming from. We don’t even have to wait for him to make a move.”
She was already heading toward the house. He quickly caught up with her. “Freckles, listen, Jeremy gets a crack at it first. This is the Dallas PD’s case.”
The sour look on her face told him everything he needed to know about her feelings on that subject.
“It is his job and he wants a chance to get some of the credit,” he continued.
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t care about credit. This is not my job. This is about saving someone’s life.”
He took her hand in his and they walked up the steps together. “Just see what you can see, but don’t take over.”
When they got to the secret room, it was just Penelope and Jeremy. Whitaker was helping the other officers search the house more thoroughly.
Bree didn’t say anything, but her lips were tight as she watched Jeremy work over his shoulder. Tanner was amazed that Bree was able to keep silent for ten whole minutes. She shifted and he thought she was about to make a suggestion to the other man, but instead she began looking around the room.
“What?” Tanner whispered.
“That’s not the right system.” Her eyes were darting rapidly to the different computers lying everywhere, at least a dozen. The main one sitting at the desk Jeremy was working on, two other desktop systems on either side and eight or nine different laptops, ranging from top-of-the-line to not much more than paperweights.
“Are you sure? Maybe Jeremy is just missing something?” he whispered as softly as he could.
It wasn’t soft enough.
