“Did you tell the police?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t think about it at the time. The place was in complete chaos, and I thought…I thought the explosion was an accident.”
He wished that were true. “Where would Todd’s phone be now?”
“I’m assuming with the rest of the recovered items. Unless it was completely destroyed.”
Matt pulled his own phone from his pocket and began typing out a message.
“Who are you texting?” Kat began walking back to the table.
“Derek. I’m relaying what you said and telling him to stop by the lab on his way and grab Todd’s phone before he comes here.”
“It’s evidence. Will they just hand it over to him?”
“Yep.” Matt pressed ‘send’ and returned his phone to his pocket.
Ryker had already gotten Matt’s team full clearance to anything pertaining to the investigation, so gaining access shouldn’t be an issue.
Two hours later, Derek’s gunmetal gray Hellcat Challenger pulled up to the cabin. After breakfast, Kat had insisted on cleaning up and putting everything away, but then she’d locked herself in the bedroom and hadn’t been back out since.
As angry as he still was at the frustrating woman for not telling him about Todd’s conversation sooner—not to mention all the other shit he was forcing himself not to think about—he also understood she’d been through a lot and was still trying to process everything.
There were still more questions to be asked, but he decided to let her be. For now.
“Hey, man,” Derek greeted Matt as he opened the door.
“Thanks for coming out here. I know it’s a hell of a drive.”
“Gives me an excuse to open Faith up a bit and let her roar like she was meant to.”
Faith was Derek’s car. The man was seriously in love with the damn thing. If it weren’t for the fact that D was engaged to the woman of his dreams, Matt would probably be a little concerned for the former SEAL.
“Here are the files.” Derek handed him the stack. “This is the background I could find on the Anderson employees who worked directly with the formula. I’m still workin’ through the financials, but it’s gonna take some time. Didn’t realize scientists were so into investing and all that shit.”
“Really?”
“I’m tellin’ ya. They’ve got like an average of five accounts each to go through, plus a couple off-shore ones my system is fine-combin’.”
The man’s Texas drawl became more prominent the longer he spoke.
“I figured you could do all that stuff in your sleep.” Matt gave him a disappointed look. “I mean, Nate seems to act as though he can.”
Derek snickered. “Nate’s full of shit. It isn’t like the shows on TV where you type in a name and two seconds later, the evidence pops up all nice and neat, the authorities make an arrest, and the credits roll. Forensic accounting takes time, my friend. Which is why I’m leavin’ all this other background shit for you to go through.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“What? It’s not like you have anything else to do while you’re stuck here.” Derek glanced over to the closed bedroom door and lowered his voice. “Or maybe you do.” His light brown eyebrows waggled.
Matt’s cock twitched at the thought, but he forced the fucker to stand down. “Not a chance.”
“Oh.” Derek seemed genuinely disappointed.
That makes two of us.
