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“I’ll have to bring my own six pack with me next time,” Theo said after he’d poured himself more than two fingers worth of the alcoholic beverage. “I’m not a huge fan of whiskey.”
Brook wasn’t sure what to address first, so she gave herself some additional time by sipping her sparkling wine. It was evident that Theo had guessed her reasoning for keeping the whiskey on hand, but he’d been discreet in how he’d worded the statement.
“How do you know that you’re ready to settle down?” Brook asked, instantly regretting her inquiry. It was too late to take it back, so she forged ahead. “You lived through a life-changing event a little over a year ago. You then switched career paths, chose to remain in D.C. instead of returning home to be near your family, and then moved places twice.”
“Exactly,” Theo said before lifting the glass and taking a sip. From the wince that crossed his face, he wouldn’t forget to bring his favorite beer with him the next time that he stopped by her condo. If she was a good neighbor, she’d keep some on hand. “I’ve had too much change, Brook. Too much movement, and I’m looking for some consistency. Someone to come home to after working long hours, someone to share a meal or watch a movie with on those slow days when we aren’t hunting down the dregs of society.”
Brook caught the way his gaze dropped to her right hand. She hadn’t even realized that she’d been twirling her worry ring. She could sense that he wanted to ask why she didn’t want the same thing, and she found herself blurting something out that she would have normally only reserved for her therapist.
“Elizabeth Elliott left me a voicemail. She wants to meet me before some pretentious social event at George Washington University. The only reason that I’m attending is because it’s core purpose is to honor Kelsey Elliott.”
Theo raised his eyebrow in surprise, the one without the patch.
“I didn’t know the two of you were that serious.”
It made her uncomfortable to discuss her relationship with Graham, so she stuck with the pertinent facts.
“With my history, I’m not so sure that I should be meeting Elizabeth Elliott.”
“You’re Graham’s business partner. Do you need to say anything other than that?”
It was Brook’s turn to raise an eyebrow. When Theo put it like that, there was no reasonnotto meet with Graham’s mother. Brook and Graham worked together, and it was highly doubtful that Graham would have brought up their relationship in a conversation to his mother. Maybe Brook had read something into the voicemail that wasn’t there.
She could chalk it up to Jacob being somewhere in the city.
He was acting out of sorts, and such a glaring anomaly had her on edge.
“You know, Sylvie might be onto something,” Brook muttered as she took another sip of her wine. She ignored Theo’s smile regarding her reference to having a person to confide in, which brought her back to the real reason that he’d come knocking on her door so close to midnight. “I’m fine. Really. The phone call threw me off, and I decided to work on the profile at home. It’s pretty much done, and I’ll go over it tomorrow morning in the office before Sylvie meets with Tiffany Fields.”
Theo didn’t bring up that she’d changed clothes into her workout apparel. She’d run for an hour on the treadmill, not wanting to go out in the cold. The frigid air hurt her lungs, and she much preferred to run when the temperature was slightly warmer. The cardio exercise gave her the ability to work out her frustrations, but this type of casual conversation between…well, friends…wasn’t so bad, either.
“I’ve been thinking about the case, and it’s more than likely that the unsub has another victim in his sights.” Theo polished off the rest of his whiskey, but he made no move to pour himself another glass. As a matter of fact, he leaned forward and set the glass on the table next to the bottle. “What if we give a statement to the press? Warning any females in connection to the nursing facility that they should report anything unusual.”
“There could be consequences to such a press release,” Brook mulled over after she took another sip of her wine. She twirled the glass in her hand as she went through the pros and cons of such an idea. “The unsub might completely stop the way he did three years ago, which I think had everything to do with Ridgeway’s incidental presence at the nursing home. It’s my belief that the undue attention focused on the facility by law enforcement caused the unsub’s self-imposed hiatus. Then there’s the possibility that the unsub makes the conscious decision to speed up his process, leaving us responsible for another woman being taken against her will.”
They spent the next thirty minutes debating whether or not giving a statement to the press was wise, and they both came to the agreement that they would hold off taking that route until they had more information to go on.
The fact that Tiffany Fields had been harassed by Cody Jennings enough that she’d sought out the police was something else to consider. There could be a lot of common threads, but they wouldn’t know until Sylvie was able to sit down with Fields for an interview.
“He’s good for you.”
Theo’s declaration regarding Graham had come out of left field, and Brook decided that she’d had enough alcohol for one night.
“I’m being serious,” Theo said as he monitored her a little too closely. She had unfolded her legs and straightened her back so that she was sitting properly on the couch. “It’s okay to have a personal life. It doesn’t make you less dedicated to hunting Jacob or doing your job. It also doesn’t dull your instincts. If anything, you might find that you have a new perspective on the investigation.”
Brook slowly leaned forward and carefully set her wineglass on the coffee table, seriously taking his words to heart. There was a chance that his statement held some validity.
“I’m heading out.” Theo slapped his hands on his knees. He then stood before pulling down the hem of his dark grey sweater. The starched white dress shirt underneath hadn’t moved an inch. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Brook followed him to the door before holding onto the doorknob as he continued down the hallway.
“Theo?” Brook waited until he’d stopped and turned around, meeting her gaze. “Thanks for checking on me.”
Instead of making some quip that would likely have had her wanting to slam the door closed, he wisely nodded before disappearing from view toward the elevator. She quietly closed the door. Retracing her steps, she eventually collected Theo’s empty glass and her wineglass before taking both of them into the kitchen. She placed them in the sink without rinsing them out. She would do so before going to bed later, which wouldn’t be for hours.
Since she had finished constructing her profile, she would see to it that Ann was emailed the details. Brook would refrain from mentioning Sinnett, even though it burned her that the man had access to Jacob’s files. She would keep the tone of her message civil so that Ann wouldn’t decide to swoop in at the last minute and botch up an arrest.
The team was close to finding answers.
