Adam’s eyes widened and he whistled a little. “You think someone on your team deleted that file.”
“Who else could have done it?” It didn’t make a lick of sense for someone on the outside to hack in and delete a file. “There’s no point to it. Anyone who knows the case at all knows that there were seventeen victims. So why do it here?”
“No idea. All a person has to do is pull up any news article and the full list is right there. I checked with the local district attorneys and they all have the proper files.” Adam stretched and yawned. “I’ll get on it. I need hazard pay for this assignment. Every time I clean up one of Ian’s little problems, another crops up. I got him off the no-fly list, but when I tried to book him a flight for the morning, all his credit cards are maxed out. He’s been doing a lot of shopping online apparently. Did you know Ian likes high-end lingerie and wears a 36 double D? He’s got several shipments from Neiman Marcus arriving tomorrow. And apparently he really has a thing for lacy boy shorts. How the hell am I going to tell him that?”
Alex snorted a little. “I’ll tell him.”
He turned back to his eggs. When he got back to Dallas, it looked like they would have a whole new issue to deal with.
“Guilt.”
Alex turned the burner up and glanced back at Kristen, who had been the one to speak. “Guilt?”
Dressed for work in black pants and a club T-shirt, she looked no worse for her previous evening’s work. “You asked why someone would do it. You couldn’t come up with a possibility, but I can. Sometimes you erase things because you don’t want a reminder of what you did wrong. It doesn’t work. You can get rid of pictures and whatever and you still remember.”
He scraped the eggs, scrambling them. “I’ll buy that. I have Adam trying to make a connection.”
“Good. When you find the connection, you’ll know. It could be as simple as she was a friend and whoever deleted the file felt he or she had let her down. Sometimes we don’t mean to hurt the people we love. Sometimes they just get caught in our crossfire and all we can do is pray they survive it. Maybe Carmen Garcia didn’t survive it.”
Or maybe it was something more sinister.
“I need to talk to Eve.” Something she’d said the night before was playing through his brain. He had no idea how it connected to anything, but suddenly he needed to talk to her about what Warren had said to her on the night that Evans had taken her. She’d said something about Warren bringing him back to her.
Warren never mentioned going home. Warren had been steadfast at his side.
We’re going to take this fucker down together, buddy. You and me.
Maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe Warren had told her he would make damn sure Alex got home. Warren was talking about not letting him die and Eve took it as physically bringing him home. Surely.
When Eve came back, he would clear it all up.
“Hey, where’s my coffee?” Kristen asked. She rounded on Adam. “You bastard. Do you know what I’m like without coffee? Have you ever seen a badger? They look all cute and cuddly until some dumbass smokes it from its hole and then the claws and fangs are out. I’m about to grow claws and fangs, Adam.”
Adam held up his phone, dialing furiously. “Eve’s getting some from the common area. Look, I’ll have her get you some, too. Nice, badger. Good, badger. No smoke here.”
Kristen hissed his way.
Okay, someone really needed to get the girl some coffee.
“It went to voice mail. Did Eve leave her phone up here?” Adam asked.
“She always carries it.” Something crawled up his spine. Something was wrong.
Alex turned off the stove and walked to the door, every instinct in him screaming that he should find his wife.
“What is it?” Kristen was right behind him.
He pressed the door to the elevator, the fountain behind him not soothing at all now. Let her be on her way up. The doors are going to open and she’ll be there with her cup of coffee and I’ll be a paranoid idiot.
The doors slid open. No Eve. Just an empty elevator. His heart seized just a little.
“Adam, hold down the fort. I’ll be right back.” He got into the elevator. “I just want to check on Eve.”
Kristen hopped in before the door closed.
Alex took a long breath and prayed his instincts were wrong.
Chapter Fifteen
Eve breathed in the heavenly scent of coffee. This was what she needed. She needed to have a nice cup of coffee and a little breakfast and then she would be ready to work. She would sit on the couch in the living room, with its gorgeous views of the Atlantic, and snuggle unashamedly up to her husband and they would work through the problem.