CHAPTER TEN

There were far too many people in Emelia’s townhome for her and Sebastian to do what they really wanted to do. Instead, he held her close, whispering love and devotion in her ear. He was just grateful that she was alive and well. Although Em felt certain that Helen wouldn’t have killed her, he wasn’t so sure.

For Em, she kept thinking back to Helen’s betrayal and her friends who had been killed.

“I’m just having a hard time imagining this woman as a killer. She was always so sweet to me. I mean, she’s got to be in her late sixties.”

“Clearly, that doesn’t mean a thing. We know a lot of men and women in their sixties who could easily be killers,” said Sebastian. “We’ll have the team back home check on her finances and the other two. I have a feeling that maybe their little group is still together. We just need to figure out who everyone is.”

“If she is a part of this, it’s really a betrayal for me. I saw her every day, and she always asked about the cases. We limited what we told her, but she had access to everything. Especially if Frank was allowing her to do certain things for him. Hell, she could have had the keys to the whole kingdom for all I know.”

“I hate to say this, honey, but Frank’s head will probably roll when all this is done. The bureau will most likely ask him to take early retirement.”

“Maybe that won’t be such a bad thing for him. He’s going to feel guilty about Tara and Cord. He’ll have to face their families, and that won’t be easy.”

Em closed her eyes, hoping for at least a few hours of sleep. Instead, she got a full eight hours filled with dreams of weddings and babies. She could hear people moving around downstairs and got up and dressed. Today, it didn’t matter if she wore her bureau-appropriate suit. Today would be a day she dressed for speed and easy movement.

With a comfortable pair of stretchy jeans, her favorite white tee, and running shoes, she pulled her hair into a ponytail and skipped down the steps.

“There she is,” smiled Sebastian, handing her a cup of coffee.

“You’re going to make a great husband. You already know how to make my day,” she said, kissing him. A few moments later, they received word that Maddie and Forrest were on the jet and headed to Belle Fleur. It was a relief for everyone but also a joyous occasion.

“I can’t believe they almost lost out because of a misunderstanding,” said Em.

“Believe me, honey, that’s how these things happen. We’ve all been there. We’ve all said something stupid, heard something we thought we understood and didn’t hear the whole thing correctly and made assumptions about it. We can all be dumbasses when it comes to love,” said Hex.

“Did you do that with Gwen?” she asked, looking at him.

“I wasn’t exactly charming to her when we first met,” he frowned. “I was afraid for her, and I didn’t feel like she was taking her situation seriously. She set me straight.” The others laughed, and Hex just shook his head at their amusement.

“I don’t want us to misunderstand one another,” she said to Sebastian.

“Honey, we’re human. We’re going to make mistakes and do stupid shit. Probably me before you. I’ll say or do something that will piss you off or make you cry, and I’ll feel like shit for it. The key to it all is knowing that we have to talk it out, not walk away. That’s the terrible thing that Maddie almost did. Walk away.”

“She might not know it,” said Leif, “but Forrest was thinking about going away for a while to clear his head. He couldn’t figure out what he’d done wrong.”

“No!” she gasped. “She would have been crushed.”

“And it would have been her fault,” said Chief. “Your sister is brilliant, but she often reacts too quickly to things. If Forrest had left Belle Fleur for a while, she would have been sitting in her own tears trying to raise four babies alone.”

“Such a stupid mistake. A stupid, stupid…”

They all stared at Em as she looked around the room.

“Mistake?” finished Leif.

“Yes. I mean, no. When I left yesterday, Helen actually told me to get a crab cake at the wharf. She didn’t know where I was going. She had no clue what the address of the home was. There were three locations, and Frank handed them to us randomly.”

“Maybe it wasn’t randomly,” said Leif.

“No, it was. She knew where I was headed. I told her I was headed to Maryland, but there wasn’t an address or area mentioned. She knew the addresses because she knew that Frank had found the masks.

“When I came in, she said he’d been there since 0600, and she knew that because she was there before then. She was going through his computer, his notes. Something tipped her off to what he was going to do that day.”

“We still need to know how they disarm the alarm systems, get the money out of there, go undetected by the cameras, all of it,” said Major.

“I think we need to look at the video evidence again. I think we might have missed something.”

Seated in the largest meeting room available at the bureau, they ran through all of the camera footage available. It was frustrating because they could see the vehicle pull up, a man stepping out of the car and then the video would cut off.

“Someone spliced this footage,” said Brix. “You can tell. This isn’t someone who has a passing knowledge of this shit. It’s not as clean as it would be if our team did it, but it’s pretty damn good. I’m surprised someone didn’t notice it before.”

“Hiro? Are you seeing what we’re seeing?” asked Chief.

“I am but I’m not.”

“What the hell does that mean?” asked Sebastian.

“They did splice the videos, but they did it after receiving them at the bureau. I have the original footage.”

“Wait. Are you saying someone altered those here?” asked Emelia.

“That’s what I’m saying. The videos were sent in their entirety, but what you have was altered before you guys saw them. Let me show you the difference.” He brought up a separate screen with the video they were currently looking at on one side and another of the same bank on the right.

“This is the first robbery in D.C. The car pulls up, the man gets out on the left and then nothing. On the right, watch what happens. The man pulls up, he gets out of the car, and then three others get out of the car. They all put on masks, pull their hoods up, and go inside. A few moments later, they come out of the bank, pull the masks off, and put them inside a large tote bag. They remove the jackets and hoodies and walk casually, arm in arm, down the street.”

“It’s two men and two women,” said Emelia, staring at the screen.

“It is,” said Hiro. “Here, we see them further down the street, arm in arm, walking casually. No one suspects four old people as bank robbers. They look comfortable and casual. I think they’ve also found a way to alter their attire. When they go into the bank, they’re all wearing pants, but when we see them down the street, the women in are in long skirts.”

“I’ve seen this trick before,” said Major. “There’s a string they pull that brings the pant legs up and drops the skirt down. It’s pretty clever.”

“Clever and makes it almost impossible for anyone to identify them,” said Emelia. “I only met the man and woman at the house. I didn’t see these other two, and the woman isn’t Helen. That means we have at least five people involved.”

“Maybe we should get the Gray Wolf team involved,” smirked Hex. Emelia looked at him, then back at the screen with Hiro.

“No, but we could ask them some questions.”