Witness Pursuit (Bodyguards #1)

Staring out Ben’s office window down Queen Street, Tyler gripped the sheet of paper Ben had handed him. “Can’t you get me anything more than this?”

“I’ve retained very little in the way of access to Lydia’s files. By the time Saria goes through re-identification, I’ll have even less. I’m only working the angles you’re following. You wanted to know about Lydia’s wellbeing, and now you have your answer.”

“All this tells me is she’s made three calls to her handler since she went under. These calls do not tell me she’s safe.” Hell, he was exhausted, and going around in circles. He hadn’t uncovered any further information. His disjointed memory of his shooting and the pain in her eyes haunted him. The image made him reach for her each night, but she wasn’t there. She was gone, and he had to get her back.

“If she wasn’t safe, I’d be the first one to tear into Gilchrist and demand access to her.” Ben thumped his chest. “Saria asks about her too, and I have nothing to give either of you. I can’t stand letting the girls down, yet I can’t catch a break on this case. We have no motive for Johnny Taita’s murder, and no evidence leading to who killed him. Lydia’s eyewitness description is the only thing I have.”

“I want her with me.” He crushed and hurled the paper into the bin.

“I get that, Tyler.”

“Hey, a little less fighting in here.” In chunky black boots, Brigs marched in. “Our systems specialist just nailed the ID login of the reporter who wrote about Lydia.”

“About damn time.” Tyler slapped his leg.

“Exactly. He finally hacked into the newspaper’s computer network and accessed the hard drive, but he wasn’t the only one. There’s foreign code proving our reporter received the information about Lydia in a very irregular way. A hacker dropped the source information in for the reporter to read. Our guy believes he’ll be able to narrow down and identify the hacker’s routed IP address, but it’ll take him a little time.”

“Wow, the reporter’s source is a hacker. They always protect their source.” Tyler let out a low whistle. “The source must have a lot to lose if he needed to go further than normal media source protection.”

“The hacker clearly wants to remain untraceable. This is a sensitive case, not to mention a very public one. Most of the people in this country have heard the Taita name.”

“Keep on this, Brigs. I want everything we can get on this hacker.” Ben tapped his watch. “I don’t want to keep you two from making the appointment with the psychologist.”

“Yeah, we need to go.” Tyler had taken Brigs with him to each of his appointments. He’d feared he’d say something which wouldn’t mean anything to him, but might pertain to Lydia’s case. Brigs was his second set of eyes and ears having been the man he’d handed her over to for the initial rotation change. He made for the door, Brigs right behind him.

They passed through the internal office area, significantly quiet since it was the tail end of the day. As he passed his chair, he snatched his black leather jacket from the back of it and swung it over his shoulder. Outside the building, he hailed a taxi.

It was a short journey to the federal building, where security scanned and sent them through to reception. He waited in the queue, right behind a courier driver in his red and yellow uniform.

The man passed his deliveries across to the receptionist. “This boxed shipment is for Collins from Wellington, and the smaller wrapped package is for Gilchrist from Blenheim. Sign here.”

She did, and the courier driver left with a brisk step.

Tyler nodded to the woman. “I’ve an appointment with Dr. Kevin Forsythe.” He passed her his license, as did Brigs.

“One moment please.” She checked her computer, tapping away on the keyboard. “Yes, take the elevator to the fourth floor. Room 403. The doctor is expecting you.”

They rode the elevator up. The doctor’s door was open and Tyler strode in. “Afternoon, Doc.”

“Ah, Tyler, welcome back. Make yourself comfortable.” He closed his laptop and rose from behind his solid walnut desk. “Brigs, anywhere you like, as usual.”

“Thanks.” Brigs closed the door, wandered to the window, and perched on the sill.

Tyler settled onto the long, green couch.

“How have you fared since we last spoke, Tyler?” The doctor picked up a pen and pad from the coffee table and sank into the armchair across from him. “And I’m referring to your dreams at night.”