“Sullivan and Williams never mentioned it. I’m sure they would have.”
“Yeah? Want me to look around?”
She hated to say yes, but she had nowhere else to turn. She swallowed hard. “If you would.”
He beamed. “Be right back.” Hal returned moments later with his souped-up laptop that might very well be able to read minds. The monster hacker had no problems getting around firewalls and national security to find answers. Diego could take lessons from him.
Normally, Jane wouldn’t use him or Joe in a case. But things had gone beyond normal.
She could and had majorly annoyed people in the past but not enough to warrant killing her. Although she should probably ask Gina and Scott about that.
“What’s that scary smile for?” Hal asked as his fingers danced over the keyboard.
“Just thinking about people I know who might want to kill me.”
“So many.”
“Ha ha.”
Hal grinned. After a few moments, he turned the laptop around. “Jenn Sullivan’s emails look pretty tame. Rob Williams’ too. And I’ve been reading the rest of your team’s correspondence. Not much going on, except Sandy seems like she’s having an emotional affair with Josh.”
The pair on her team had been pretty cozy following Thanksgiving. “That tracks.”
“Yeah. Wait. Hold on.” He turned the laptop around and continued typing. “Hmm. Read this.”
She joined him to read a bunch of emails from Scott to the ASAC, Jon Haversham. Scott had no idea what to make about the gun violence aimed at his people. Interesting that he still considered her “his people.”
“Doesn’t look like your butthead is guilty.”
“He’s not my—never mind.” She knew better than to get in a stupid argument with Hal. “What are you typing now?”
She watched as he infiltrated Rapp’s Agency email account. In it, Rapp kept talking to Gambol about getting more agents on the task force, about updates on the danger they faced, and the fact Phillip Keiser knew more than he should. He also asked about getting Diego a raise and gave kudos to Gina, who might ask to stay on in Seattle once he left.
Jane suppressed an odd pang at the thought of Rapp leaving. Although typically, once a case closed, so would the special task force. Did Gambol plan on making the task force into its own squad? And why did she care if he did? It wasn’t as if she planned on staying. She had a job waiting for her at the field office. Hopefully. Still, this assignment had been entertaining as well as challenging.
“Now this is interesting.” Hal pointed at her email.
“You’re hacking me now?” She blinked as she read aloud, “Wait. When did this come in?”
“Yesterday. You need to keep up.”
She read aloud. “From anonymous:You’ll never stop what’s coming. There’s too much at stake.What does that mean?”
“Probably the same thing it meant when they sent that message to Gambol.” He typed something and showed her Gambol’s screen. “I cheated and looked through his emails the other day. I remember seeing that same message.”
“Nice, Hal. If he finds you going through his emails, you’re in trouble.” She didn’t know much about Lionel Gambol, but she knew enough not to mess with him.
“Oh, trust me. I know.” He started to say something else when Joe rushed back into the house.
“She’s home!”
Jane looked at Hal, who looked back at her and shrugged. She pointed to herself. “I know?”
Then Raine walked through the front door carrying a huge seabag over her shoulder. “Well, well, the gang’s all here.”
“Raine?” Jane hadn’t seen her cousin in nearly two weeks, but she’d assumed Raine had been staying somewhere on the property. “I thought you were here already.”
“I left a few days ago to grab some stuff. I, ah, might be back for good. I’m on terminal leave now.”
