He wasn’t still on full alert, but until he had a chance to check on Jeter himself and make sure the people guarding him knew what they were dealing with, Tanner wasn’t letting Bree out of his sight. Not that he didn’t trust Greg, but he’d seen Jeter’s Organization at work and he wasn’t willing to risk Bree’s life on anything, particularly at this.
“Fine.” Penelope turned to Leon. “Make sure you bring extra backup then.”
She and Whitaker were rushing out the door without another word.
There were twenty-eight minutes left until the victims drowned.
Bree was frantically pounding away at her keyboard.
“There it is.” Bree pointed to a chat room window that popped up on her screen.
“What is that?” Leon asked. “It looks like something from a dating site.”
“That’s exactly what it is,” Bree responded. “And it predates their group getting together. And it’s with Rory Gresham and kidnapper four.”
“I totally don’t understand what we’re talking about here,” Leon said, studying the screen. “Two of them were dating? So Gresham is gay?”
Bree shook her head. “No. I think suspect number four is a woman. On the dating site, Gresham talked about wanting to prove himself. That once he pulls off this little operation, he would get taken seriously and would be able to move forward with the relationship. But now the fourth suspect realizes Gresham never really had any plan for them to be in a relationship. Rory was just using her—using all of the kidnappers—to get his revenge on the city of Dallas.”
Both Tanner and Leon shook their head.
“What I don’t know is how to use this information to get her to tell me where she is,” Bree continued.
“Are you relatively sure she only knows Rory Gresham and not the other kidnappers?”
Bree shrugged. “Honestly, she probably didn’t even know Rory. Just what he told her online. There’s no indication that she knows the other two outside of their main chat room. I’ve tried everything I can think of to get her to tell me where she is. Now that the information about Rory has come out, she has receded even further.”
Bree rubbed a hand across her face. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to get to her, or the victim, in time. She doesn’t want to talk about anything to do with the plan or the box or anything.”
“That’s because right now none of that stuff is what’s important to her,” Tanner said. “She’s got her mind on other things. Things of the heart.”
Bree’s green eyes pinned him. “She does?”
He pointed to the chat room box. “She’s thinking about the fact that the man she spent a lot of time talking to and investing in, lied to her. Try talking to her as a woman. Remember howyou felt when you thought maybe Penelope was attracted to me?”
He was right. Bree needed to talk to her woman to woman. Her hand began flying over the keyboard again. “If I pretend to be kidnapper three and tell her that Rory made those same promises to me? Maybe that will get her to drop her guard. I’m going to have to say it in the public room, but she’s the only one left checking that.”
Bree’s hands flew across the keyboard. “For the record, if you have been promising yourself to both me and Penelope, I definitely would be willing to stop what I was doing and make sure you felt my wrath.”
Tanner chuckled. “Let’s hope it’s true with this person too.”
“I’m telling her that I can’t believe what I just heard about Rory. That he had made me feel special and that it was all a sham. That I had agreed to this plan for personal reasons with him, not for his agenda.”
Tanner nodded. “Good. That’s good.”
A few seconds later Bree smiled. “She’s on.”
They all watched the screen as the suspect typed.
I feel like Rory lied about everything.
Bree was quick to respond.
I thought he wanted to be in a relationship with me. I feel like he was just using me.
You female irl?
“She’s asking me if I’m female in real life,” Bree explained.
