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"Bugs?"
"Listening devices. Passive data intrusion and burst transmission electronics," Bit said with as much patience as he could muster. It was so hard to carry on conversations with people who couldn't understand his language, but he reminded himself that Sylvie was an exception. "One can't be too careful. I even installed tremblers on all the outside windows and the glass front in the foyer. Anyone nowadays can go online and order a listening device."
Sylvie didn't seem to know what to say in response, so she stuck with the case.
"Well, let's see if we can't find Nick Dorn standing in the back of one of these photos," Sylvie suggested, kicking off her high heels and making herself comfortable.
"Here," Bit said, more to save himself from having to make a trip to the restroom. He set the pictures in his lap and held out his hand. "Give me your cup. This tea is...well, it's something special. I'll feel guilty drinking it alone now that you're done with yours. I'll share mine."
Chapter Twenty-Four
Brooklyn Sloane
January 2022
Wednesday — 5:37pm
BrookstoodnexttoTheo as they monitored the interrogation of NCIS Agent Derek Tonkel. Nothing had gone as planned since leaving the hotel, and now they didn't even have Nick Dorn in their crosshairs.
"Anything on the APB?"
"No," Theo replied to Adrian as he walked into the small room. He'd been obtaining Derek's statement, having gone over every detail of his short trip twice. Nothing had changed, and Brook had no doubt that he would not deter from his original statement. "Nick Dorn is in the wind."
"Where did we tip our hand?" Adrian asked in skepticism.
"We didn't," Brook murmured as she studied Derek's mannerisms. She'd been almost certain that this had all been a setup to veer their attention away from the unsub, and now she was questioning herself. "Everything went according to plan. Derek was arrested at the scene, NCIS was brought in along with the FBI forensics team, Derek was taken to the station for questioning,andhe got his phone call. If Nick Dorn was the unsub, he should have followed through and arrived to bask in his own glory. The fact that he's been in town for three days isn't just coincidence. Who would have known that he wouldn't be in North Carolina?"
"There was a retirement party on Sunday," Adrian explained, not even bothering to glance into the other room where his subordinate was still questioning Derek. "Dorn was in town for it, and he was supposed to fly out today. As you already know, he didn't show up for his flight. What makes you so sure that Dorn didn't realized the gig was up? He could have skipped town."
Brook glanced down at Derek's hand. He was picking at his thumbnail. She noticed that tell when he'd been staring at the whiteboard in the conference room.
"Derek is hiding something."
"Let's start from the beginning," Adrian said as he took a seat in a chair that belonged to the lone desk in the room. It sat empty, and it had clearly been placed there as a temporary workspace if needed while an interrogation was taking place. "This unsub of yours frames innocent people for crimes that he has committed himself. You mentioned that it was due to some sense of vengeance on his part, but he liked the killing too much to stop once he got a taste for it. In turn, he became what you would classify as a serial killer."
"When you put it like that..."
Theo shrugged when Brook shot him a warning glance. Even she could see how farfetched her profile sounded from their point of view. Still, she was confident that she had hit every detail of the unsub's character.
"I'm aware of how convoluted this investigation has become, but that is precisely why our unsub has been able to get away with his killing spree for so long," Brook explained, leaving the two-way mirror for the first time in an hour. She walked over to the desk and leaned against it, waving at Adrian when he would have stood so she could have the chair. "Nick Dorn doesn't fit the profile. Neither does Derek, yet he's hiding something. And it's not only the killing that the unsub thrives on. It's also being able to play this cat and mouse game with the police."
"To cast another color onto this convoluted canvas of a case, what is to say that Tonkel isn't working with the unsub?" Adrian asked as he readjusted his tie. "Look, I know the guy. I don't want to believe that he could do something like you are describing, but he doesn't really have alibis for the dates in question. What if he killed Dorn to protect his secret? What if Dorn figured it out? I mean, he was the lawyer for three of the men in your case. Either that, or both Tonkel and Dorn are the ones working together."
"In Derek's defense, some of these murders date back years," Theo said from his place near the window. He was resting his right shoulder against the edge of the glass. Every once in a while, he'd also rest his head against the cool surface, though she hadn't called him out on it. "Derek has already said that he needs to access to his calendar. He is also right-handed."
"Tonkel's direct supervisory agent from Cherry Point has been notified and is on his way here. He's taking the first flight out of New Bern into Dulles, so we'll be here awhile," Adrian replied, leveling Brook a serious expression. "Not to put pressure on you, but this isn't making me look too good. I'm coming across as if I'm chasing fucking chickens. I have a dead woman on my hands. Tonkel calls up Nick Dorn to get so-called advice on what he should do, they have a short discussion, and then Dorn doesn't show up at the station? He's not at the hotel, he missed his flight, he hasn't rented a car that we know of, and his cell phone has been shut off. As I stated earlier, either these two are working together or Tonkel let the cat out of the bag that we suspected Dorn of being the unsub. By the way, who is the schmuck that you called in for Tonkel?"
"Not anyone close to a military lawyer," Brook said before emphasizing her point. "I had Mason Cooper's card in my purse. He was the only one who I could think of without ties to this case. Well, loose ties, that is."
Theo somehow arched his left brow perfectly, as if to say that he knew better. Technically, he'd be right, but she hadn't wanted to contact Vivian Lourdes. She was Graham's lawyer, and it was best to keep him and anyone else that he had on standby at a distance.
"Did you notice the way Mason redirected Agent Ingram's questioning a few minutes ago?" Theo asked, already knowing what her response was going to be to his question. "He knows that Derek is hiding something, and it has to do with this trip...not Nick Dorn."
"That we know of," Adrian replied, still not trusting the information that he was receiving, either from Derek or Brook. "Look, we're combing through the security footage that was retrieved from the hotel before there was a convenient outage. I have another agent grilling the security guard who was on duty last night. Still, we have several hours from yesterday that should allow us to track Dorn and Tonkel's movements from the time that they both checked in."
"Derek was with me most of the day yesterday."
"Did you know that Derek's flight arrived around six o'clock in the morning? Unless you were there to pick him up, I'd say there are at least six or seven hours that are unaccounted for."
