Page 108 of Smoke Screen
Heh.
More of Maddy. That’s what he needed. Immediately, his body stirred. If she woke up, maybe he’d lure her into a replay.
He glanced back, pausing for a second to take in the moonlight casting over the gentle slope of her cheek and nose.
Beautiful.
Tempted, he lifted his hand, intent on running his fingers over her face, her delicate skin and sumptuous mouth. Anywhere just tofeelher. To be close.
He halted. Fought every instinct urging him to wake her up.
Rest.
It looked good on her. After the week she’d had, he didn’t have the heart to rob her of sleep.
Setting his hands on either side of him, he carefully got to his feet and waited. Maddy let out another soft breath and he stole a glance over his shoulder. Still asleep.
He slipped on the shorts and T-shirt he’d thrown across the chair next to his bed, grabbed his phone from the nightstand and made his way to the living room, checking his messages as he went. Nothing urgent.
His laptop sat on the bistro table near the kitchen. His normal workspace when not in his office downstairs. After filling a water bottle and downing half, he settled in to check his e-mail. News updates, retail sales, various trade journals and—whoa. E-mail from Gerald Thompson sent at 10:05 p.m.
He clicked on it. Thompson had e-mailed Zeke, with Phin cc’d, informing them he’d put the requested security footage into a shared folder.
The executive suite video. Had to be. That was the only thing Phin had requested. He pulled up the folder, found the footage, and settled in for a long night.
An hour in, Phin decided it might be easier to head to the Annex, choose a .45 from the weapons vault, and blow his brains out. This kind of stuff, this sitting around analyzing, was more Cruz and Rohan’s speed. He tapped the mouse, checked the time; 3:06.
Still no movement from Maddy. She’d let out one of her soft sighs a half hour earlier, but other than that, not a peep.
On his laptop screen, a young guy—late teens, early twenties maybe?—wearing dress pants and an oxford shirt, sans tie, entered the executive suite. Whoa. Who was this now? Phin sat straight, watching as the guy moved through the hallway toward Thompson’s office.
Hang on.
Phin recognized him. He thought. Pausing the video, he clicked over to the Internet and searched for Louis Pierre III, finding a series of photos. Grandfather, son, grandson. All with the name Louis Pierre. The third image in the row showed all three of them at a recent charity function.
Yep. Louis Pierre III was the kid on the video.
Phin’s momentary excitement crashed like a falling log. Maddy had told him Louis III was interning at the Thompson Center as an executive staff assistant. Of course, he had access to the executive suite.
He went back to the video, hit play, and took a gulp of water, his gaze still on the screen where Louis III, now known as Louis Three for short, strode past Maddy’s office.
When he paused and glanced into the conference room, Phin sat a little straighter, his brain synapses firing as the kid retreated a few steps.
To Maddy’s office.
He peeked in, swinging his head left and right.
Phin set his water bottle down just as the kid ducked into Maddy’s office. Before Phin got too far ahead of himself, he considered options. They’d hired Louis Three as an assistant. Maddy could have sent him for something. Who knew?
Seconds later, Louis entered the hallway again and …
“Hello, young buck.” Phin tapped his mouse, pausing the video.
Dangling from Louis’s previously empty right hand?
Keys.
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