Chapter Eleven

The crisp, evening breeze swept across the lake, leaving Brook wishing she had worn her blazer while speaking with Graham on the back deck. Ever since the storms left the area on Saturday, a cool snap had remained behind. Unfortunately, Graham might be doing the same in Somalia, leaving his mother to celebrate her birthday alone. He hadn't informed his mother yet, though he assured Brook that Elizabeth would be fine either way. She was quite active in the social circles of D.C.

Brook stared across the lake at the pier. Even for a Monday night, the Crestlake Bar Grill was doing quite the business. Most of the tables were full, and she figured it was a mixture of locals and tourists. There didn't seem to be anyone alone, which was how Elizabeth's birthday could potentially be spent if Brook didn't fly back to the city Wednesday morning.

Forcing that decision to the back of her mind, she kept ahold of her phone as she turned to walk across the deck. She opened the sliding glass door, ensuring that the lock was engaged before she continued across the kitchen. Delicious aromas wafted from the living room where the team was enjoying their meals. She had kept them waiting long enough.

"…knew the family well enough to know that the Reynolds had heated pavers installed in the backyard." Sylvie glanced toward Brook as she entered the room. "Bit said that he'll see if any of the homes on the other side of the lake have any security systems installed facing the water. If so, there is a chance that we can capture someone accessing the small pier on the opposite side of the conservation area from Mary Two's residence."

Sylvie was sitting in the overstuffed chair with her bare feet propped up on the matching ottoman. In her lap was a container that held a handful of fries. A single glimpse at Theo and Bit sitting at the table confirmed that they had also polished off their meals. After Brook's conversation with Graham, she wasn't all that hungry.

"I was thinking about your visit to Lansing after our discussion," Brook said, directing her statement toward Sylvie. The two of them had spent a good half hour after Sylvie returned from her trip this afternoon discussing the intel gathered from the husband and Mary Two's colleagues. "You might want to video conference with Duncan Reynolds to show him a photograph of Adam Bouras. See if Reynolds has ever spoken to Bouras."

"No need, Boss. The hotel manager sent me hallway footage of the fourth floor," Bit chimed in as he reached for the drink that had come with his meal. From the slurping sound, it didn't appear that there was any soda left in the cup. "Bouras never left his room the night that Mary Three was murdered, so he now has solid alibis for all three murders."

"Your fish and chips dinner is on the coffee table," Theo shared as he leaned back in his chair. He used a napkin to wipe his fingers after eating his last shrimp. "Mindy put in an extra side of barbeque sauce."

"One of us really needs to take a cooking class," Sylvie murmured as she picked up another fry and stared at it with a frown. "Seriously, eating out every day like this when we're in the field is bad for our arteries."

"Gumshoe said he survived on hot dogs from the street vendors during his stint as a PI. Burgers and fries have to be better than hot dogs, right?"

Bit's statement even had Brook staring at him in horror.

"Well, we know who isn't going to take a cooking class," Theo said wryly as he tossed his crumpled napkin into his empty container. He then closed the lid before reaching for his water. "On a serious note, I did speak with Hunter Darrisaw. He had nothing new to add that Mindy, Chip, and Jason hadn't already revealed about Daniel Callaghan. As for my trip to Mount Pleasant, Mary Three's parents had no idea if Mary Three had met someone new. The victim pretty much led her own life while living at home and saving enough money to move out on her own. No new colleagues, no new routines…nothing. Bit looked into delivery people, both at the victim's home and workplace. Nothing stands out."

"Anything on Cav Buckley?" Brook had already read over the man's background check, but Bit had been going to perform a deeper dive into the man's social media presence. "His interest in the case seemed a little extreme."

"Must be the lawyer in him, because Buckley is clean. He has alibis for all three murders," Bit said as he began to scan the room. "Did we get dessert?"

Theo muttered something about Bit being a bottomless pit causing Sylvie to laugh.

"My purse is behind you. I stopped at the gas station to top off the tank," Sylvie said as she closed the lid to her container. "Throw me the chocolate bar."

"Have I taught you nothing?" Theo asked Sylvie in disbelief.

"Your advice has been invaluable to my recovery, Theo," Sylvie said sincerely as she held up her hands to catch the candy bar. Bit hadn't wasted any time fishing out the treats. "But do we need to go over the moderation thing again? I haven't had chocolate in a week."

Not even Brook could make such an admission.

"Could the husband have orchestrated his wife's murder?" Theo asked to bring the conversation back around to the investigation. "Perhaps the other murders were a smokescreen for his own crime?"

"Unlikely," Sylvie replied as she began to peel back the wrapper. "He was surrounded by cops at the clinic that night."

"Did the police ever make an arrest?" Brook asked with curiosity as she took a seat on the couch. "It was certainly convenient that the husband wasn't home that night."

"Meaning someone staged it?" Sylvie nodded her agreement after a moment of consideration. "I could see that being the case, especially given that we believe the unsub had prior knowledge of the heated pavers. If we go with that assumption, the unsub would have also known that their daughter's bedtime was around seven-thirty. Interestingly enough, an arrest in the clinic's break-in was never made."

"Bit, would you please request access to the security footage for the clinic that night?" Brook took time to mentally calculate the time needed for such a premeditated murder. "If there was a boat readily available to the unsub, the timeline would work in that theory."

The team spent another half an hour covering the intel gathered over the past four days, but there hadn't been much progress in the grand scheme of things. Granted, every individual ruled out as the unsub was a small step forward, but they needed some lead to propel them forward.

