She clasped her hands tightly together on the table, her eyes glistening. “My mom and grandparents moved to Arizona a few years ago. The dry heat there helps my granddad with his arthritis. They’re in the Colorado River Basin.”
“And you’re worried about them,” he stated, feeling helpless to do much more.
“Yes.” Her hands started trembling.
He rested his hand over hers. “We’ll stop this.”
“How?” She gaped at him. “Just how? We’re less than thirteen hours out and we don’t have a solid lead to find suspects driven by such horrific personal tragedies that make them so very dangerous.”
She had a very valid point, though he didn’t want to admit it. “Maybe you should call your family. Tell them to take a trip out of the area.”
“But we don’t even know if itisthe Glen Canyon Dam. Or any dam.” She pulled her hands free, her expression like that of a frightened child who’d lost her parents and had no clue where to find them. She got up. Started pacing, a sob tearing from her throat.
She paused by the window, her back to him and her shoulders shaking.
He’d never seen her cry and couldn’t sit here while she fell apart. He crossed the room and turned her to face him. “Shh. Hey, it’ll be all right.”
“Will it?” she got out between sobs and took a long breath. “I’m not qualified to run such a huge investigation. What was I thinking? Eisenhower should replace me. Maybe Sean or Mack could take over.”
“You’re doing a great job.”
She sniffled. “You’re just saying that because we have this connection.”
Another good point, but... “Well, yeah, of course my feelings play into it, but putting them aside and looking at this objectively, I can see how successful you’ve been.”
“Really? Then why didn’t I think of contacting the Cybercore Integration Center like Eisenhower did? We might’ve had this information sooner, and it could’ve informed my decisions.”
“Or not. As you said yourself, we don’t know for sure if it’s the target. Besides, the rest of us didn’t think of it either, and you respect your teammates’ skills, right?”
She nodded.
“You’ve led them fearlessly through this investigation,” he rushed to add. “Not a one of them has complained or questioned your leadership. I don’t know them as well as you, but if they thought you were failing, wouldn’t they call you on it?”
She gave another hesitant nod.
“And you’ve kept so many leads going. Following up. Assigningtasks. Communicating.You’re doing a great job,” he repeated, this time emphasizing the words.
She still looked skeptical, but at least her tears had dried up and she was no longer shaking. A win in his book.
Her phone rang. She hurried back to the table to grab it. “It’s Ulrich.” She answered it on speaker. “Please tell me you’ve finished the letter.”
“I did. I’ve emailed the information to you.”
“Let me look while I have you on the phone, in case I have any questions.” She brought her email up on the large TV, and Evan looked at the deciphered letter that told of the Pittsburgh attack.
His heart sank. It wasn’t the information they’d hoped would move the investigation forward.
“Is this what you were thinking the code might reference?” Ulrich asked.
“No.” Just one word from Kiley, but it carried a heavy weight of despair.
“Then I guess that’s why the last information you gave me doesn’t fit.”
“You mean thework hour wait win yesterday?”
“Yes. It’s not part of the letter code.”
Kiley shoved a hand into her hair, loosening the knot in back, and the pencil clattered to the floor. “Finlay Brooks is working on another conversation. I need you to take the code that didn’t work and give it to her.”
