Page 125 of The Deadly Shallows

He lifted his chin at her. “Did you know Scott?”

She shrugged. “Knew him a little.”

“He was a friendly guy,” Brett said.

“Yes, he was,” Brooke responded.

“That is, until you asked him about something he didn’t want to talk about,” Brett added.

Brooke nodded. “That’s true. I asked about his family once. You’d have thought I’d asked for State secrets.”

“I got the same response when I asked him something he didn’t want to talk about. He’d flat-out refuse.” Brett took a sip of his coffee, then set the cup back on the saucer. “The whole case was strange, if you ask me.”

Noah cocked his head. “How so?”

“Well, I’m sure you’ve done your research,” he said to Noah. “My buddies still on the base tell me you run one stellar CGIS unit.”

Quite the compliment. “Thank you, sir.”

“No sir.” He swished his age-spotted hand. “Brett.”

“Brett,” Noah said with a nod.

“So I’m sure you’ve read that Scott implicated three partners in the crime?” he began.

“Yes, s—” Noah cut himself off before saying sir again.

Brett leaned his head toward his right shoulder, shifting his posture on the bench, to look at Brooke. “And what did you think at the time?”

“I knew Scott was brilliant with computers. I shared lunch with him and another C-School student often. I had no clue what half the things they talked about were, but they were fun and pleasant to be around. I knew who the instructors he implicated were, too, but didn’t know them personally.”

“Do you think Scott was telling the truth about their involvement?” Brett asked.

Brooke took a deep inhale, giving herself time to ponder. “I know the basics of what happened, but only from the news. It seems like it would be an awful tricky job to pull off by oneself. I assumed he was telling the truth until . . .”

“Until the men he implicated had alibis,” Brett said.

“Right.”

Noah studied the man before him, the glint in his eye. “You believed Scott?”

“I did. I think those men were guilty too, but we couldn’t find anything to tie them to the crime. No fingerprints on the wires that someone used to disrupt and loop the video feed, making Scott the invisible man, no evidence on their home computers of schematics of the office Scott needed to break into, or fingerprints on the computer he used to steal the currency.”

“Not even Scott’s?”

“No.”

“Then how did you know Scott did it?”

“The technical details were above my level of expertise. We had our computer expert . . . I’m sure you’ve got one.”

“Logan Perry and Emmy Thorton—both are fabulous.”

“Our computer genius was Eddie Gardner. I’m not exaggerating about his skills, but it took even him two straight days to finally track down Scott’s trail on the laptop he used. Apparently, every person leaves a digital footprint, and Eddie found Scott’s. I don’t fully understand it all myself, but Eddie is still around, and he’d be happy to chat with you, if you’d like.”

“That would be great,” Noah said.

“I’ll text him your number.”