“Morning, folks,” he called out. “Sheriff Donavan wanted me to check if you needed an escort into town for your interview with Quinn.”
“We'll manage,” Theo called out with a nod of appreciation. “Let him know that we appreciate the offer.”
Once Theo had settled in behind the steering wheel and turned on the engine, he immediately cranked up the seat warmer setting. Sylvie did the same, though she never took her gaze off him.
“Did you call Graham?”
The question caught him off guard.
The truth of the matter was that hehadconsidered reaching out to Graham last night, but he had ultimately decided against it. Graham’s consulting agreement with a military contractor put him on assignment, making him unreachable except in genuine emergencies.More importantly, making such a phone call would be a betrayal of Brook's trust.
Theo would never do such a thing.
“No.”
Sylvie nodded, accepting his response for what it was.
“I did find out that Brook reached out to the former police chief. She has someone watching her six.”
They sat in silence while the van warmed enough for the hot air to defrost the windows. Each of them was lost in their own thoughts. Eventually, Theo glanced at the side mirror. The exhaust created a steady plume of white that rose into the air.
“It’s him, Theo. We both know it.” Sylvie’s teeth had begun to chatter, and he realized that he should have stepped outside sooner to warm up the van. Instead, he’d been on the phone with Brook, attempting to convince himself that she was wasting a trip. Regrettably, he agreed with Sylvie. “It’s the reason Brook is driving there today.”
“If you think about it, she’s doing the opposite of what he believes she’d do.” Theo had tossed and turned last night, going over countless theories. “Her initial instinct was to wait for him to come to her. She’s not hunting him, like before. He can read her just like she can him, which is why he won’t be there. It was his way of letting her know that he’s alive. Healed. And biding his time.”
“Then what does she stand to gain by going there?”
Theo turned on the wipers now that some of the ice had melted on the windshield. He knew Brook well enough to understand that this trip wasn’t merely a reckless decision. It was strategic.
Brook wanted to reclaim the narrative, to take control of the story that had spiraled out of her grasp. As a profiler, she understood that Jacob had evolved since the chaos in Alaska. By stepping back into his world, she aimed to decipher how his thoughts had shifted, because she already grasped the motivations driving his actions—her.
“In order to bring this all to an end, Brook needs to learn his new thought process, to anticipate his moves before he can strike again.” Theo reached out and shifted the gear into drive. “She’s hoping to rewrite the ending on her own terms.”
25
Sylvie Deering
January 2026
Saturday – 9:07am
Sylvie stood in the middle of Henry Quinn's workshop, her gaze sweeping over a space that defied her expectations. The converted garage radiated warmth despite the January chill. Unlike the chaotic jumble of tools she'd anticipated, each workstation formed its own pile of organization. Disassembled electronics lined shelves in various stages of resurrection, each component tagged with handwritten labels that suggested both precision and patience. The workshop told its own story about a man who had created order from circumstances beyond his control.
Theo shifted beside her, his gaze on the door that connected the garage to the house. Henry had initially greeted them before requesting they wait a moment while he took care of something. That something had obviously been his older brother.
Sylvie and Theo had been waiting for nearly five minutes, listening in on the muffled sounds of an argument. Theirfrustration with one another drifted through the parted door. The voices rose and fell in a familiar pattern of sibling discord, though only fragments reached them.
“—had no right to agree—” Tyler's voice, sharp with frustration, crossed through the opening.
“—my decision, not yours,” Henry responded, lower but equally firm. “I don’t even know who you are anymore, Ty. You used to…”
Family dynamics were rarely simple, but the Quinn brothers seemed to exist in a constant state of protective collision. Sylvie removed her leather gloves and tucked them into her jacket pocket. This particular interview could be pivotal to their investigation, especially after what Principal Watkins had revealed about Henry's relationship with Loretta Whitlow.
The connecting door suddenly swung open with enough force to bounce against the interior wall. Henry Quinn appeared at the top of the short ramp, which he navigated down with practiced ease. He didn’t even bother to close the door behind him.
His upper body spoke of years of compensation. He had broad shoulders and thick forearms. He had a more athletic build than his brother, easily propelling himself forward while meeting her gaze.
His beard was neatly trimmed, framing a face that bore the same strong jawline as his brother's, though his features seemed somehow sharper, more deliberately arranged. His hair was shorter than Tyler's, almost militaristic in its precision.
