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"I love my family. I want you to know that they come first, so what I'm about to tell you can't lead back to me. Ever. I need your word, Brook."
A hundred scenarios ran through Brook's mind as to what secret Brenda had been keeping from her husband and children. An affair? An assault of some sort that hadn't been reported? The list of skeletons in the Snyder family closet could be nearly endless.
"I will do what I can," Brook replied cautiously, not wanting to give this woman promises that couldn't be kept.
Brenda paused, and when she spoke again, there was a tremor of apprehension in her voice.
"I think I know who was following Lori before she went on deployment. He came to my residence tonight to speak with Jim, claiming it was to say goodbye before his deployment, only I saw him come out of my husband's office when he said he needed to use the restroom." Brenda finally inhaled a shaky breath before revealing why she thought the man in her home this evening was the one responsible for Lori's death. "He was wearing the same hat, Brook. The same ball cap."
"Brenda, who came to see your husband this evening?"
"Rich," Brenda revealed, taking Brook by surprise. Jim had referred to Rich as a second son, the same as he'd said about Artie Keyes. To accuse someone with such close ties to the family was just as bad as believing one of her own son's had killed their sister. "I know it was him, Brook. I know it. Jim refuses to believe that Rich could harm anyone, let alone our daughter, so it's up to you to look into him."
Chapter Fifteen
Brooklyn Sloane
January 2022
Monday — 8:00am
"RichMundyisdefinitelynot our unsub," Brook stated matter-of-factly, setting her tablet down next to her coffee mug. She kept her favorite pen in her hand as she took what was now her usual seat at the head of the conference room table. "While he is the right age, his responsibilities as an anesthesiologist would not permit him the proper surveillance time needed to implicate someone else in a crime. Additionally, he has alibis for the days in questions that we were easily able to obtain without having to question him personally. His schedule at the hospital was obtained using an electronic public records request for the surgical staff and support personnel working their three operating rooms on the dates in question."
The last reason had been proven first thing this morning, courtesy of Bit. He'd arrived in the office a little before seven o'clock, enthusiastic for the week ahead. Quite a lot of information had been obtained during some of his online searches that he'd had going over the weekend. Sylvie would spend the rest of the day going over the results of various searches and sorting through emails returned to them in response to them requesting records, whereas Brook was going to need Bit's help later this afternoon.
"Theo, what do you have for us?" Brook asked, opening the floor to him as she leaned back in her chair, moving it far enough away from the whiteboard that he was about to address.
"We have two suspects." Theo left his seat at the other end of the table. His left eye was a bit bloodshot, as if he'd had a rough night. Brook usually wasn't one to pry into anyone's life, but she found herself fighting the urge to ask if he was feeling alright. "Isaac Ambrose and Nathan Dante. Both fit the age parameters listed in the profile, both are civilian contractors working within the military, and both were seen at three funerals and one memorial service."
It had been a group effort to come up with these names. Given that the fathers of the victims were high-ranking in either the Marines or the Navy, there had been a lot of crossover between the funerals, memorial services, and even celebrations of life in the months after the victims' deaths. Bit had made a list, which had then been cross-referenced by Sylvie. Once she'd narrowed down the names to include around a dozen civilian personnel, Theo was then able to whittle it down to two based on Brook's profile and readily known activities taken from their social networking pages.
"Isaac Ambrose is thirty-two years old, works with a government subcontractor, and apparently had ties with Project Grey Skies, and was in the vicinity of at least four murders that we know of," Theo went on to explain as he picked up a marker. He wrote something underneath the man's photograph. "I'm working to connect his schedule to the other crime scenes, but I'm not certain that he would have had enough time to frame all these men."
"Does he travel a lot for his job?" Sylvie asked, taking notes in her new leather-bound journal. She looked at Theo overtop her black-rimmed glasses. "He might have been able to piecemeal the murders. Maybe on a given week, he took time to study the schedule of the victims, while using another week to figure out who he was going to frame for the crime."
"It's possible," Theo said, stepping back to compare the sketch that Brenda Snyder had drawn with the two suspects. "The drawing is too vague to make a match."
The hat that the male subject had worn to monitor Lori's movements was apparently quite common with this age group. The logo was that of an old role-playing game that had been making a comeback in recent years. Anyone could have purchased it from any game store that carried ballcaps. They were also basically listed on all major retail sites. It was basically a dead end, and the sketch was useless.
"What about Nathan Dante?" Sylvie asked as she reached for her cup. While she would enjoy coffee now and then, her preferred drink was tea. Black tea, green tea, herbal tea...basically any type of tea. "What do we know about him?"
Bit was quiet, as usual. He typically listened in on the morning debriefings, and he only added his two cents worth if someone asked him a direct question. He wasn't one to withhold information, so when one of his programs unearthed something regarding the case, everyone knew it within minutes of its discovery via IM. Still, Brook could hear the fabric of his jeans rubbing together as he jostled his knee up and down.
"Nathan Dante is twenty-nine years old, and he is also employed by a government subcontractor. While I can't find ties with Project Grey Skies, he was at numerous funerals of the deceased. He plays golf with Colonel Brooks, who happens to be victim number three's father. I do believe the two families are close, so that could explain the golf outings," Theo said as he rubbed the back of his head.
To Sylvie and Bit, the gesture might have been one of contemplation.
It wasn't, but Brook would refrain from saying anything in front of them.
"Nathan Dante does travel to North Carolina frequently, though I'm still having trouble lining up his flight dates. Nathan prefers to stay with friends, and he likes to drive rather than fly. Bit is going to see if we can find receipts for some gas stations or maybe some business correspondence that would indicate his travel dates. Oh, and I have a call into NCIS Agents Tonkel and Clemmons to see if either of these names were brought up at any time during their murder investigations."
"I think I met him once," Sylvie replied with a frown. She tilted her head as she studied the suspect's photograph. Her blonde hair was once again pulled tight in an upward style. Brook preferred her hair out of the way, too, but she usually contained the black strands at the base of her neck in a looser fashion. "Either that, or I saw him at Quantico a time or two. He looks familiar."
"Does Captain Wallace Dante ring a bell?" Brook asked, not surprised when recognition dawned on Sylvie's features.
"That's downright eerie," Sylvie practically whispered in awe. She met everyone's gazes, but Brook was the only one who understood her astonishment. "He is literally the spitting image of his father."
Theo set the marker down on the metal edge of the whiteboard before walking back to his seat. He sat down without commenting, but until they had more to go on, there was technically nothing more to say on the two tier-one suspects.
