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“Our second victim was a struggling actor in LA. He had all sorts of jobs, one of them as a computer repair technician in between auditions.”
Mark sat up straighter. “What about Brett? Any connection to computers?”
“It didn’t look like it. Dude didn’t even have so much as a social media presence—almost unheard of for a twenty-three-year-old. He was studying British Literature in college, which is like the polar opposite of computers.”
“So, no link?”
She clicked a few more keys. “I’m hoping you’ll stand by your Outlaw nickname and not mind this too much since it’s technically illegal, but I dug into Brett a little more. Ends up he had a sealed juvenile record. Little fifteen-year-old Brett made some bad choices.Hacking.”
“Oh shit.” All the victimswereconnected.
“Yep. I wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t dug. Evidently, Brett had put his evil hacking ways behind him, or at least had convinced the law he had. But all four victims had pretty extensive computer knowledge.”
“So, rather than breaking in to these places for their jewelry or cash, you think they did something to each business’s computer system?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea what, but it makes more sense than Joaquin sending them in to grab whatever’s in the cash register. Do you think we could get access to Brett’s crime scene?”
“Yeah. I’m sure Callum and his Omega Sector team can circumvent any jurisdictional issues we might have. We can go right now.”
Some of the color bled out of her face. “Great.”
“You don’t have to go. I can look and report back.”
Jenna shook her head, pressing her lips together. “That won’t work. If they were accessing the computers, I need to be there to see what was done. I’m just going to have to deal with a little bit of going outside.”
“Jenna.” He spun her fully to face him. “The last twenty-four hours have been very stressful for you. It’s okay to sit this one out.”
She shook her head. “All I can do is what I can do, right? I can do this. I promise I’m not trying to torture myself, but I owe it to these people to try to figure out why they died and try to stop it from happening to anyone else.”
This woman. She was so much stronger than she gave herself credit for.
He tilted her face up and dropped a kiss on her lips. “I’ll do whatever I can to make it easier for you.”
“I know.”
* * *
Less than a half hour later, they were pulling up outside the art gallery Brett Cochran had broken into. A bus this size looked entirely out of place against the curb here, but Mark didn’t care. He was minimizing the distance for Jenna.
The cop on duty didn’t even blink at them as Mark carried Jenna from the bus inside the gallery. Jenna hadn’t questioned when he held his arms out—but even then, he felt her breath go short and saw her eyes squeeze tight against the sun’s brightness and the open feeling of fresh air when they stepped outside.
“Okay, we’re in,” he said when the door shut behind them.
The building was blocked off with crime scene tape, but it didn’t look like a typical crime scene. Sure, stuff was broken. Glass had been smashed and things toppled over. But none of the art had been touched. It didn’t even look as if there had been an attempt to remove any of what was on display.
Jenna slid down from his arms and began to walk toward the back.
“What are we looking for?”
“The office,” she said.
He followed her back to find that room had been trashed like the gallery, but the computer hadn’t been harmed. Jenna stepped over the scattered papers and overturned filing cabinet, dragging a chair in front of the computer.
“I’m going to look around some more while you do your thing.”
“Okay.” She didn’t look up from the screen.
He walked back into the gallery, looking at the art in case the content was at all relevant. It was beautiful, but somehow he didn’t think the abstract paintings of southwest mesas were Joaquin’s ultimate goal.
