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The chances of the plastic surgeon being killed by Jacob were low. Her brother had always kept to his signature, and she highly doubted that he would vary from it. He preferred women who believed that their lives were without fault. While some serial killers would resort to desperation, Jacob wouldn’t randomly begin to pick off potential surgeons out of some need to exact revenge on anyone attempting to aid Sarah Evanston.
“…and this one has a nutmeg flavor.” Sylvie had come out of the kitchen with Bit, who wasn’t carrying one of his usual energy drinks. Instead, he was holding a cup of hot tea. “You’ll love it.”
Sylvie smiled at Brook as she walked into the large conference room. Bit was pulling up the rear, staring at the hot beverage as if he wasn’t quite sure how he’d ended up with it in his hand.
He hated tea.
Loathed it, really.
Only he refused to break that little piece of news to Sylvie for fear of hurting her feelings.
“You know, you could suddenly become allergic,” Brook murmured as she passed him to enter the conference room. She didn’t glance back over her shoulder to see if her advice was something that he was seriously contemplating, because she suspected that Bit wouldn’t seriously take it under advisement. He liked that Sylvie believed they had something in common. “Alright, everyone. Let’s get down to the business at hand.”
Theo had his laptop open in front of him, and he’d been working in the conference room ever since he’d arrived at the office a couple of hours ago. He’d waited until Millie’s lunch break to make the introductions to her protective detail.
“Sylvie, you spoke to Alex again?”
“Yes,” Sylvie replied, setting her tea on a slate coaster that had the firm’s logo lasered onto it. “Alex is providing Millie with a protective detail consisting of four former military personnel. Three men, and one woman. They will rotate twelve-hour shifts, working in twos.”
Kate snuck in, even though she wouldn’t be given too much responsibility on the case. She had her own workload with the Rastini investigation. Brook had been impressed with her abilities on a previous case that she’d been instructed to obtain background information on while the team had traveled out of state at the request of the Illinois governor. The intelligence had been well organized and thorough. Brook couldn’t see any reason why the young woman couldn’t do the same with this case, if not more so.
“I met Seth Sharman and Addy Boyce. They seem to be solid agents.” Theo leaned back in his chair and looked up from his screen. “Also, Millie’s front door was fixed by one of our contractors. The landlord didn’t have a problem with outsourcing the task. Millie has a key, as well as her protective detail.”
“Tyler Hendry and Giles Latty are the other two individuals who will be taking the second rotation.” Sylvie motioned to the murder board behind Brook. “I’ve attached all four of their profiles to the case file labeledSecurity Detail.”
Bit took his usual seat after setting his own cup of tea down on one of the slate coasters. The way he was staring at the four photographs on the monitor had Sylvie waiting for his question.
“How does that work? If Millie Gwinn lives in an apartment, will they stay inside with her or outside the door?”
“Both,” Brook replied as she leaned back in her chair. She held the stylus to her tablet in her hand as she shared with them how the protective detail would work in a civilian setting. Theo and Sylvie were already aware of the routine protocols, but Bit and Kate had never been on a case that involved an outside firm. “They’ll have one agent remain inside her apartment, keeping to the confines of the main living space facing the entrance. The outside agent will monitor the comings and goings of the building. Since it is a typical apartment building, that will consist of a walk around that particular floor, the lobby, and a brief check outside to monitor for any unusual vehicles that might be surveilling the exits. Everything is recorded. The agents are connected by encrypted frequency hopping radios. Transcripts will be reviewed daily by Alex or someone else in management. That documentation will then be forwarded on to us, with a list of license plates or descriptions of those of interest.”
“I’m pulling surveillance from the building’s security cameras surrounding the entrance of the building, but you should know that the back entrance has no working camera,” Bit said with a disappointing shake of his head. “A tenant only needs a keycard to gain access to the back entrance, which means that there is a log kept somewhere. It’s most likely a single layer of security provided by an unmonitored internal system.”
“I’ll reach out to the landlord to see if he’ll grant us access.” Sylvie jotted a note down on her electronic tablet with the stylus. The technological upgrade to their process was beyond efficient. “Don’t go through any backdoors, and that pun was totally intended. See if they have another camera to swap out with the faulty one.”
Brook didn’t bother to turn around and look at the monitor. She hadn’t contributed anything to the murder board quite yet, but she had her reasons for that. For now, she wanted to hear every single detail that the team had acquired in their research since last night, including anything that Bit’s internal electronic surveillance had picked up.
“Let’s start at the beginning,” Brook suggested as she turned her attention toward Theo. “Millie Gwinn. What do we know about her background?”
“Mildred Anne Gwinn, single, thirty-nine years of age. Born and raised in Fairfax, Virginia,” Theo responded, not needing to look at his laptop. He was a very eloquent speaker, and he always made direct eye contact with everyone present. “Parents still reside in the family home. Millie has one sister, who is married with two teenage children. Both girls.”
Theo continued to divulge Millie’s high school and nursing school credits, even going so far as to touch on the nurse’s employment record. She was highly regarded by her peers, was bilingual, and maintained over a ninety-eight percent in patient satisfaction scores regarding compassionate care according to her hospital personnel file.
As for Millie’s personal life, she was registered on two dating sites, had several social media accounts on numerous platforms, and a close-knit group of friends.
“Finances?” Brook inquired, still addressing Theo since he was the one who had completed an in-depth background check on Millie Gwinn. “Anything that should concern us?”
She didn’t need to stress that the monetary status of their client was essential to their case. While Millie Gwinn was technically their client, it was best to ensure that she didn’t have a hidden agenda. Dr. Kolsby was very prominent in the high society circles. At least, according to the newspaper articles regarding his car accident and the suicide incident that he had managed to prevent last year.
“Millie has a department store credit card to Macy’s with a sixty-three-dollar balance on it, as well as a Capital One credit card that has a four hundred and sixty-five-dollar balance,” Theo shared as he glanced at the screen of his laptop to confirm the figures. “She’s current on all of her bills, doesn’t overspend, and has a credit score that I’m jealous of if I’m being honest. Clean record, with the exception of two parking tickets over the last five years.”
“That’s good to know.” Brook switched her focus over to Sylvie. Once she and Brook had driven back to the office, Sylvie had holed up with Bit to gather as much information on Dr. David Kolsby as she could in the few short hours they’d had today. “What were you two able to find out about the psychiatrist?”
Brook had taken a few minutes out of her morning to leave a voicemail for her own therapist. Dr. Neil Swift was a psychologist whose office was located right outside of D.C. While he was close to retirement and didn’t work with the hospital in question, she’d hoped that he would have some scuttlebutt from other reputable colleagues regarding the man in question.
“Dr. David Oliver Kolsby is fifty-eight years old, divorced twice, and has three children. Two sons from his first marriage, and a daughter from his second.” Sylvie paused to take a sip of her tea and to scroll down on the display of her tablet. She kept the cup in one hand, and Brook figured she liked the warmth from the ceramic. “His net-worth is listed at over six million dollars, and that is mostly due to speaking fees from around the country. We are looking to see if that figure was double before divorcing his first wife. He wisely had the second wife sign a prenup. Needless to say, he is very selective with his clientele. Politicians, government officials, and very high-net-worth individuals. Dr. Kolsby also has a very carefully managed social media presence, mainly restricted to friends and family. As you are all predicting, the man has a clean record. Not even a parking ticket.”
Sylvie’s tone indicated that the psychiatrist’s connections played a part in that role, and she was probably right. Nothing in the man’s past would suggest that he had serial killer tendencies.
