“Yes,” Kate replied as she reached for the small bag of Skittles. “Go. I’ll see you both later.”
Bit wasn’t concerned that she would eat the rest of his candy. He’d made sure to stock the van with his favorite snack food. There was no telling how long that he would be staking out the nursing home.
“Did you hear how Brook discovered the connection between Grace Willow and Jackson Ridgeway?” Bit asked Sylvie as they walked down the hallway. Theo’s office was empty, but that was due to the fact that he hadn’t come into the office today. He’d made an appointment to speak with the detective on the Ridgeway case. “Get this. Apparently, there was some glass mug with a high school mascot etched into it on Noah Willow’s coffee table. Boss had spotted the same mascot on a bumper sticker slapped onto a vehicle parked outside of the apartment building. She somehow put two and two together and realized that Levi Kittle had gone to the same high school. That woman’s mind works on levels far beyond what we can even comprehend.”
“Brook had to be observant growing up, didn’t she?”
Bit and Sylvie had made it to the elevator bank before she’d posed her question.
“I still can’t believe that Boss held her father’s service without us,” Bit said in response as he reached for the button with the down arrow. “I mean, I can. But then again, I can’t.”
“Jacob being back in the city changes things.” Sylvie monitored the floor numbers above the elevator doors. “He stopped searching for Sarah Evanston. Why?”
“Well, their father died,” Bit pointed out as the doors slowly slid open. He reached out and made sure that they didn’t close as she stepped into the elevator. He couldn’t help but breathe in her perfume. She only thought of him as a friend, and that was probably for the best. There were rules about being someone’s person, and he always wanted to hold that title. “Boss said that Jacob likes to keep track of that sort of thing. It’s not like he’s foolish enough to be caught watching her condo from the parking lot.”
Sylvie remained silent as she reached forward and pressed the button for the lobby. Bit didn’t like the way she was acting when it came to the subject of Jacob. They had all seen what that monster was capable of, and it was beyond anything that Bit’s mind could comprehend.
“Something’s different this time around,” Sylvie finally said, though she’d waited until they were in the parking garage. She’d even paused to get a better look at their surroundings, and it was then that he’d noticed her dress coat. She hadn’t fastened the button on the front, giving her the ability to draw her weapon without being hampered by the material. Brook had taught him that move. “I don’t know what it is, but I can sense the shift in the air.”
“You know how I feel about that kind of stuff, Little T.” Bit suddenly found himself wishing that they could have remained inside the office for the remainder of the day. “Listen, you don’t have to come with me. You wanted to interview some more of Grace Willow’s family members, remember? Can’t you do that over the phone from your office?”
“Your search programs have given me enough information to start putting together a suspect list that Brook requested this morning. I can do that from the van.”
On second thought, it might be good that they remain together. Unfortunately, that meant leaving Kate in the office by herself, but the office was more secure than the local police precinct. Bit wasn’t worried about her staying behind, especially given the biometric scanner, the bullet proof glass in the lobby, and the updated security system.
Still, Sylvie’s grim view of the situation had changed his mind. He’d send Kate a text to make sure that she didn’t allow anyone into the office while no one else was there. If there were any packages to sign for, they could either leave them in the secure drop box or wait until tomorrow for a signature.
“Looks like it’s just you and me today, Little T.”
Chapter Eighteen
Brooklyn Sloane
February 2023
Wednesday — 11:31am
“Checkmate.”
Brook lifted the corner of her lips in victory as she sat back in her chair.
The common area contained several round tables, a very large seating area that included couches and chairs positioned in front of a fifty-five-inch screen television, and a snack bar.
Fortunately, coffee had been included with trays of assorted donuts and muffins.
“Who taught you how to play?” Norman asked in disbelief as he began to reset the board.
Brook’s good mood vanished, though she did her best to make sure that Norman hadn’t noticed her change in demeanor. It had taken two games and three cups of coffee to get the older man to open up, but she’d been able to gather a lot of information from him regarding Jackson Ridgeway.
Norman had described a man dedicated to his nursing profession, but also of an individual who had struggled with his own internal demons. Whereas most everyone on staff seemed sympathetic to a resident’s death, Ridgeway would react in relief. He would speak of how they were free of pain, and how they would never again have to struggle with making it out of bed in the morning.
Ridgeway saw death as a release from the confines of human existence.
While Ridgeway had most likely been guilty of the crimes brought against him three years ago, she did not believe that he had anything to do with abducting five women. And he’d certainly not risen from the grave to do the same with Jenny Capshaw.
Killers like Ridgeway tended to work alone.
Brook couldn’t fathom that he had a partner of sorts, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t engaged with likeminded people while under the employment of the nursing home. She’d been in touch with Bit on and off all morning. While he already had multiple irons in the fire, she’d instructed him to scour Ridgeway’s past for any social media footprint that would have had him engaging in some type of chat forum or social discourse via another multimedia platform.