“Do you want me to have Michael meet you?”
“Can you come? You’re the fastest with computers and we need to work fast.”
“Yes. I’ll contact the security office at the hotel and have them get the recordings ready, then have a car brought around to the lobby.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes.”
For the first time since Catherine learned that Matt and Kara were missing, she thought they finally had a break.
Michael read the text from Catherine.
Michael frowned, pocketed his phone.
“What?” Sloane asked.
“Nothing. Let’s talk to Alena Porter again.”
He walked out of the conference room, Sloane on his heels. “You don’t think Catherine is right,” she guessed.
“I don’t know,” he mumbled. He didn’t want to get into this now, and he didn’t like to criticize other team members when they weren’t around to defend themselves.
“Michael, I know I’m new on the team, but don’t ice me out.”
“I’m not.”
“Then talk.”
He stopped walking, glanced around to make sure no one could overhear them, and still kept his voice low. “Catherine used to be one of the best profilers in the Bureau. After her sister was killed, she has second-guessed herself repeatedly, and she was wrong about Reid. She never considered, or considered and dismissed, that he has a partner. Because of that error—a major error, not a little whoops—Matt and Kara could be dead.”
He hadn’t meant to say that, because he had been working to convince himself that his friends were alive.
“Profiling is not a science,” Sloane said.
“I know. But when you act like your word is gospel, you can’t be wrong.”
“So you think she’s wrong about the hotel.”
“I don’t know, and that bothers me. I don’t want to doubt anyone on my team, but I’m asking myself if this is a good use of our time. Ryder is our rock. He’s the backbone of this entire operation, whether he knows it or not, and the most computer savvy among us. We need him working the backgrounds, following up with Reid’s employers, finding Becca McCarthy.Having him escort Catherine to view security footage when she could have asked a deputy to take her?”
He was talking fast and getting angry, because anger kept him from falling apart.
But he recognized it and stopped. He didn’t want to dump on anyone, and his frustration wasn’t getting the case solved. “Sorry,” he mumbled, turned and walked out of the security building.
“It’s okay, Michael,” Sloane said, following him across the courtyard.
It wasn’t, but he didn’t say anything as he opened the side door of the main building and held it for Sloane.
Maybe Catherine was right. But was it going to help them find Matt and Kara? That was the million-dollar question. He felt as if they were barely treading water.
Michael asked the concierge for Alena Porter.
“I haven’t seen her yet,” he said. “She doesn’t generally work on Mondays and Tuesdays.”
“She told me she would be here,” Michael said.
“Let me check. Please wait.”
He stepped away from his desk and went down the hall to the management offices.
