Tanner looked over at Penelope. “Your call.”
Penelope gave a slow nod. “Two minutes. Keep it short and remember all of this is being recorded.”
Bree nodded and they walked back into the room together. Elliot had regained a little bit of his composure.
“What?” he sneered. “Are you bringing in the pretty good cop to be the yin to your bad cop’s yang?”
“No, Elliot,” Tanner said smoothly. “You were right before when you said you were smarter than Whitaker and me. I’ve brought in the person you’re not smarter than. The one who figured out your little code. Figured out which computer was yours at your house and got the info she needed before the fire could burn the place to the ground. Figured out how to get you locked up in here now.”
Elliot’s eyes narrowed on Bree. He was close to her age so didn’t make the mistake of discounting her out of hand just because she was young. “Is that so, sexy? Are you smarter than me?”
Bree crossed over to the table before Tanner could stop her. “Matrix grid pattern torus.”
Tanner had no idea what she was talking about—it sounded more like she was trying to cast out demons than ask Elliot a question.
But evidently the casting out worked. Every bit of color drained from Elliot’s face. He turned to Whitaker.
“I’d like to call my lawyer now.”
Chapter Twelve
Bree wanted to ask Elliot more about the torus, to get him to admit that was the new pattern even though she was almost positive it was. But Tanner immediately ushered her out of the interrogation as soon as Elliot mentioned a lawyer. Whitaker followed right behind them.
As soon the door closed, Tanner turned to Penelope. “You heard the request for counsel?”
She nodded. “Yes. I’m glad you left right away. We don’t want to risk any chance of Elliot getting off on a technicality.”
“Besides, Bree got what she needed,” Tanner said.
Bree looked at him. “I did? Elliot didn’t answer my question.”
“You wanted to know if the matrix torus thing meant something to him.”
“Yes. But he didn’t answer.”
Tanner smiled gently at her. “It meant something to him, freckles. Something enough to scare him into calling for his lawyer when nothing else had. So whatever it is you’ve found? You’re on the right track.”
She looked around at the three of them. “I don’t think you’re going to like what I found.”
Penelope sighed. “Tell us anyway.”
“We havethreemore victims. Jean Adams was only one of four.”
Whitaker cursed. “He does have partners. I’m going back in there to talk to him. Get some answers.”
Penelope put her hand against the door. “No. Not until he has a chance to call his lawyer.”
“It will probably be easier for me to show you everything back in the command room,” Bree said. “I think you’re going to want to watch all the footage again. Once I figured out the pattern, I certainly did.”
“Are you sure there are more victims?” Penelope asked. “And how do you know that there are three more?”
“I found another code,” Bree said after Penelope assigned another detective the task of making sure Elliot was able to call his lawyer. They practically ran back toward the command center.
“I thought you had already looked for other codes but hadn’t found any,” Whitaker said.
Bree nodded. “This one wasn’t here yesterday. This new code started once we rescued Jean Adams.”
Tanner rubbed his eyes. “I don’t understand all this code stuff. Why utilize it?”
