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“Like what?” Bree asked.

Noah leaned back against the counter. The women didn’t recognize the stance for what it was, but Tanner did. Noah was placing himself between Marilyn and any danger that might come through that door.

Tanner took a sip of his coffee. “It looks like the fire was set deliberately, but whoever did it wasn’t trying to burn the building down completely or even hurt anyone.”

“It was set to shake things up,” Noah said. “Get everyone out of their routine.”

“They certainly managed that,” Bree muttered.

“He could’ve been out there,” Marilyn whispered. “Waiting to get me or the kids alone. That’s exactly something Jared would do.”

“And none of us suspected there was any danger.” Bree shook her head. “I almost left the kids with a paramedic. He wouldn’t have known to look out for Jared.”

Tanner rubbed the back of his neck. “We can’t automatically assume it was Jared. He’s got that ankle monitor, and it sends a notification if he goes out of his set range. My colleague in Denver assures me it isn’t hackable.”

Bree actually laughed out loud, rolling her eyes. “Okay. We’ll just let them go on believing that. Everything is hackable.”

He reached over and grabbed his little computer genius’s hand. “Everything is hackable by you. The chances that Jared has someone with your skill in his personal list of friends—no matter how many fraternity brothers he has—is slim.”

Bree nodded. “Agreed. All I’m saying is that a false sense of security that something can’t be hacked might lead to laziness on law enforcement’s part.”

Tanner couldn’t disagree with that. Not when the department already didn’t have a stellar showing when it came to this situation.

A text came in on his phone from Ronnie. Finally a little good news.

“Ronnie got the log for Jared’s monitor. According to the reports, he was not anywhere around Risk Peak at the time of the fire. He hasn’t been out of Denver city limits since he made bail.”

“Unless he did have someone who could hack the anklet for him,” Bree said.

“Could you tell if it had been tampered with?” Tanner asked her. “Would you be able to see if the reports of his whereabouts were wrong?”

“From the source computer or the anklet itself, yes,” she said.

“Then maybe it’s time you and I took a little field trip. A nice tour of the Denver County Warrants and Bonding Office seems like a great idea.”

Chapter Six

“You let me do the talking, okay?”

Bree rolled her eyes. “Remember how for as long you’ve known me, I’ve never had any sort of desire to talk to people? Still true.”

It was the next morning and Bree and Tanner were on their way to the Denver County Warrants and Bonding Office. Tanner had wanted to come yesterday, but by four o’clock the person they’d needed to see was already gone, he’d found out with disgust.

But it was better they made the trip today, since it had given Bree time to research the monitoring system being used on Jared. She had to admit, this one was sophisticated—definitely high-end. Most types of ankle monitors were meant for nonviolent first-time offenders—people who needed to be scared into staying in one place and were a pretty low flight risk overall. Those units were pretty easily hackable and would’ve definitely been a mistake in Jared’s case.

But this version of electronic monitoring was much more advanced. Had been used successfully all over the country without anyone being able to escape undetected.

Regardless, Bree wanted to check out this system for herself. Wanted to know for certain Marilyn and the kids were safe. The easiest way to do that was through official access at the bonding office.

Of course, she could’ve hacked the system without official access, but she didn’t even bring that possibility up. For some absurd reason, her law enforcement husband-to-be didn’t like breaking the law. Go figure.

“I’m not going to explain to them outright what we’re doing unless I have to,” Tanner said. “Parnam didn’t seem like a bad guy, but he definitely isn’t interested in adding to his workload. Nobody in the warrants and bonding office is going to like us peeking over their shoulder to double-check their work. So let’s try not to inform them.”

Bree let out a frustrated sigh. “And what about Marilyn and the kids? Do they care at all that if Jared has found some way to circumvent the monitoring system, he might put Marilyn back in the hospital or worse?”

“As far as the law is concerned, Marilyn is protected because she has that restraining order.”

“That restraining order isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on if Jared decides he’s willing to risk getting away with it.”