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"Um, I need to talk to you."
"Agent Tonkel has agreed to work with us on this investigation, so whatever it is that you—"
"Ireallyneed to talk to you in private."
Brook's heart rate spiked at Bit's implication.
Had Jacob seen the brief press clip of her and decided that he didn't want her to give an in-depth interview about their childhood? Not that she would have given too much insight into their upbringing, but he still wouldn't have taken too kindly to her agreeing to such inquiries.
"Derek, if you'll excuse me for a moment."
Brook had gotten to be an expert in hiding her thoughts and emotions, so she didn't doubt that she pulled off being nonchalant about Bit's request. The less she was to react, the more that Derek would believe the matter wasn't anything of importance. Besides, with Bit's eccentric personality, he could have been referring to an upcoming stormfront.
Brook even took her coffee with her as she stepped out of her office and began to follow Bit down the hallway. Only he veered off into Sylvie's office, which currently had a very sweet fragrance hanging in the air.
Sylvie had brought in two plants with her this morning, had pictures of her and her family—sans her father—set up on her desk, and shelves mounted to the walls, as well as had various lotions lined up underneath her monitor. One of them was most likely the culprit for the berry scent lingering around her desk.
She'd been busy making her private office more comfortable, which was not something that Brook was experiencing right now.
"What happened?" Brook asked cautiously, choosing to focus on Bit. Sylvie seemed just as confused over what could possibly have triggered such a reaction from him.
"Three of the seven fathers worked together on a special project," Bit announced as he laced his hands behind his head. His blue eyes were as round as saucers. "The first three in consecutive order, if we stick with Lori Snyder being the first victim. The fourth dad was on the committee that made the deciding factor whether or not to implement said project."
"What about the others?" Sylvie asked with a bit of reserve, obviously not quite sure if Bit had brought us useful information. Brook, on the other hand, realized that Bit might have actually found the root cause of why this unsub had begun to kill. "Three, or four, could simply be an odd coincidence."
"This is a steel trap," Bit replied, taking a finger and tapping his temple hard enough to cause Brook to wince. His enthusiasm was to be rewarded, though. "Boss mentioned that the unsub most likely started his killing spree in an act of vengeance before discovering his penchant of murdering women and framing others for their deaths. Right? Well, that would mean there had to be a connection between the first few murders. Now we have it. Bingo!"
"Good work, Bit." Brook wasn't about to express her relief that Bit's interruption had nothing to do with Jacob. "As I said before, though, Agent Tonkel is going to be part of the investigation moving forward. We can—"
"Yeah, about that." Bit lowered both arms and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "You might need to come up with a story as to how we figured out that three of the officers worked together on a top-secret project."
Sylvie smothered a groan before pushing back her chair.
"I'm going into the kitchen before I hear any more details about this top-secret project." Sylvie picked up her cell phone before making her way toward the door. "I'm going to make myself a cup of tea. Does anyone want any?"
"No, thanks," Bit replied as if he hadn't just admitted that he'd discovered evidence under nefarious circumstances. "Hey, how did your date go last night?"
"Let's just say that it went well enough to justify a second date," Sylvie answered with a satisfied smile before closing the door behind her.
She was completely oblivious to the fact that Bit was enamored with her. In Brook's opinion, that was a good thing. Those types of work relationships only managed to complicate things, and now wasn't the time for such a delicate situation to develop.
"Bit, I thought we talked about backdoor channels," Brook reminded him, not that she was against such tactics when their backs were against a wall. "We really need to keep things above board. Any hint of us doing anything...let's just say completely above board...can get us shut down, our access restricted, and our licenses revoked."
Brook held up her hand when Bit would have defended his digital footprint. He was one of the best in his field, but no one was perfect.
"Let me speak with Graham about how we can explain our knowledge of this. In the meantime, go ahead and alert Theo of your discovery," Brook advised after making the decision to keep Derek out of the loop for now. "I appreciate your discretion earlier. Speaking of which, I better get back."
Brook turned to open the door of Sylvie's office when she decided to follow up on one more thing. She kept her hand on the doorknob as she made her request.
"Bit, seeing as you already walked through that proverbial prohibited door, can you get me information on General James Snyder? And by that, I mean his current location."
"On it, Boss."
As Brook made her way back to her office, she'd already decided to have Derek pay a visit to the prison that currently housed Steve Laurey. It would most likely take Theo another day or two to reach that specific location, and Derek had a personal relationship with the inmate. They were liable to get more information through Derek than Theo.
As for Brook, she was confident that Theo was right about Lori Snyder being the initial target. Lori had been brought to the unsub's attention due to her father's work, which meant that he unknowingly had information on his daughter's killer.
Brook had enough information now to finish her profile. Once that was done and Bit had the location of General James Snyder, it was only a matter of time before the identity of the unsub was revealed.
