She glanced around as she climbed the stone steps to the back door and reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out her lock-pick case. Jack hovered near her, blocking her activities from view.
“They teach you that at the Bureau?” he asked conversationally.
“Nope.” The deadbolt lock clicked, and she bent slightly to work on the lock in the doorknob, trying to ignore the little jolt of electricity that shot straight to her gut when her hip brushed against Jack. Fortunately, the lock disengaged almost immediately. “Used to practice on my dad’s liquor cabinet when I was in high school. Not for any of the liquor—just to see if I could do it.” She grasped the doorknob, and turned her eyes up to his. “Did Finn give you the alarm code?”
Jack gave her a terse nod before glancing around to make sure they were still unobserved.
Maddie swung open the door and slipped inside, greeted by the shrill beeping of the alarm. Jack went straight to the panel on the wall, punching in the code, mercifully putting an end to the alarm’s warning.
“Upstairs or down?” Maddie said, not wasting any time. She didn’t want to be there any longer than necessary.
Jack gestured toward the open door that led to the stairway. “Up.”
As Jack climbed the stairs to the second floor, Maddie took in the living room of the house in a glance. It was cozy, decorated with furniture that was obviously expensive but comfortable and meant to be enjoyed. There were little antiques on side tables and the fireplace mantel, Colonial-era art and décor on the walls.
As Maddie walked the room, checking every surface, every drawer for anything that might be of interest, she got the feeling that she and Claire would’ve been friends under different circumstances.
The kitchen was just as inviting and warm, a place that would be perfect for baking gingerbread cookies and making eggnog for the friends who would be by later for dinner and to sing Christmas carols around the aged upright piano she’d seen in the sitting room.
Maddie suddenly straightened and gave herself a mental shake. What the hell was she doing, thinking about Christmas? It was July, for crying out loud! And yet a wave of nostalgia for a childhood experience she’d never had, for the quiet, loving family life she’d always wanted, hit her again. Not that she hadn’t had a father who doted on her and her sister, who’d given them everything they could possibly want. But it wasn’t exactly the wholesome Rockwellian experience she’d always hoped for.
She sighed as she continued her search of the kitchen, her fingers skimming across the wooden countertop marked with decades of use, before she finally turned her attention to going through the drawers and cabinets.
She certainly wasn’t going to have that kind of life now, not with the path she’d chosen. Her sister, Sarah, might be able to pull off happily ever after. But Maddie had made her choice. And it wasn’t exactly like Jack was the kind of guy to settle down with a wife and kids . . .
Whoa. Jack?
She needed to put an end to that line of thinking ASAP. As nice as it might’ve been to fantasize about having a happily-ever-after with him back when she was a naïve twenty-something who’d been swept off her feet, she was too jaded now to ever indulge in such a ridiculous idea.
Finding nothing of value in the kitchen, she went back to the sitting room and took out the little box of listening devices Finn had provided before they left Chicago, searching out a couple of locations where the savvy Claire might not think to look.
Footsteps on the stairs brought her head around. The stairway was fully enclosed, so she didn’t actually see Jack until he emerged from the last step. “Did you find her computer?”
Jack shook his head. “There’s an Ethernet cable in her office, but it looks like she only had a laptop, which I’m sure she took with her—no servers or other storage devices that I could find. Finn will be able to tap into her main email accounts to see if she sent anything out electronically. When we’re back at the hotel, I’ll slip into her suite at some point and see what I can do about the laptop.”
Maddie eyed him cautiously. She could tell by the way his brows came together that he was holding something back. “Okay . . . So whatdidyou find?”
He shook his head, his expression one of disbelief—and concern. “You need to see for yourself.”
When they reached the top of the narrow stairs, Jack gestured toward the door to Claire’s office. Maddie gasped when she entered the room and saw the walls lined with articles and documents and photos. There was a bulletin board with Post-it notes pinned to it and red yarn indicating connections between the random words and phrases she’d jotted down.
“My God . . .” she breathed. “She’s lost her mind.”
Jack shook his head and gestured toward the board. “Quite the opposite. She’s brilliant. These are all code names for several of the Alliance’s ops from the past thirty years.” He pointed at one—Cold Water. “This one was my father’s. I recognize the name from his file.” He tapped another—Evergreen. “This one was where I crossed paths with Luke and recruited him to the Alliance.”
She studied the board for several moments, following the connections Claire had drawn. “Do you think she put all this together since getting the flash drive?”
He shook his head. “Doubtful. She wouldn’t have had time to do something this elaborate.”
Maddie now understood Jack’s reaction. This wasn’t intel—this was research. He leaned toward the board and pulled the pin from one of the notes.
“Wait,” Maddie cried, covering his hand with hers. When he turned his head to meet her gaze, the air suddenly seemed too close, too thick for breath. Her hand dropped away and she took a step back. “We need to get this to Finn, see if he can analyze the connections, determine if they’re accurate or if she just got lucky with some of these code names.”
She grabbed her phone from her back pocket and systematically snapped photos of the bulletin board, one of the entire board and then several close-up shots of different sections, ensuring they had a record of all the connections Claire had made.
Then, satisfied she had recorded everything, she began removing the yarn. “I almost feel bad having to do this. Can you imagine the amount of time it took to put this together?”
“Years,” Jack muttered. “But it would take seconds for her to bring us down.”
