That makes three. We hadn’t ID’d Ralph Smith yet, but it was only a matter of time. Maybe we’d have better luck with whoever showed up today.
“Is she safe?”
“I’ve assigned someone to protect her.”
Good, John’s bodyguard’s were top-tier operators.
“I’m on my way.”
I closed and packed my laptop, holstered my gun, and put on my navy blue jacket.
Still using my personal phone, I called Gibson.
“Gibson.”
“We need to go back to Weatherford. I’ll fill you in on the way.” Not that I knew much.
“Give me five.”
“Meet me in the garage.”
I locked my government issued laptop and phone in my office safe, and locked the door on my way out. If someone wanted access, they’d have to create one hell of a scene first.
In the garage, I swept my car for a tracker. Nothing.
I turned off all the location apps on my personal phone before turning it off. I was deactivating my car’s LoJack system when Gibson opened the passenger door.
“They’re going after her?” he guessed, messing with his phone. “It’s off.”
“They are,” I said, getting behind the wheel.
I started the car and pulled out of the parking garage. “We led them right to her.” A pang of guilt settled in and made itself at home in my gut.
But how?We’d only known a few days, and we’d worked off the record for half that time.
The aging app.Fuck. I’d run it on the company laptop using my credentials on the company program. Given the accuracyof the photo, they would’ve narrowed down possible IDs from facial recognition within hours.
Plus, knowing we were investigating the Singer case, they would’ve tracked us. In this day and age, it was easy for a professional to track someone without actually following them.
A blessing and a curse.
“Do we know who?”
“Not yet, but John has them on video, so we can use facial recognition.”
“Is she safe?” Gibson might act like a hard-ass, but he didn’t tolerate anyone hurting innocents.
“John assigned one of his guys.”
“We have to tell them, don’t we?”
We did. Keeping John’s team in the dark was no longer an option.
“We won’t tell them everything. It benefits us to have SSI providing Nina’s protection, but they need to know what they’re facing.”
“Agreed,” G said. I’d anticipated him giving me more grief. “Do you suspect they’re digging into Nina’s parents too?”
I didn’t suspect; I knew. I could give John stand down orders until I was blue in the face, but it wouldn’t make a difference. SSI protected their own, and they considered Nina family.
