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“Yes,” Graham stated patiently, even though he had already answered the question three times since he had entered Sylvie’s room. Upon his arrival, he had pulled Bit to the side after Graham had made it known that he was leaving his cell phone on the rolling tray. Bit hadn’t needed to inquire about such a gesture, and he had followed suit before following Graham out of the room. Sylvie had no idea where they had gone, but Theo had kept her company until the two men returned with grim expressions. “All phones are off.”
“Phones are easily cloned if someone knows what they’re doing,” Bit reiterated as he finally seemed content with the results of his latest scan. “Okay. General, the floor is yours.”
The upper portion of Sylvie’s bed was slightly elevated, so there was no need for her to shift her position. She was staring directly at Graham, and she motioned with her left hand that Bit should stand so that she didn’t have to turn her head. He closed his laptop and used his feet to roll closer to the side.
“Brook is at the estate.” Graham seemed at ease giving them the news, and Bit’s smile widened upon hearing it. Theo, on the other hand, hadn’t conveyed any reaction. “Her reasoning for taking herself out of the equation matches up with Theo’s profile of Lorena Dobbs.”
It could have been the effect of the previous push of her button an hour ago, but Sylvie was certain that Graham had worded the explanation to diffuse Theo’s underlying anger at Brook. Then again, she could just be reading something into the situation that wasn’t there.
“First, we know that Lorena Dobbs is not only impulsive and brash, but she’s obsessive to the point that nothing else exists around her. She spent months setting up a convenient way into Sylvie’s life because Nigel made her the easier target. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Graham stared pointedly in Sylvie’s direction.
She understood the underlying message, but that didn’t mean the guilt over allowing someone such easy access to her home would easily dissipate.
“Brook isn’t sure who else Jacob might have convinced to help him in his search for Sarah Evanston. Looking back, Jacob was confident that Evanston would leave the witness protection program after he turned himself in to the FBI. Jacob’s one mistake was that he didn’t count on Brook convincing the woman to reenter the program. If we believe that scenario, then Lorena has no idea that anyone involved with S&E Investigations has no knowledge of Evanston’s whereabouts. The same would go for anyone else Jacob persuaded into helping him.”
“Wait,” Bit said as he sat straighter in the chair. “Boss doesn’t doubt Gumshoe, does she?”
“No, no,” Graham said in reassurance. “The background investigations performed on Arden were as thorough as possible. Brook was referring to anyone who might be new in our lives, such as delivery people, servers at our favorite coffee shops or restaurants, hair stylists, or even someone using the locker next to you at the gym.”
Both Graham and Bit glanced toward Theo. Sylvie would have smiled if she could have mustered the energy. As it stood, it was taking everything in her just to keep her eyes open.
Theo worked out every single day and jogged however many miles, but he usually lifted weights at the office. Graham had made a valid point, though. It wasn’t like Lorena had been an integral part of Sylvie’s life. The woman’s involvement had been just enough to siphon morsels of information here and there.
Several health aides had come and gone over the past two months, the same as with the hospice staff who used to check in on her father once a week. Those visits had accelerated with his decline, and now a hospice nurse stopped in every day around three o’clock.
“I checked out everyone else who had previously been assigned to your dad’s care, Little T,” Bit informed her as he reached for her hand. She managed to tuck the button for her pain medication next to her so that he wouldn’t get any ideas, but she was close to pressing the control herself. “I also had Gumshoe ask your father who his favorite hospice nurse was out of those who have stopped in, and I requested that only she be the one from this point forward.”
Sylvie squeezed his hand in appreciation. She couldn’t speak, because her throat was constricted from too many emotions overwhelming her at once. She usually wasn’t this emotional, but her body and mind were betraying her.
“As Bit mentioned, phones can easily be cloned if one knows what he or she is doing.” Graham made eye contact with each one of them. “Brook decided not to take the chance to reach out to any of us. Not even me. I didn’t think to ask her how, but she did say that she tried to let some of you know that she was alright and still nearby.”
“I knew it,” Bit exclaimed as he suddenly stood and held his arms up in the air with his fingers pointed toward the ceiling. Theo and Graham didn’t appear surprised by Bit’s reaction, unlike Sylvie. “I knew it. Boss turned on her tablet for nearly ten seconds near her favorite coffee shop. She wouldn’t have done so had she taken herself completely out of the equation.”
Sylvie still had the mental fortitude to pick up on the slight change in Theo’s demeanor. Maybe it had been how his shoulders had shifted to indicate less tension. It was difficult to pinpoint exactly what had caught her attention when her pain level had raised considerably in the past minute.
“Brook is going to start canvassing the vacant real estate properties, and she’d prefer to take the houses in the northern section of Erin Smith’s neighborhood. Theo, she was hoping that you would take the south.”
“I’ll have Beeson and his officers take the west,” Theo said as he nodded in agreement with such a strategy. “Brook is using the grid search we planned out for a previous case, so that means the two of us will eventually meet somewhere in the east. I’ll head out now. The weather is going to turn nasty by this afternoon.”
“Take this.” Graham had brought a bag with him, but he hadn’t set it down upon entering the room. He reached into the opening before handing Theo a cell phone. “It’s a burner with one number preprogrammed into it. You can reach Brook that way from here on out. Bit and Sylvie, here are yours.”
They all took a moment to make sure they each had the others’ numbers loaded into their phones. Bit had not only done so to his, but to Sylvie’s, as well. No one made a move to send a message to Brook, though.
“Theo?” Graham called out before Theo could open the door to Sylvie’s room. He was eager to get started, and she couldn’t blame him. “Brook will be driving my Land Rover.”
Theo nodded his appreciation of such information before stepping out into the hallway. Graham waited until the door was fully closed before turning his attention back to Sylvie and Bit.
“Sylvie?”
She had been having a difficult time keeping track of the conversation toward the end, but she had managed to pick up the important details. She slowly inhaled so as not to jostle any portion of her abdomen as she concentrated on the man standing at the end of her bed.
“The only thing we need from you is a full recovery. Press the damn button,” Graham directed before turning his attention toward Bit. “I’m driving over to Sylvie’s apartment to speak with Arden.”
Before Graham could make a request, Bit was already crossing the tiled floor to where his dull grey backpack had been set near the duffel bag that his sister had brought him earlier. Sylvie had heard enough of what was taking place that she didn’t mind a little reprieve from the pain. Her fingers finally found the small device, and she eagerly pressed the button right as she closed her eyes.
Graham would ensure that her apartment was free of any listening devices by using the equipment that Bit had just given him, and she trusted them all to keep her father safe. The next time that she was awake and aware of her surroundings, she would have Bit and Arden set up a video call so that she could reassure her father that she was fine. He had been in so much pain prior to her attack that she didn’t want him to worry about anything else but his own comfort.
