Page 35 of Constant Risk
Whitaker nodded. “That’s right. And you will be charged, seeing as how we caught you in the act of attempted murder.”
Tanner’s eyes narrowed. That’s what Elliot was waiting on before calling a lawyer—an official charge. But why wait if he knew it was coming?
Tanner decided to see if he could find out what made Elliot tick. He pressed up from against the wall. “We got your videos.”
Elliot straightened slightly, for the first time not looking completely bored. “Never doubted you would. Is that how you found me?”
Bingo.That was why he hadn’t called his lawyer. He knew once he did he wouldn’t get his answers. He wanted to know how he’d gotten caught.
“Yep. Was able to trace them right to you with no problem.”
Elliot’s eyes narrowed. “I know that’s not true.”
Tanner raised a brow. “Because you’re too smart for us to trace them?”
“In this case, yes. Smarter than you guys, at least.”
Whitaker leaned back in his chair and glanced over at Tanner. “I don’t know about that. I’m a pretty smart guy. Or at least my mom always says so.”
Tanner grinned at him, glad that Whitaker had caught on so quickly. “Me too, you know. I wasn’t surprised when we were able to track Elliot here to the warehouse so quickly.”
The kid crossed his arms over his chest. “There is no way you two were able to track me.”
Time to see what Elliot was willing to spill. “Maybe we didn’t have to track you. Maybe your partner gave you up. Told us who you were and where you’d be.”
A smooth smile fell onto Elliot’s face. “Is that right?”
Tanner kept his face neutral. “You sure that’s not what happened? Do you trust him so much that you’re sure he won’t betray you even to save his own skin?”
The kid’s smile got bigger. “Something like that.”
Whitaker looked over at Tanner, eyes narrowed just a little bit. He was thinking the same thing Tanner was. Elliot was way too relaxed in his answers about a partner to be truly concerned that someone might have betrayed him.
Nobody involved with a crime like this would be that secure a partner hadn’t flipped on them in order to save their own skin.
Tanner wasn’t sure how it was possible with this new footage showing up, but it didn’t look like Elliot was working with anyone.
He just continued to sit there, smug, strumming his fingers on the metal table.
Whitaker didn’t get flustered. “Okay, you caught us. Not a partner. Maybe you just got sloppy with your encoding. All the VPNs and routers in the world can’t hide a mistake if we’ve got someone just as good as you.”
If possible, Elliot just got more superior in his seat. “Yep, I guess that must be how you did it.”
Tanner decided to give Elliot a little bit of what he wanted. See if that got a reaction. “Fractal pattern.”
When it came down to it, the kid didn’t have much of a poker face after all. He sat bone straight in his chair at Tanner’s words, realizing for the first time that maybe theydidhave someone just as good as him. “What?”
“You were using a fractal pattern in your transmission, right? Still think we’re stupid now, Elliot?”
He was shaking his head. “How did you—”
A knock on the door stopped Tanner from saying anything further. Penelope stuck her head in. “Tanner, can I talk to you for a moment?”
Elliot was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that they’d figured out his precious code. Whitaker gave him a nod and Tanner walked into the observation room.
“What is it? We’re just starting to make headway on—” He stopped when he saw Bree standing there.
“I think I’ve figured it out,” she said. “Can I ask Elliot a couple of questions about codes?”
