'Are you saying we weren't really supposed to get it?' Blair queried.
'Maybe we've been looking at this the wrong way, Cam theorized. «Maybe these packages aren't threats, but warnings.'
'Warnings? You mean someone is trying to tell us that we're being...looked at?'
Cam nodded. 'Maybe these are friendly messages.'
'Why don't I feel reassured?' Blair said sarcastically.
'You have a point', Cam agreed with a sigh. 'Maybe once we see what's in this one, it will make a little more sense.'
Thirty minutes later, Sammy returned. He handed Savard the envelope, the contents presumably inside.
'I didn't bother with everything this time. The preliminary run through shows exactly what the other one did- nothing. Whoever sent it knew what they were doing. There are no prints; nothing distinguishing about the paper- standard commercial brand; its printed on an inkjet printer. Computer-generated. Just like the other one.'
'Can you narrow down the printer?' Stark asked.
He glanced at her, then at Blair, who sat beside her. Quickly, he averted his gaze. If he recognized her, he gave no sign of it, but he kept his eyes fixed on Savard, the person he was clearly most comfortable addressing. 'I analyzed the pixel register on the first print. It's an Epson high-end printer. We've got one down the hall. Standard government issue, as well as the one used by most desktop publishers or almost any other business doing high quality photo reproductions.'
'If you had a sample from the precise printer, could you match them?' Cam persisted.
'Possible. I'm not sure it would hold up in court, though.'
'It doesn't have to,' she said flatly.
Since it was evident that they weren't going to get any more information, Savard held out her hand. «Thanks, Sammy.
'No problem, he said, blushing as he shook her hand. «Anytime.'
Without looking at them, he sketched a small wave in the air, turned, and hurried back to his bench.
'Well,' Blair said on a long exhalation. 'I guess we can see what it is now.'
'Let's get out of here first,' Cam suggested. «Before we wear out our welcome.
Cautiously, Savard offered, 'I've got my sisters apartment to myself. She's working tonight. We could do it there...unless you're headed back to command central?'
'No,' Cam said. 'Id like you and Stark to see this. Your sister's apartment sounds fine.'
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The four of them had barely settled into the Suburban with Stark behind the wheel, when Cam's cell phone rang.
'Roberts.'
She listened for a moment, then handed the phone to Savard. 'It's Mac. Can you give him directions to your sisters? Hes got some information for us and I want him to be there when we take a look at our latest present.'
Nodding, Savard quickly gave Mac the information.
Fifteen minutes later, they were settling into the small but comfortable living room of an apartment in Chelsea. The furnishings were worn but had once been expensive, and the space beneath the windows and most other available niches were filled with plants of all description, adding a sense of warm welcome that was distinctly different than the impersonal apartments and hotel rooms most of them were used to spending their time in.
Cam noted with satisfaction a work area in a small alcove adjoining the living room that contained a desk, high end video equipment, and a state of the art computer system.
'You think we can use that to look at the tapes Mac has?' she asked, indicating the electronic array with a tilt of her head.
'Sure,' Savard said, 'as long as it'syour paycheck guaranteeing against any damage.'
Cam smiled. 'I'll put it in writing.'
Rene walked through to a tiny kitchen and called over her shoulder, 'What does everyone want to drink?'
As they were chorusing their answers, the buzzer rang and Stark crossed to the door and pushed the intercom. 'Hello?'
'Phillips, here.'
'Three C,' Stark reminded him as she held down the button, releasing the security lock on the front door.
A moment later, she opened the door for Mac and, after greetings all around, they found seats on the sofa facing the small coffee table and a grouping of nearby chairs.
'I guess I'll go first,' Cam said grimly from where she sat on the sofa next to Blair.
Savard had cleared a space in the center of the coffee table and as everyone leaned nearer, she reached into the manila envelope. There were two glossy sheets which Cam separated and placed on the table for all to see. Everyone shifted so they could look at the images from the proper perspective.
The first required little in the way of comment. Both had again been taken from a distance, but the first, shot in broad daylight, was of good quality and both her face and Blair's were clearly recognizable. So was the fact that their hands were linked as they leaned into one another in what could only be interpreted as an intimate moment.
'How the hell-' Stark exploded.
'That's the deck at the rear of my mother's house,' Cam said, for Savard's elucidation. 'The rest of you recognize the location, I presume. It was taken at approximately 0800 hours the last day of Ms. Powell's stay in San Francisco.'
'I wonder where they were?' Blair murmured, a cold chill making her shiver. It wasn't so much that someone had been watching; it wasn't even that she and Cam had been captured in a private moment-a moment that she remembered very well.
'I'll be sorry to leave here,' Blair said quietly.
Cam moved her left hand along the rail until it covered Blair's right. Their shoulders were nearly touching, but only someone on the deck with them could have seen the movement. Automatically, their fingers entwined, thumbs brushing over the tops of each other's hand.
'Yes, so will I. I've been here before, but it takes being here with you to make me realize how beautiful it is. Being with you makes the entire world look different.'
For a moment, Blair was speechless. It was one of those times when Cam took her completely by surprise, and it was just the way she had always imagined that being in love would feel. She had just never imagined she would ever feel it herself. 'We don't have to leave that feeling here, do we?'
Cam met her gaze again, marveling at the myriad shades of blue that moved in the depths of her lover's eyes. 'No. We don't. Let's make sure we don't.'
It was a moment that she would never want to forget. What bothered her was that someone else has been silent witness to something that was beautiful and now they were trying to turn into something ugly.
'Anywhere,' Cam side flatly. 'A nearby rooftop, an apartment on an adjoining street, up a goddamned tree- anywhere with the sightline. If I'd known then what we know now, I would have paid more attention to that avenue of access to you. I didn't anticipate a photographer stalking us.' Unconsciously, she rubbed her temple, annoyed at the pain which was surging again.
Blair regarded her with concern.When this is over, Cam is taking a vacation.
'What about the other one?' Savard asked quietly. 'Do you know her?'
Savard's eyes were on Blair, who was staring at the photo. It was grainy, and of poorer quality than the one taken in San Francisco, but the faces of the two women who stood in the circle of light cast by a street lamp in front of Cam's apartment building in Washington, D.C. were quite clear.
'No, not precisely,' Blair said evenly.
No one spoke, nor asked for further explanation. Despite the unusual circumstances, their training ruled. Federal agents did not question the private life of the first daughter.
'I think Ms. Powell and I need to speak alone for a few minutes,' Cam said into the silence.
