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It was then that she noticed Derek's understanding of the situation.
"You think that the unsub knows that the cases are about to be reopened."
"All of his hard work is about to unravel," Theo surmised as he moved an elbow off the arm of his chair when someone brushed by him a little too close for comfort. The lounge was busy, and the waitress didn't seem to be in a hurry to deliver those drinks. "Fuck. Is that why everything is pointing to Les Snyder?"
"It's possible," Brook theorized, having already accepted that they'd lost the upper hand the moment they had opened up their investigation to NCIS. "I don't want us to take the bait and get sidetracked. This unsub is very aware of how easy it is to sway perceptions."
They spent the next five to ten minutes discussing their interview with Austin Ridley's family, though nothing had come of it. Yet. Brook was a fierce proponent for everything having meaning if one looked hard enough. The waitress had finally returned with their drinks, though Theo had already excused himself to use the facilities.
"Go ahead and charge those to my room," Derek advised the waitress, who nodded her understanding before she began to make her way to another table. "402."
Brook sipped her wine as Derek once again met her gaze directly, even though he was speaking with someone else. She'd already decided that she wasn't going to take him up on his non-so-subtle offer to accompany him to his room. He was attractive, and he didn't seem to care that she had a psychopathic serial murderer for a brother, but that was the problem—Derek would think that there was more than just one night in the offering. He would be wrong.
He had a savior complex.
Only she didn't need saving.
She was the predator, not the prey.
She also never spent more than one night in a man's bed, and she always left before sunrise. She didn't consider herself sexually promiscuous, by any stretch of the imagination. She had needs like everyone else, and she was very discreet with who she chose to spend those few and far between evenings with. Her life had no room for anything else.
"I'm sure this past week has been hard on you."
Brook contemplated downing the contents of her glass, but she refrained and did her best to stick to the case.
"No harder than any other week," Brook replied with offhanded disregard, scanning the faces of the crowd. "It will help once we are able to compile a list of suspects who we can eliminate one by one. The unsub can only hide in the crowd if there is one left to blend into. Once Nathan Dante's lawyer gives us the man's alibis for the dates in question, we can officially take him off the list. Isaac Ambrose will be our next target until Sylvie narrows down the other names. There was another defense contractor who might have had personal dealings with a few of the fathers that I'm having her focus on, as well. His name is Oliver Bynum. Have you heard of him?"
Derek shook his head in response.
"Oliver Bynum has been trying to make a name for himself, but he's been turned down for quite a few military contracts." Brook shrugged as if to say he was just another name on the list, but hehadbeen turned down for the Project Grey Skies contract. "There could be some hard feelings there."
"I can ask around," Derek offered, though she could sense that he was still focused on his passive aggressive invitation. "Listen, I was wondering if—"
"What is her name?"
"Who?"
"The woman you are trying to get over."
"I'm not—"
"You've touched the cufflink on your right wrist more times than you've taken a sip of your drink. I can only assume that she gave you the cufflinks as a present sometime during your relationship with her. You're also limiting how much alcohol you ingest, because the taste of it is turning your stomach inside out after spending too many nights in the bottle as a result." Brook hadn't wanted to do this, but she needed him to understand the importance of their working relationship. "You lied to me earlier about any of the other agents calling you to see if you were taking S&E Investigations' findings seriously. You have a tell where you blink twice when you aren't forthcoming. You did the same thing when you spotted Tanya Russell's name in the conference room back at the offices. I don't have to tell you that seven families are waiting for closure, and seven men are clinging to their last sliver of hope that they might actually have a life after this is said and done. I'm going to ask you once more who reached out to you with doubts regarding our investigation."
"My immediate superior didn't want me to make this trip," Derek fessed up, casting his drink a rather disgusted look as he set it down on the coffee table in front of him. He seemed rather relieved that he no longer had to hold it in his hand. "I've officially reopened the case against his wishes, but Theo was right about the forensic evidence against Steve Laurey. He couldn't have driven Tanya's car, because his prints weren't on the stick shift. I did a little more digging into Austin's file. Austin is right-handed, and Kelsey was struck on the left side of her head."
"Her attacker was left-handed," Brook murmured as she thought over the rest of the cases. Would the other evidence verify that piece of vital information? "See? Working together will get us to our goal faster than withholding information from one another."
Brook was being completely hypocritical, because she hadn't shared anything regarding Project Grey Skies with him. It would stay that way, too.
"Why was your supervisor against you reopening Austin's case?"
"I think it has more to do with the beef he has with General Elliott," Derek replied wryly, dismissing his supervisor's reluctance and reducing it to a personal vendetta. "Both men have very high-ranking contacts, and General Graham hasn't been quiet about his views regarding his daughter's death over the past few years. I'm relatively sure that my supervisor spoke with Major Dante, as well."
Brook was very well acquainted with the lengths that Graham would go to in order to get his way, and she had no doubt that he'd used every resource to force the supervisory agents at several regional NCIS offices to go against seven verdicts and open closed case files.
"You're as good as they say you are," Derek muttered in both respect and disappointment. His sigh of resignation was loud enough to be heard over the soft music coming from the overhead speakers. "I thought it was good to get out of the office for a while and let the air clear."
Brook also figured it was one of the reasons that he was considering a transfer. Once an individual lost the respect for a superior, it was quite hard to continue to work for said supervisor.
