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“Oak Street can be used to leave the area and catch a ramp onto the highway,” Theo said in frustration as he rubbed the back of his neck. The cold leather of his gloves didn’t take away any of the tension in his muscles. “Have you accessed—”
“Some of those cameras are covered in ice. It’s too difficult to know for sure if the vehicle made it to the highway. You might need to send more officers and agents to the surrounding communities. I’ve already sent you the listings of houses broken up by districts to make things easier.”
There was nothing easy about searching for Brook in the middle of a snowstorm.
“From the doorbell camera that caught sight of the vehicle leaving the house, you’re looking for a 2017 Toyota Camry. It’s black in color. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a good angle to get a license plate.”
Theo noticed that Harden was speaking to Graham, bringing an end to the man’s phone conversation. The two men then walked over to Harden’s vehicle, which was still running given the amount of exhaust being emitted from the tailpipe.
Harden wasn’t a man who cut corners, and Graham wasn’t likely to show his hand. The two of them were operating from different ends even though they were on the same side. Graham had no doubt contacted one of the teams that worked off the books. One of those teams happened to be run by Alex DeSilva.
“…speakerphone, Bit. I’m not an invalid.”
“Put Sylvie on speakerphone,” Theo directed Bit after overhearing their argument.
“Theo, we have a basic idea of the profile, right?” Sylvie must have taken the phone from Bit, because her voice was loud and clear. She sounded a lot better than she had this morning when he had been in her room. Sharper, which meant that they had lessened her amount of pain medication. “Let me use some of Brook’s old profiles to try and round out what we know about Lorena. We know a lot about her past from the investigation into her parents’ murders. There must be some pattern, right? I mean, besides the vacant real estate properties.”
“It can’t hurt,” Theo said as he turned the engine on in his Jeep before closing the door. He wasn’t looking for heat so much as he wanted to get a visual of Graham and Harden. Theo made sure the setting was adjusted to defrost in order to clear his windshield. “Bit, what if you were able to use satellite footage? Harden gave me the name of someone for you to contact at the Bureau.”
Theo rattled off the information, but Bit hadn’t seemed too optimistic given the stormfront. The three of them spoke for a few minutes longer, but nothing came to light that they hadn’t already thought of previously.
By the time Theo had disconnected the call, his windshield was clear.
Graham was getting out of Harden’s vehicle, and it was evident that the two of them weren’t on the same page. Harden immediately accessed his phone while Graham closed the distance to join Theo in the Wrangler. Some of the warmth that had collected in the Jeep escaped, but Graham quickly closed the door before holding his hands up to the vent.
“Want to clue me in on what happened with Harden?”
“We have until morning to find Brook.” Graham cleared his throat. “Harden is getting pressure to distance the Bureau from S&E Investigations given the most recent turn of events. The brass wants Harden to take the reins.”
Theo had seen the potential of such a decision a mile away.
“It’s the right call. Doesn’t mean that we have to step back.” Theo understood the Bureau’s point of view on the subject. Truthfully, he was surprised that Brook had been able to get the Bureau to agree to such a deal in the first place. “You should know that Brook wasn’t the one to drive the Land Rover to this location. Someone’s doorbell camera caught an individual leaving Brook’s last location north of here, and that someone was wearing her coat. Assuming that someone was Lorena, she didn’t think the situation all the way through. She wasn’t wearing Brook’s winter boots.”
“Was Bit able to follow Lorena’s trail after she walked away from the Land Rover?”
“No, which just tells us what we already know—Lorena had already canvassed the neighborhood and knew which homes to steer clear of,” Theo said as he glanced out the side window of the Jeep. The snow was coming down too hard at the moment to see the yards. “A black Toyota Camry left the last address that Brook searched, but the storm had already started by then. The last sighting of the car was on Oak Street, which means Lorena could have been driving toward the highway. Before you ask, the one camera needed for the onramp was too covered in ice to make out anything good enough to give us something to go on.”
“I’ll drive over there,” Graham said as he reached into the pocket of his jacket. He pulled out a pair of leather gloves. “DeSilva’s team couldn’t charter a flight into D.C. We’re on our own. We—”
For the first time since Theo had known Graham, the man let his emotions get the best of him. He broke off his sentence as he focused on securing his gloves over his hands. Theo had been grappling with his own emotions for the past few days. But Graham? The man’s daughter had been murdered, and his wife had taken her life not long after that horrible tragedy. He was now facing the loss of another woman who he clearly loved more than life itself.
“You go to Brook’s last location,” Theo stated quietly as he focused his attention on Harden. The man was still on the phone in his car. “I’ll see if I can’t buy us more time before someone else takes over the investigation.”
Graham shook his head that Theo’s effort wasn’t necessary.
“You said yourself that it’s the right call. Let them satisfy the upper brass if it means keeping the consulting agreement in place.” Graham turned his head to focus on Theo. “Brook wouldn’t want it any other way. In the meantime, I trust that she’ll do what is necessary to come out of this on top.”
Graham reached for the handle and used his shoulder to give additional force to open the door against the biting wind. Had the stormfront been delayed by a few hours, Bit would have been able to ascertain whether or not Lorena had left the neighborhood. Given the new laws and regulations when it came to these types of pursuits, the Bureau couldn’t simply launch a house-by-house search. As it stood, an alert had already been sent out to the residents in the area that they should remain in their homes, be vigilant, and call 911 should they notice or hear anything unusual.
Only Theo didn’t believe that the situation would be resolved with that kind of luck. Brook surviving this situation had more to do with delaying the inevitable, and Graham was well aware of that fact.
Lorena Dobbs wanted Sarah Evanston’s location.
Brook’s life would end the moment it was revealed that she didn’t have that information. One wrong word could be the difference between life and death.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Brooklyn Sloane
