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Quinn shook his head. “No. I don’t carry. I don’t like guns.”
“Okay.”
“And if you’re about to say that I shouldn’t have come or that I should have stayed in the car, I can tell you exactly where to shove that sentiment.”
The first smile he’d seen on Shane’s face all morning passed over his lips. “I was thinking that you should stick close since I don’t know exactly what to expect from her. This case hasn’t gone at all how I thought it would. I don’t think I’ll need the gun.”
“Yeah, I guess that’ll work.”
Shane gave a little snort and continued on their path, heading back toward the entrance of Sawyer Point and the giant statue of Cincinnatus, namesake for the city, with his plow. The statue certainly didn’t depict him as a handsome man, but he was definitely powerful. They had arrived well ahead of the appointed time and taken a pass around the park as a way of scouting. Quinn hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary, but then he wasn’t incredibly experienced in the field.
A part of him wanted to do more fieldwork, particularly after helping on Geoffrey’s case at the nightclub, but he knew that his real contributions were what he could uncover with his computer. And any requests for more fieldwork would require more training sessions with Andrei and Sven. That was not more appealing than sitting behind his computer and designing security programs with Gidget.
“Do you see her?”
“Yes,” Shane whispered. “Jogger with the baby stroller. Pan slowly. Don’t stop your eyes on her.”
Quinn did as directed, letting his eyes skim over the small number of people filtering in and out of the park. Heading toward them was a woman jogger dressed in tight-fitting black pants and a black jacket. She was pushing one of those three-wheeled strollers with the big tires used by runners. It wasn’t easy, but he forced his eyes to keep scanning the area after looking at her. He couldn’t begin to guess at what Shane saw that made him think that she was the hacker. The picture they’d found that could be her hadn’t been particularly clear.
But he was right because the second she ran past them with the stroller, she said softly under her breath, “Playground.” She never paused. Never even looked directly at them. Quinn followed Shane’s lead as they remained at the statue for another few minutes before turning back the way they had come a few minutes earlier.
“How did you know?” Quinn murmured. He took a slight misstep and bumped his shoulder into Shane’s. He looked up to find Shane smiling at him before bumping him back.
“No baby in the stroller,” he replied.
“Of course there is.”
“You sure?”
Quinn could feel his brow furrow as he looked straight ahead, but he was mentally replaying the brief glimpse he got of the runner and the stroller. He was sure he’d seen something in there. A bundle wrapped in a blue blanket with some kind of colorful shapes. He saw…well, there had to be a baby in there. He would have noticed if it was just blankets.…
“I saw a bundle.” He looked over to find that Shane’s smile had grown.
“You saw a doll wrapped in blankets.”
“Whoa,” Quinn said on an exhale. He couldn’t believe he’d missed that, but then he’d only had a second to look. Of course, Shane probably took the same amount of time. “I’m impressed.”
“It’s about time.”
Quinn wanted to say something about how he’d been impressed by Shane on a number of occasions since he first met the man, but they turned the last corner and were now just a few feet away from the large playground near the tennis courts. There were a few mothers watching over their bundled-up kids as they screamed and climbed on the colorful jungle gym. The runner was now sitting on the end of a bench alone with the stroller next to her.
Shane took the lead and sat down next to the runner while Quinn took the edge of the bench, fighting the urge to huddle against Shane for warmth.
“I’m surprised you didn’t call the cops in,” the woman said in a low voice. She pulled out her phone and started tapping on it. Quinn watched her flip through one app after another, giving the appearance to all the world that she was looking up something rather than talking to them.
“I thought about it, Dr. Masters.” Shane leaned back and put his arm around Quinn’s shoulders, pulling him in tight. His body longed to lean into him, but his brain was screaming that it was just an act.
Quinn struggled not to react to Shane’s use of her name. He edged forward just a little to look around Shane to get a clear view of her face.
“How did you know who I was?”
“Rose from the Conservatory shared a group picture taken last year. You were standing right next to Mrs. Spring.” And now that Shane had it, he saw the woman in the picture standing next to Brenda Spring. The head horticulturist for Krohn Conservatory with a specialty in orchids. The two peas in a pod. The one person Brenda Spring could always get to smile.…
