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Drew’s eyes locked to his friend’s and he nodded. “I see.”
Noah moved towards the attacker, and now the lights were on, he stared at the man’s face, looking for anyone he recognized and drawing a blank.
“Who the hell are you?”
It was Drew that spoke. “It’s Simon Baslemore.”
The name meant nothing to Noah. “Who?”
“Edward Walton’s driver.”
“Jesus Christ.” Noah stared at Drew, a pounding ache in the side of his head, his arm feeling as though it had been splintered. He shrugged out of his jacket and winced at the sight of the injury - a bruise was already visible, taking up most of the forearm.
“Call for an EMS,” Drew commanded. “You’re going to need to go to hospital.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Drew sighed. “Noah, you did it. You got the bad guy. I’ll keep someone stationed here with Ms Fortescue.”
“No.” This was non-negotiable. Noah wasn’t going to leave her. “An EMS would be great.”
“Bloody hell, you’re stubborn.”
Noah didn’t bother to deny it. “So the photo in the car was his?”
“And it explains who made the call in Soho.”
“Of course. He must have seen us at the gallery.” Noah paced in a straight line, threading together all the instances, all the clues. “There’s more though. A sophisticated technological assault. He’s overcome the gate alarm, flown monitoring drones into the property –,”
“Yes,” Drew agreed. “We’ll search his office and home, no doubt there’ll be a basket of evidence.”
“That’s why the IP address showed up as Edward’s grandmother’s house. He must have routed it through their modem.”
“Yes,” Drew agreed. “The frequency of Mr Walton’s visits to his grandmother’s property would have provided ample opportunity to stalk Ms Fortescue, to observe her and the comings and goings of the house, to familiarize himself with security protocols, routines, and even lay digital frameworks in place to access security feeds and access points.”
“I thought it was an inside job,” Noah muttered.
“It basically was.”
Noah turned away from his friend, his head pounding. He hadn’t done enough. He hadn’t seen clearly. He should have screened the staff of nearby houses. He should have foreseen this.
Two paramedics came through the door.
“Over here,” Drew called.
“I’m fine,” Noah hissed. “I need to see Max.”
“I’ll go check on her,” Drew promised. “Take a look at his arm.” He turned to one of his men. “If Noah tries to leave this room before a paramedic has cleared him, arrest him.” His smile showed he was joking. “And get the suspect down to the station. I’ll follow, to question him myself.”
Noah had to surrender some of his control, just in that moment. While the EMS tended to his arm, wrapping it in a gauze strap and insisting he’d need to go to hospital to get it x-rayed to make sure it wasn’t broken, Noah used his other hand to reach for his phone and call Gray.
“You’d better get over here.”
“What is it?”
“We’ve got the guy. Long story, but Max is fine. She could do with some company.”
Someone other than him. Noah’s eyes exploded with bright light as he realized what this meant. He wasn’t needed anymore. His relationship with Max, her dependency on him, was at an end. He had to free her, to let her go, and he had to leave too.
