Oddly, the statement gave a lot of credence to the man’s proposed scenario. To someone else, Blake probably sounded cocky as hell. That confidence, however, came with the receipts to back it up.
The man truly was a genius.
“They’d intercept the feed in the hall,” Blake surmised. “Take out the system inside the apartment and move in on their target.”
“You thinking this was done by a team?”
“No.” The former Naval Intelligence officer’s answer came without pause. “At least, not for the snatch and grab. I mean, obviously, we still have no idea what’s even going on yet, let alone who’s involved. There’s a good chance the suspect had someone working the tech stuff behind the scenes, but sending two people into Amy’s apartment immediately doubles the risk of being seen.” Blake briefly considered his theory before adding an efficiently summed up, “One person went in, grabbed her, cleaned up the place, and left.”
But where did they take her . . . and why?
“CCTV?” Emmett stared at his friend from across the desk.
He had a litany of follow-up questions rolling through his mind, not the least of which was whether Amy Weaver was even still alive. The only path to finding a definitive answer was to figure out where she was taken.
“There’s a camera down the block from the building,” Blake shared. “It caught a glimpse of a utility van approaching from the east. Its windows are heavilytinted, so it’s impossible to see anyone inside. But it slows way down, as if it’s going to turn into the alley running along the back side of the building and goes out of view shortly before the feed to Amy’s hallway was tampered with. Several minutes later, it exits the west side of the alley before going south. CCTV loses the van a few blocks later.”
It was thin at best, but at least it was something.
“You get a look at the plate?”
“There wasn’t one,” the other man revealed. “Not on the front, at least. Couldn’t see the back from that angle. But there is a bit of good news. Maybe.” A slight pause ensued before he explained, “There’s a logo on the side of the van. Bad news is, it’s blurry as hell.”
“Can you clean it up?”
“That’s the hope. I got it running through one of my programs as we speak. With any luck, I’ll have more on that front before I head home for the day.”
He glanced down at his watch, surprised to find the afternoon had all but flown by.
“You said Gwen and Draven were going back to the apartment building to have another go at the neighbors?”
“Yeah.” The new leather from Blake’s chair creaked as he stood. “Oh, and Lucas is reaching out to Talia to see if she has an in at the White House. The hope is to get us more info on Amy’s job with the press office from a source we can trust. It’s possible she was working on a story that’s tied to her disappearance.”
The woman he was referring to was Talia Foster-Brooks. Until recently, she was R.I.S.C.’s Homelandhandler and had led both Echo Team and the men of Delta in a joint op at Chicago’s international port.
Under the impressive woman’s command, the two teams had worked together to intercept a sizeable shipment of illegal guns. Shortly after, when they learned that Talia had been abducted, Emmett and the others had jumped at the chance to assist in her rescue. Thankfully the two teams were able to locate her just in time.
After recovering from the wounds that very nearly ended the woman’s life, Talia and Jagger Brooks—a badass member of Delta Team—made their whirlwind romance official by becoming man and wife. She resigned from Homeland shortly before the wedding and has since become an official Delta Team operative.
“If nothing else, hopefully she’ll at least obtain verification from someone currently working within the White House walls that Amy Weaver was part of their staff.”
Having two conflicting lists of press office interns wasn’t nearly enough. Not if they planned to go all the way with their investigation.
You go after the White House; you’d better damn well have some rock-solid proof.
It was a very good thing for them to remember, but it was also a problem for another day. They’d only just begun to investigate and weren’t even close to being to that point…yet. But something churning within Emmett’s gut said they were likely headed that way.
“What about Janie?” he asked his teammate next. “You dig any deeper on that front?”
“As a matter of fact, I did. Still no red flags whereshe’s concerned. In fact, I read up on this big story she broke not long ago. Apparently with the help of a protected whistleblower, our client was responsible for exposing a massive corruption ring involving several St. Louis city administrators, as well as a select few within the governor’s inner circle.”
Emmett thought about the article he’d been reading when Blake first walked into the room. The subject of the front-page feature was none other than Janie Reynolds.
From what he’d learned, their client didn’t care about the attention or achieving her fifteen minutes of fame. Her responses to the interviewer’s questions seemed as genuine as her concern for a woman she didn’t even know.
Yes, Janie seemed to be the real deal. A woman who’d found her purpose in her search for truth and justice. But as his mom used to say, only time would tell.
“Hey.”
