“Were Joe and Victoria happy?”
His face softened and filled with compassion. He walked over and laid the picture frame facedown before sitting on the edge of the desk next to her. “Don’t blame yourself.” He looked at JJ and then leaned in closer to her. “Joe made his decisions for his own reasons. He betrayed you and Victoria. Neither of you deserved that.”
“I know.” She flung herself back in the chair, and it began to wobble. She jerked, overcompensating, and started to fall backward. A squeal escaped her, and her arms waved as she tried to catch herself. The chair tipped over with her in it. Reid grabbed her wrist but slipped. She hit the ground hard, jarring her back and causing a fresh wave of pain. Good thing it was a high-back chair, or she’d have hit her head. She’d not dealt a lot with headaches—surprising given how the bruise on her temple looked.
“Are you okay?” Reid peered over her legs, which were in the air.
She struggled to get up until he reached out and helped her up. He didn’t immediately let go of her. She liked the feel of his hand holding hers.
“Are you okay, Momma?”
JJ. Quinn pulled her hand free. “Yes, baby.”
Reid stepped around her and righted the chair. “Looks like a broken wheel.” He fiddled with the wheel, trying to stick it back where it belonged. It wouldn’t go. He continued to mess with it until something fell out of the leg. “What the—” Reid stopped, looking first at her and then at JJ.
He picked up the object and held it in his open palm.
“A hidden thumb drive,” she said. “That must be what you’re supposed to find.”
“We’ll know soon enough.” He opened the laptop, powered it on, inserted the USB drive, and waited for the folder to appear. It contained several PDF documents. He clicked on one, and a newspaper article popped up. “Bank Robbery Shocks Town.” Quinn read over his shoulder. The article described a bank robbery where the robbers were able to get in and out in less than five minutes. No one was injured, and the article did not release the amount of money taken.
He opened a different PDF. Another article on a bank robbery. All the articles he clicked were about different robberies. A text document had a chronological list of the robberies. “He must have connected all of the robberies, and that’s why he was in town when you met him. He cracked their pattern.”
The bells above the front door jingled. She had watched him lock the door behind him. Someone else had a key.
He shut the laptop, pulled out the USB, and shoved it in his pocket. “Hide,” he whispered as he pushed Quinn toward the opening beneath the desk. He grabbed JJ and gave him to her before pushing the chair in.
She wasn’t sure where he was going to hide or whether he was going to hide. She couldn’t see anything. JJ whimpered in her lap. “Shh.” She hugged him tight. “We’re going to be okay.” She prayed she was right. A woman’s voice grew louder as she entered the room.
“I stopped at Joe’s office.” It was Victoria’s voice. “I wanted to grab his laptop. I’m going to have to start calling his clients.”
Quinn’s heart beat in her ears. Would she just reach across the desk and grab the laptop, or would she walk around and pick it up? They should be safe so long as Victoria didn’t sit down.
“Yes, I know the funeral is tomorrow, but I’ll be so busy with that I won’t have time to get the computer. Besides, I was in the area.” She must be talking into a cell phone.
Quinn heard scraping across the top of the desk as Victoria grabbed the laptop. Her footsteps grew quieter.
“Okay, guys. Let’s get out of here,” Reid said from his hiding spot. By the time Quinn and JJ crawled from under the desk, Reid was standing by the office door, watching the front door. They quickly exited Joe’s office and climbed into the waiting car. “Let’s go see what else is on this USB.”
The drive back to Reid’s house was silent. Quinn’s mind raced with possibilities of what could be on the USB and how bank robberies had anything to do with her and JJ.
Reid placed his laptop on the kitchen table. Quinn pulled a kitchen chair close to him and sat. She was close enough she could feel the heat emanating from his arm. He plugged the USB in and maximized the time line document. Together, they scrolled through it. “There were three bank robberies every six months. All in close proximity. Then, they’d move on to another area and rob three more banks in six months.”
She pointed at the screen. “The notes are for two years. That’s twelve robberies.”
He clicked on a folder titled “Photos” and started a slideshow. Photos of the outside and inside of various banks rolled across the screen. Every photo was time-stamped, and they were all within a two-week time period, so they weren’t taken at the time of the robberies.
The Sunrise Café popped up on the screen. “That’s my diner.”
The next picture was of the bank down the street from the diner. Her bank. Then, there were photos inside and out. Followed by photos of individuals either entering or leaving the bank.
“Do you recognize any of these people?” If Quinn did, then chances were they weren’t the robbers because they’d already determined it was a traveling crew responsible for the robberies.
“I recognize several of them, but I couldn’t tell you their names or anything about them. Just that I’ve either seen them in the diner or around town.”
“Let me know who’s unfamiliar.” He grabbed a pen and paper from his junk drawer.
She nodded and leaned closer. “Him.” She pointed at the screen.
