Fifteen minutes later, armed with coffee, Brantley stood in the conference room and skimmed the timeline on the case board.He had to admit, they did good work.Quickly, at that.It didn’t quite tell a compelling story, but it tied the information they had together so that it made a modicum of sense.
“Where do you go from here?”Reese asked, addressing Archer and Atticus.
Brantley turned in time to see the two men share a look.
“What was that?”He gestured between them.
“We … um … found something we think you should see.”
“Something more than that?”He nodded toward the case board.
“Yeah,” Atticus drawled as Archer turned his computer screen toward them.
“What am I lookin’ at?”he prompted, leaning forward and squinting to read the tiny print.
“That’s the question of the hour,” Atticus said.
Brantley frowned.
“What is this?”Reese asked, sounding as shocked as Brantley felt.
“We don’t know exactly,” Archer explained.“We were going through more of Holt’s notes and saw it.Figured you’d want that information before we started digging further.”
Brantley stood tall, looked at Reese.He felt his blood pressure rise, anger simmering in his bloodstream.
“Holt needs to explain,” Reese said quickly, clearly detecting that Brantley was dangerously close to detonation.
“He’s on the way,” Archer added.“I called Simon at the same time Atticus called you.Told him to get Holt and head over.”
As though it was planned, the monitor beeped, signaling motion detected on one of the cameras.
“They’re here,” Atticus told them.“I’ll open the door.”
Brantley set his coffee mug down, no longer needing the caffeine jolt.He felt as though he was attached to a live wire as it was.
It wasn’t until Reese put a firm hand on his arm that Brantley realized he was seething.
“Give them a chance to explain.”
Brantley stared at him as though he’d grown another head.“For fuck’s sake.What is there to explain?”
“We don’t know what it means.It could be fictional crap for his book.”
He could tell Reese didn’t truly believe that.
“Breathe,” Reese said firmly, giving his arm a squeeze.“Let him explain.”
Brantley inhaled slow and deep, forcing himself to calm down enough to have a civil conversation.How long that would last was anyone’s guess.It was enough to stop him from slamming Holt up against the wall the moment he stepped into the barn.
“We’ve got some questions about information we found,” Archer explained, speaking directly to Holt as soon as he stepped into the barn.
He had to give the guy credit.He wasn’t smiling, so either Archer forewarned him, or Holt had been expecting this.Either way, Brantley wanted fucking answers.
“Is it true?”Reese asked, his tone far calmer than Brantley felt.“Do you really believe that crap about…?”
Evidently, Reese wasn’t holding it together as well as Brantley thought.The man’s sentence trailed off, disbelief glittering in his eyes.
It said something that Holt didn’t even have to ask what they were referring to.
