Page 44 of Constant Risk
“Probably Midazolam or ketamine,” Dr. Yang stated. “There weren’t any traces left in her system, but that would be my bet.”
“When I came to, I was in that box. It took me a while to realize the water was more than just annoying.” Jean swallowed hard. “Eventually I realized the water was going to be what killed me. Then I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
Jean talking about the water had been what had caused Bree to recognize the pattern, so that was a good thing.
They asked Jean some more questions, trying to see if she remembered anything that would help them, but the hours had all been a blur for her.
Tanner looked over at Penelope. Jean might have been able to help them if they were trying to catch Elliot. But if Elliot didn’t know anything about the other suspects, it was doubtful Jean did either. They didn’t want to upset her for no reason.
Finally, Penelope placed a business card on the table beside the hospital bed. “If you think of anything else, anything that you even get an inkling might be relevant, no matter how small, please call.”
“Dr. Yang said your family is on their way,” Tanner said. “Will you be okay until they get here?”
She nodded. “I just want to put all this behind me.”
Tanner squeezed her hand as he and Penelope got ready to leave. “You will.”
Chapter Fifteen
Bree had spent the last twelve hours filtering through all Elliot Webster’s online data and was barely making a dent in it. The guy was a digital pack rat.
She’d passed the point of exhaustion hours ago. Now she was barely staying a half step above despair. Particularly because the victims, still being broadcasted at the top of every hour, were growing more and more desperate.
Bree was buried under data. It was so bad she’d even agreed to allowing help. Three of the people who worked under Jeremy were currently digging through Elliot’s information also.
Bree had gone through all the critical data herself. For example, she’d found where Elliot had created a separate identity and credit card and used it to buy the ketamine he’d used to render Jean unconscious. Hell, she’d even found where he’d worked out the best way to encode and send the transmissions. How he’d arrived at the plan to use the fractal pattern.
It would all be great if they were trying just to convict Elliot. But it didn’t do them much good in finding the other kidnappers or their victims.
Going through all this was like trying to find a needle in a haystack of needles. And now she needed to report in to Tanner and Penelope again and let them know she wasn’t even a bit closer to finding anything useful.
Nobody cast any blame in her direction when she joined the team sitting around the conference room table fifteen minuteslater and told them what was happening. But the frustration level was high.
“Elliot said he met these people online,” Whitaker said.
Bree rubbed a hand across her face. “I’m sure he did considering he’s been a part of roughly four thousand online conversations and has archived every single conversation in his data storage.”
Penelope whistled through her teeth. “We need to get you more help to sort this information. Or maybe get you somewhere quieter to work. Or at least some damn headphones with music.”
Bree shook her head. “No, I don’t like music. I like the bustle of people around me, so I can ignore it. More help would be good, but I’ve already written programs to go through the chat rooms and look for a series of key words. That will be more efficient anyway.”
“What sort of key words?” Tanner asked.
“Anything to do with the police, water, drowning. I put in the dimensions of the boxes they built andpolyethylene, in case that would trigger something. I put in Jean Adams’s name, Christina’s name, Betty Neighbors’s. I put infractal codeandmatrix grid pattern torus.”
She’d put in every single thing she could think of but so far there had been no results whatsoever.
She turned to Tanner. “I could’ve missed something. I had to have missed something.” But for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what it was.
Those women were going to drown because she couldn’t figure out how to find the necessary data in all Elliot’s virtual junk.
I don’t think you’re working hard enough, Bethany. Obviously you’re lacking an incentive to do your best work. Maybe this will help you.
“No, Mr. Jeter. I can do better. Please don’t hurt Mom.”
Michael Jeter just shook his head and tsked. “Your brain is stronger than this, Bethany. You just don’t want it badly enough. You’re allowing yourself to be unfocused and overwhelmed by superfluous details.I need you to focus.”
He nodded his head to the man holding her mother. Bethany tried not to vomit at the sickening sound of her mother’s arm being broken, followed immediately by her screams.
