“Aiden McIntyre.”
Tox turned to Nathan. “It’s Finn’s brother.”
Nathan nodded to Rosemary. “Let him through.”
When Aiden McIntyre appeared at the door, Twitch couldn’t prevent the gasp that left her lips. To her right, Tox was grinning. Tox was an actual twin; his brother Miles, however, was shorter and fairer. They resembled one another in that fraternal, familial way. Aiden, on the other hand, looked exactly like his older brother—minus the scars. It was like the Finn from their time in New York had materialized before her. And it broke her heart a little.
It also made her realize that the man Finn was becoming could be even more. She didn’t think it was possible to be more attracted to a man than she was to the Finn McIntyre of seven years ago until the present-day Finn McIntyre had stood before her with so much compassion and quiet confidence her heart stopped, recalibrated, and began beating anew.
The realization was unnerving.
An hour later, Aiden had walked the men through the Regina Phelps murder. The moving of the body, the newspaper article in Cal Landry’s apartment, the links in the chain he was forging.
“I don’t know why, but I’m sure the perp intended to kill Regina Phelps in the alley where she ended up, and he wanted her there because he wanted it to be my case,” Aiden said.
“Even if the body was found in your precinct, it’s quite a crapshoot you would land the case,” Nathan said.
“Not as much as you’d think,” Aiden explained. “I’m just coming off eight weeks of desk duty—stumbled on a perp when I went to question his mother—took a bullet in the shoulder. I was due for a case.”
“So you think this guy knew you’d be back on active duty?” Nathan asked.
Aiden shrugged. “The shooting was pretty publicized locally. I think he had the murder planned out and waited until he was certain the case would land in my lap.”
“Let me get this straight.” Tox stood and crossed to the whiteboard. Along the bottom, he drew three rectangles like train cars. In the first, he wrote the name Regina Phelps, the second, Cal Landry, the third, Twitch. With a series of arrows, he added the words that connected the crimes. “So you,” Tox pointed to Aiden, “connect Regina Phelps to Twitch. The newspaper left in Cal Landry’s apartment connects Landry to Regina Phelps, and the cufflinks connect Twitch to Landry.”
“Yes,” Aiden confirmed.
“Why? What’s the connection?” Tox asked, staring at the board.
“I know it,” Twitch said from behind her laptop. She tapped the keys, and a moment later, a photo appeared on the screen behind Nathan’s head, a picture of Twitch. She was holding the HackAttack trophy and flanked by two men. “Regina Phelps wrote this article. The man on my right is Cal Landry.”
“Who’s the guy on the left?” Tox asked.
“Samir Vogel. He was Cal’s partner,” Twitch said.
“Let’s find this cabrón.” Cam banged a fist on the table.
“It’s not Samir,” Twitch said. “He’s dead.”
“What happened?” Nathan asked.
“He was upset that I found a backdoor to his system. He was all smiles for the cameras; he actually flirted with me at the opening night reception, but he changed after I won.” Twitch pulled her braid over her shoulder and dusted her palm with the end. “Samir had done some work with Naval Intelligence, provided security protocols and software.”
“I knew I recognized that name. OpNav contracted with Landry and Vogel. The company was called Obsidian,” Nathan said.
“Yes, and Samir worked with Finn. So even though there were no rules for HackAttack, and I refused to let Finn share any proprietary information, when Samir saw Finn, he accused me of cheating,” Twitch explained.
“How’d that go over?” Tox asked.
“Cal Landry got him under control, but Samir was angry. He posed for the picture but didn’t attend any of the closing events. The company, Obsidian, went under, and Cal and Samir parted ways. Samir died in a house fire a year later. He was teaching programming at a small college in his hometown.” She spoke to the tabletop.
“How the mighty had fallen,” Cam said.
Twitch squeezed her eyes shut.
“Twitch,” Chat scolded. “Don’t think for a minute that you are in any way to blame. You broke through his firewall fair and square. That’s on him.”
“All right.” Nathan took charge. “Aiden, can you stick around for a bit?”