Rivers snorted but didn’t say more.
Within hours, they landed on base and were led to a room where Hutchins was waiting.
As Rome and Rivers settled at a table with the man, he appeared nervous but answered all their questions.
“Show him the picture,” Rome instructed Rivers.
He pushed his phone toward Hutchins.
“Do you know him?”
He studied the image but shook his head. “I’ve never seen him before.”
“He was undercover FBI, protecting a woman who’s become the focus of an ongoing investigation,” Rome supplied.
Rivers swiped to another photo of the dead agent.
Hutchins winced. “Damn.”
“Where were you on the night of the twenty-first?”
He didn’t even blink when he gave his answer. “Here. On base.” He was calm but confused in the way that innocent people got confused when someone showed up without warning and started asking questions.
Rome traded a look with Rivers. They both knew what the other was thinking. His alibi was tight—and easily traced if he was lying.
They thanked him and walked out.
In the corridor, Rivers kept his voice low. “Facial match was solid. So what’s next?”
“Duty roster,” Rome said.
It took twenty minutes to get eyes on it. Hutchins’s alibi was solid. He was on base, accounted for and his last leave was six weeks prior. No gaps in time.
Rome got O on the phone and looped him in on what they learned.
O’s response came back measured. “Hutchins didn’t do it.”
Rome’s brows pinched. “Keep talkin’.”
“The surveillance footage was altered. Someone inserted Hutchins’s identity into the facial recognition results.” O paused. “That kind of manipulation isn’t amateur work. It’s Cipher-level.”
“Cipher’s locked down. No access to hardware or systems.”
“Which means someone either found a way to give him access…” O let the thought hang. “Or someone else has the same skill set.”
Silence stretched.
“Here’s what bothers me,” O said. “The match was too perfect. Whoever planted Hutchins’s identity wanted us to find him.”
“They wanted us to chase him.”
“Exactly.”
Rome stared down the length of the empty corridor.
Someone had built a ghost and pointed them straight at it.
The question was what they were being pointedawayfrom.