"Theo, you walked the route Mary Three took while jogging that evening, right?" Brook had kept a crime scene photo of Mary Three up on the portable monitor. "Did you notice anything unusual about the area? The trees seem sparse, not leaving a lot of room for the unsub to camouflage himself."

"You're interested in why Mary Three was stabbed in the back," Theo commented as his gaze remained on the large screen. "I've been thinking a lot about that too. And to answer your question, no. There wasn't a lot of coverage, so we can assume that he came up to her from behind."

"What if the unsub was with her?" Brook murmured more to herself. "We believe the unsub is somehow inserting himself into his victims' lives. If the unsub was running alongside her, slowed just enough to let her edge ahead, he could have easily stabbed her."

"The autopsy report for Mary Three did indicate that the stab wound was practically straightforward," Sylvie recalled after taking a bite of her chocolate bar. "The unsub would be right-handed in that case."

"There are no security cameras on the trail where Mary Three took her daily jog," Bit said as he opened the bag of Skittles that Sylvie had purchased for him. He picked out a couple of red ones before holding up a finger. "I could try and find traffic cams that point to her parents' neighborhood. Someone could have followed her from there."

"One of us is going to need to drive to Ann Arbor," Brook stated as she spun the outer band of her worry ring. Doing so helped her concentrate on the screen. "According to my profile, the unsub would have chosen these victims based on the ease of reaching them. I don't necessarily believe they were murdered in some meaningful order."

"You always say the answer lies with the first victim," Sylvie pointed out as she began to close the wrapper around the other half of her chocolate bar. She hadn't been kidding about everything in moderation. "Mary Four"s online plea was what brought us here, and the pressure from the FBI didn't help our situation. Maybe we should be concentrating our investigation in another city."

"It was my decision to begin our investigation here versus Ann Arbor." Brook wasn't the type of woman who didn't own up to her mistakes, and she took full responsibility for the direction of the case. "The profile points to the unsub observing his victims for weeks at a time. Mary Four's video should have brought him here."

"Your profiles have yet to steer us wrong," Theo pointed out as he reached for his empty container. Bit rolled off the clear plastic mat until he could reach the grandfather clock behind him. He knocked on the side while shooting Theo a glare. "Do I even want to know what that was for?"

"I'm knocking on wood." Bit used the soles of his shoes to drag himself back onto the mat before parking himself in front of his favorite laptop. He then picked up his take-out container and handed it over to Theo since he was collecting the garbage. "You can't tempt fate like that, man."

The jogging trail was still an anomaly that Brook couldn't wrap her mind around.

"The slight difference in the stab wounds in Mary Three's case is significant. It bothers me." Brook moved toward the kitchen, picking up her uneaten dinner. She needed more time to think through the abnormalities that took place with the third victim. "Let"s take the evening to consider our next steps. We'll decide in the morning who should make the drive to Ann Arbor."

After promising Sylvie that Brook would put the tea kettle on one of the burners, she followed Theo into the kitchen. She retrieved a plate from the cupboard and a fork from the drawer before she began to transfer the contents of her meal. She didn't want to take the chance that the plastic would melt in the microwave, even though there was a label stating the opposite.

"I'm sure Bit filled you in on what is taking place at the prison." Brook tossed the empty container into the garbage can. "Once I reached the warden, he said that he didn't call me because the prisoners were located in another cell block."

"Did you request that Jacob be moved to solitary confinement?"

"Yes." Brook programmed the time on the keypad and then leaned back against the counter after the microwave hummed to life. "The average incubation for Influenza A is about two days, but it can take up to four. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be an issue."

"Exactly. The likelihood that anyone, let alone Jacob, would need to be transported to the hospital is rare. The prison has its own medical facilities, Brook." Theo turned on the faucet to wash his hands. "Why were the prisoners transferred to the hospital to begin with?"

"Dehydration, difficulty breathing, and so on." Brook ran through the conversation that she had with the warden. "From what I'm being told, the infirmary was at capacity, so the prison transferred the more critical patients. Two of those patients are in their late seventies."

Brook held up her hand, knowing full well that Theo was about to run down the odds of Jacob becoming so sick that he would need to be transferred to a hospital. She understood that the probability was low, but she would never alter her stance of being prepared for anything.

"I'm going to stop by the federal prison Wednesday morning."

"You're flying back to D.C.?"

"Yes," Brook replied over the microwave's peal. She sensed the weight of Theo's stare as she turned to pull on the handle. "I'll touch base with Arden in the morning regarding my plans. Considering we're in a regrouping phase in the investigation anyway, I might as well take advantage of the lull."

While there were no federal prisons located in Washington, D.C., Brook had pulled some strings to transfer Jacob to a federal prison in Maryland. The facility was a little over two hours from D.C., but she would have enough time to drive there and back in time for dinner.

"And you'll be back…when?"

Theo was fishing for information on whether she was going to remain in the city to celebrate Elizabeth Elliott's birthday.

"Thursday."

Theo knocked shoulders with her in silent victory. It was a good thing that Brook had already set her plate on the counter. She tried not to smile, but that was rather difficult when he started singing one of his favorite songs about being unstoppable at the top of his lungs. He had figured out relatively quickly that she had taken his advice. Before too long, Brook could hear Sylvie and Bit joining in from the other room just for fun.

As Theo practically danced out of the kitchen with an undeniable rhythm, Brook remained at the counter to eat her dinner. Hearing their voices get even louder, she couldn't deny that it was nice to have things back to normal. Unfortunately, in her experience, those times never lasted long.