“Why does he keep giving you baked goods?”
“He told me his wife loves to bake. He mentioned she’d grown up in foster care and that she loved to bake to take her mind off the terrible existence she had there.”
“It’s funny, his wife went through foster care and married a policeman and Gretchen went through foster care and became a criminal,” she said sleepily.
And then she knew no more.
Chapter Thirteen
Evan awoke first. He was spooned around Annalise, and she was still sleeping soundly. For a moment he remained unmoving and simply reveled in the feel of her warm body.
He finally slid from the bed, grateful he hadn’t awakened her. After grabbing his clothes off the floor, he went into the guest room to grab clean ones, then took a quick hot shower in the guest bathroom.
Once Evan was dressed, he went into the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee. He’d slept soundly, but had awakened with a lot of things on his mind, like who the inside man or woman might be.
Once he had a cup of coffee before him at the dining room table, he called Hendrick. He told him his thoughts, then asked the tech agent to do several things.
“Are you sure?” Hendrick asked with surprise when Evan had finished.
“I’m positive,” Evan said. “Get back to me as soon as you have some information for me.”
“You’ll be the first person I tell,” Hendrick said, and then hung up.
Evan then called Director Pembrook and explained to her what he was thinking and what he believed. She told him to gather the facts and let her know if he needed any other resources.
He sipped his coffee slowly as the thoughts whirling in his head made him half-crazy. If he was wrong, then he’d be destroying an innocent person’s life. But if he was right, then the rat would be caught before Evan left town later today.
He got up and headed over to Annalise’s desk. In the second drawer he found what he needed—a blank piece of white paper. He carried it and a ballpoint pen back to the table.
Sometimes he needed to write things down in order to straighten out his chaotic thoughts, and at the moment he definitely needed to write down what was in his head and then take a good, hard look at it all.
He’d been at it for about twenty minutes when Annalise came into the room. She had obviously showered and was dressed in a pair of jeans and a pink T-shirt that enhanced the green of her eyes.
She greeted him with a bright smile. “Good morning,” she said and then beelined for the coffee.
“Back at you,” he replied.
She got a cup of coffee and then sank into a chair across from him. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be gone this morning or not.”
“I’m tying up some last-minute things, but I’ll get a flight out of here this evening. I hope you don’t mind me hanging out here until then.”
“Of course not,” she replied. For a long moment she held his gaze, and he could see love shining there. There was not only unfinished business concerning the crime, but he knew now there was still more unfinished business with her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, and gestured to the piece of paper before him.
“Last night before you went to sleep, you said something that made me realize I’d overlooked something...something that should have been checked out before now.”
“And what’s that?”
“The fact that both Chief Cummings’s wife and Gretchen were in foster care,” he replied.
She looked at him with a frown. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Maybe nothing, or maybe everything. I’m waiting for Hendrick to confirm something for me.”
Annalise stared at him. “Are you telling me you think Chief Cummings’s wife is our insider?”
He smiled at her grimly. “I think she’s definitely a piece of the puzzle, but I now believe Chief Cummings is the mastermind.”
She gasped in surprise. “Are you sure?”
“I’m looking at the factual evidence and adding my own suppositions,” he replied.
“Tell me.” She leaned forward with interest.
It was like old times...the good old times. She had always been one of his best sounding boards, and he knew today would be no different.
He looked down at what he’d written. “The first thing is Chief Cummings told me that Bert Epstein was one of his best friends. Being friendly with the security guard might have given Walter not only the information as to who would be in the school at a certain time, but also access to the van and garage keys.”
“Okay, what else?” she asked.
“The night that Jacob and Gretchen escaped, Walter had pulled off a lot of his men from guard duty at the back of the school.”
“Keep going,” Annalise said.
Funny, he knew what he’d written down was solid, but it made him feel better that she hadn’t rejected anything he’d said so far.
“Walter was at the jail when Jacob walked out,” he continued. “And Walter knew where you lived, and how else would Jacob know to come here? I wouldn’t be surprised if Walter was the one who drove him here.”
She leaned back in her chair. “My God, Evan. When it’s laid out like that, he looks guilty as hell. And when the ultimate takedown occurred, it was a complete success without Walter’s involvement. So what happens next?”
“I’m waiting for some additional information from Hendrick and then we’re going to get an arrest warrant. I believe I have enough circumstantial evidence to take him down. And once we get his phone records, I believe they’ll prove without a shadow of a doubt that he’s our man. It will be my pleasure to arrest that bastard.”
She reached out and covered his hand with hers. “I always knew you were the best hostage negotiator in the world, but
