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For a brief moment, Brook thought that Theo was going to say something else, but he merely nodded his understanding before filling her in on the events of his day. The detective from the Ridgeway case had worked closely with the prosecutor’s office, but the investigation had been shelved after the man’s death. There had been nothing in the case files that suggested Ridgeway had a partner or was in any way connected to their active case.
“Sylvie’s calling,” Brook said as she focused on the lighted display of her phone. She’d silenced the device before her meeting with Sinnett, but the vibrations had been enough to garner her attention. “Sylvie? You’re on speakerphone. I have Theo here with me.”
“Do you know why Cody Jennings lost his job?” Sylvie’s voice was loud and clear, and her excitement at the break in the case was evident. She didn’t even wait for Brook or Theo to speak before answering her own question. “Jennings was arrested on harassment charges. A woman by the name of Tiffany Fields called the police around nine weeks ago. Are you ready for this? Tiffany Fields worked at the dental office that employed Jenny Capshaw.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Brooklyn Sloane
February 2023
Wednesday — 11:06pm
ItwasrareforBrook to be in her condo at this time of night. Usually, she was still at the office, either working on a profile, filling out mindless paperwork for the firm, or concentrating on Jacob’s murder board in order to gain a new perspective. The only reason that she’d chosen to deviate from her usual routine was the voicemail that she’d received from Graham’s mother.
The woman wanted to meet with Brook before the ceremony that would be held at George Washington University. Graham was still out of town, and Brook figured that he had no idea that his mother would reach out to her.
Then again, what had made him think there wouldn’t be any repercussions to being personally involved with the sister of a serial killer?
She groaned aloud in frustration that she’d even found herself in such an awkward position.
Other than spending time together, she’d purposefully kept him at arm’s length. There was still time to salvage their professional relationship, along with his mother’s sanity. Who could blame the woman, anyway? It was one thing for Brook to be hired to solve the murder of Elizabeth Elliott’s granddaughter. It was a completely different situation when her widowed son thought it wise to start something more intimate with someone like Brook.
“This is what you get when you don’t keep things casual,” she muttered to herself as she grabbed her wineglass off the dining room table. She was almost done completing her profile, not that she’d gotten any satisfaction from it. Normally, she would have gotten a rush of adrenaline and a sense of gratification over such progress, but they had both been diminished by something that she’d never thought possible—her personal life. “You fucked up, Brook.”
She walked into her kitchen and grabbed the bottle of sparkling wine off the counter. Before she could top off her glass, a knock came at the door. Nausea hit her out of nowhere. She wasn’t the type of woman who dealt with mothers, and she wasn’t ready to talk it over with Graham, either.
Another knock echoed off the hard surface.
Anger replaced the nausea, and she set both the wine bottle and glass down on the dining room table before making her way to the door. She held onto her resentment, mostly because she recognized her desire for a deeper relationship with Graham...and she hated herself for it. If she had half a mind, she’d end their personal relationship right now before it was too late.
Even with her anger ratcheted up to the nth degree, she came to an abrupt halt with her hand on the doorknob. Jacob was in the city, and it was only a matter of time before he reached out to her again. She’d also varied from her usual routine, not that it would matter in the grand scheme of things. While it was unlikely that her brother would simply knock on her front door, she’d learned long ago never to underestimate him.
Pausing long enough to confirm the identity of who had knocked on her door, she was taken aback at the sight of a familiar face.
“Theo, is everything okay?” Brook asked with concern after opening the door. Her irritation had waned, but it hadn’t evaporated completely. She did her best to shove aside her own problems to step into her leadership role. “I spoke to Bit a little while ago. He dropped Sylvie off at the office around nine o’clock. She’s going to speak with Tiffany Fields sometime tomorrow morning.”
While they lived in the same building, Theo had only ever knocked on her condo door once before. Even that visit had been prior to him moving into his own condo on the opposite end of the building. He was wearing the same clothes that he’d been in earlier, though it was more business casual than the t-shirts that Bit usually wore into the office. Theo was sans his winter jacket, so he must have stopped by his place first.
“I was actually coming to check on you,” Theo said after she’d backed up a couple of steps so that he could cross over the threshold. “You hardly ever leave the office before midnight. I wanted to check and see if everything was okay.”
Brook continued to hold the doorknob in her hand.
She hadn’t closed the door yet, so she could easily invite him to leave.
“I also ended things with Hadley tonight.”
She closed the door.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Brook said softly as she walked past him. Since her condo was an open layout, it didn’t take her long to grab the whiskey that she’d purchased to have on hand for Graham. Pausing only long enough to grab a glass from the cabinet, she then handed both items off to Theo before pouring the rest of the sparkling wine from the bottle into her glass. “I liked her, Theo.”
“You’re supposed to say that you don’t like her.” Theo lifted one side of his mouth in wry humor as he sat on the far end of the couch. She took the other end, pulling her legs underneath her to make herself more comfortable. “It’s okay. You’ll get the hang of it.”
Brook once again tamped down her irritation that the team and Graham seemed to believe that she was…well, normal.
“Hadley and I are in two different places in our lives, and she made it clear that she wasn’t ready for anything serious. I was hoping that she’d change her mind after we’d spent some time together, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.” Theo had set the whiskey and heavy glass on the coffee table. He leaned forward and began to unscrew the cap off the bottle. “I might have pulled the trigger too soon on ending things, but I also don’t want to find out that two or three years has passed by and I’m still waiting for her to take the next step with me.”
Brook bit the inside of her cheek. She should listen to him, give an explanation as to why she’d left the office early, and then see him to the door. Couldn’t he see that she wasn’t one to give him sound relationship advice, especially when she was so incapable of doing the same for herself?
