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She didn’t want to lose this. “I’ve got some ideas, but I need to check out that map we talked about. Have you had a chance to work on it yet?”
He grinned. “I did. And then I pulled in Bella. With her investigations on serial arsonists, she’s good at working on maps.”
Tessa had forced herself to stop panicking every time they brought another person into the group. She’d been on her own for most of her life, so it took some doing. But connecting with people was another thing she’d missed and now craved.
When she’d spent time in that hospital basement, they’d set up a TV with sitcoms for her to watch. Nothing current or stressful while she was healing. All feel-good shows. Most of them involved families. Wacky families, found families, birth families. Most a little unconventional and silly. But all with a solid core of love holding them together.
She wanted that and she’d found it here. After living with the Midnight Lake group for weeks, she wanted to keep it. Fiercely. The best way to do that would be to eliminate the threat. If that was even possible. These people made her believe it might be, and she hoped they were right.
If they weren’t, she didn’t know how she’d survive the heartbreak.
Flynn took her hand and tugged her over to another desk where there was a large monitor attached to a desktop computer. This was the one that was entirely off the grid. No internet connection. Everything uploaded by USB.
Completely secure.
A good place for their data.
Flynn tapped a few keys and pulled up the map.
Tessa gasped at the detail. “This is amazing. It’s exactly like I pictured, exactly like I hoped. You’re incredible.”
She hugged him and he held her tight. “Most of the credit goes to Bella, but I’ll definitely take the reward.”
Tessa reached on her toes to kiss him, then dropped into the chair to study the map.
The street map showed Houston and the outlying areas. Colored overlays showed areas where various groups operated.
Yellow was the assigned color for Pavic and it fit. The family was sick and when the yellow overlaid the map, it took on a sickly tone.
She turned to Flynn. “Do you mind if I make some additions?”
He laughed and sat beside her. “We did it for you. Change, add, and delete at will.”
“Thank you.”
Flynn returned to where she’d been working, grabbed her headphones and notebook, then brought them to her.
He dropped a kiss on her head. “Work your magic, Tessa.”
Flynn could feel Tessa’s desperation to solve the problem from across the room. For two days, she’d been relentless in reading data and collating it into patterns only she could see.
She used numbers, diagrams, maps, and what she called web-spheres to pull it all together.
Flynn was no dummy, but it made his head spin. Her brain worked differently from anyone he’d met. Even Tansy, who invented things like spy gear and shuttle parts along with cleaning robots and dinosaur toys.
Over the past few days, Flynn had become familiar with Tansy, Bella, Mitch, and Aisling. He’d already known Sam and Graham, but getting to know the others had been good.
They made an excellent team. He wanted this case solved and Tessa safe so they could be part of the team permanently.
Joe, Nico, and Josie would arrive any time. He hoped the sketch artist could help them get some potential likenesses for Martin and Karlo.
Neither man had ever had a driver’s license, so there were no photos to find online. One way to know they’d been born into a criminal family. Official photos were often missing or unidentifiable.
Fake beards, earrings, temporary tattoos, cheek implants, fake scar tissue, colored contacts. Any way to shield the face and interfere with facial recognition software. He knew a few people in jail who’d used movie-type enhancements to change their forehead or jawlines for pictures.
If Josie could get a clear picture from Tessa’s descriptions, he hoped they would get a hit. Unless they’d gone the plastic surgery route. With the arrogance that emanated from the family, he doubted it. He hoped to prove one or both were alive.
Flynn’s phone buzzed with a text from Nico.Here.
