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Roman sat backagainst the couch in the safe house living room and aimed a high-level frown at the laptop in front of him.
“You want us to comeback?” he asked, at the same time Camila said, “What does that entail, exactly?”
Sergeant Sinclair looked at Camila, although the tiny frown that twitched on his lips as his gaze passed over Roman’s on the way wasn’t lost on him.
“That is an excellent question. Obviously, we wouldn’t have made this decision if we didn’t feel that the threat to you hadn’t decreased significantly. There’s been no sign of Archer or Portia Whitlock anywhere in Remington for nearly three weeks. No unusual activity in your apartment building or at your workplace. No phone calls or emails to your school or personal accounts that look out of the ordinary. That said”—he gestured to Capelli, who was sitting in the Intelligence office beside him—“once you return, we’ll still put several safety measures into place in an abundance of caution.”
Capelli pushed his glasses over the bridge of his nose and nodded. “We’ll do regular check-ins, either in person or on the phone, with a code word. We’ll also install two panic buttons in your apartment, much like the ones you have in the safe house now. They’d be temporary, of course, but we’d leave them in place for as long as the team deems them necessary.”
“It would be for a while,” Detective Garza chimed in, and weirdly, Roman was actually starting to like the guy.
Camila took a breath, but thankfully, she didn’t argue. “Okay. I don’t love any of that, but Idolove breathing, so…it seems reasonable. Anything else?”
“We’re lucky in that the school where you work is pretty tight with their security,” Capelli continued. “Given the fact that there’s a two-step sign-in process for all visitors and the dozens of cameras both inside the building and out, plus the two full-time security personnel on campus on any given day, it’s highly unlikely that someone as smart as Whitlock would try to harm you at work. We do have to consider the safety of the students and your co-workers, as well as yours, though, so we’ll still put some additional measures in place there. But we can coordinate those through the school staff.”
“That’s good,” Camila said. “I wouldn’t feel right putting anyone else at risk.”
Garza shook his head. “We also have a couple of options to make sure we know where you are all the time. I know that might feel kind of…”
“Invasive?” Camila said, lifting her brows.
“I was going to say overly cautious,” Garza replied. “But the options we’ve got in mind aren’t intrusive. No one will be tailing you or watching you directly via surveillance, and we wouldn’t listen in on your conversations or anything like that.”
Camila paused, and Roman felt a twinge of relief that she seemed to be considering the extra precautions. “Okay. So, it would be more like using the GPS in my cell phone to know where I am?”
“You’ve got the right idea,” Capelli said. “Just not so obvious.”
“Tracking her car would give us good visualization via satellite,” Roman said, and Capelli arched a brow at Sinclair.
“Wereallyneed to have a conversation about the department’s technology budget,” he murmured, then refocused on Camila. “I was thinking more along the lines of a smaller device. Tracking only. We’ve used them with success in the past.”
“In fact, a device just like it saved Tara Kingston’s life a few years ago,” Sinclair said.
Roman thought of the A.D.A. they’d met virtually last week, nodding. “Lavalier tracker?”
“It’s a necklace?” Camila asked, and Capelli held up a silver chain with a small pendant attached.
“It’s a necklace,” he confirmed. “The GPS can accurately track the wearer to within about fifty yards.”
Camila blinked. “Wow. Okay, that probably can’t hurt, right?”
Roman’s “no” collided with Garza’s, and Sinclair added a head shake for good measure. “It really can’t. But we’d rather err on the side of caution to do all that we can to keep you safe.”
Roman couldn’t have bought a better segue with a thousand dollars, cash. “Are you sure coming back is such a great idea?” he asked, which—of course—made Sinclair frown in return.
“It’s been almost three weeks,” he said. “There haven’t been any more robberies that fit the Whitlocks’ M.O., either in Remington or anywhere else in the U.S. We haven’t had a single credible hit on the BOLOs for either Portia or Archer in the city. And, Garrity was able to do a complete profile on both of them, further suggesting that he’s our guy. Garrity’s professional opinion is that Archer is playing it safe and has gone underground.”
Dallas cleared his throat from his little block on the video call screen. “I think that it’slikelyArcher’s playing it safe. As all of you know, criminal behavior isn’t exactly something we can predict. But it does fit patterns, and Archer is extremely smart, not to mention calculated. I can’t imagine he didn’t have an exit strategy in place. Yes, there’s still a chance Archer is laying low and waiting for Camila to return to Remington.” He shrugged. “But given how much risk it puts him at to stay in a city where the police are very actively looking for him, and his face has been plastered all over the local news outlets…statistically, that chance isn’t very high. He knows we don’t have enough to charge him with anything. Even if we catch Portia and get her to flip on him, we’d still have to find him, too. Hiding is the smarter play.”
“Plus, we’ve had credible reports in the last twenty-four hours from two separate sources saying a man and woman fitting the Whitlocks’ descriptions have been seen in Columbus, Ohio,” Capelli said, which was news to Roman.
“You couldn’t have, oh, I don’t know, led with that?” he asked, his heart pumping even harder when he realized how still Camila had gone beside him.
“Do you think it’s them? In Ohio?”
“We’re doing all that we can to find out,” Sinclair said. “Local authorities are following up very carefully and we’re working with them every step of the way. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you there’s no risk in your coming back to Remington. But, given everything we know, I do think the risk is far lower than it was three weeks ago. I believe that my unit, along with Special Agent Calloway’s support, has a good plan for your safety, and I can promise you that even if this lead in Ohio doesn’t pan out, we won’t stop looking for ArcherorPortia Whitlock.”
They talked for a few more minutes about logistics, agreeing to move Camila out of the safe house first thing in the morning, then ending the call. She sat back against the couch, no less than four separate emotions on her beautiful face, and Roman put an arm around her to pull her close.
