Today. Five minutes ago.
What the hell? This one Juliet opened.
Just you and me together at last, sweetheart. We’ve had to wait a long time, haven’t we? You’re so beautiful.
She sat staring at the screen. If Heath Morel was in custody, there was no way he could’ve sent that email.
And then she smelled it, a sickly sweet odor coming from her hallway. One she recognized from just a few days before. The smell of a cigar.
Oh no, they’d made a horrible mistake. Juliet turned slowly in her chair and faced the doorway.
There stood Christopher Cady. “Hello, my sweetheart.”
* * *
EVAN WATCHED FROM the other side of the two-way mirror as Cameron and Sawyer questioned Morel. Dylan watched with him, since he wasn’t actually law enforcement.
For nearly forty-five minutes Cameron and Sawyer had been at it, at first drilling Morel about his criminal activities, although very specifically not mentioning Vince Cady, and then moving on to the emails sent to Lisa Sinclair. Morel had looked a little uncomfortable when they’d mentioned his shady activities, although he hadn’t said anything that incriminated himself. But his stare was completely blank when they mentioned the emails.
“I know I’ve been out of the game for a few years,” Dylan said to Evan as they both watched the action in the interrogation room. “But if I had to guess, I would say that Morel has no idea what they’re talking about with the emails.”
“But I’ve read them all, Dylan. They contain details that no one could know if they hadn’t been there or been communicating with Robert Avilo. And Avilo hasn’t been communicating with anyone. It has to be Morel.”
Through the glass, Cameron continued questioning the man, but Sawyer was looking at a text he’d just received. Confusion suffused his face and he glanced over at the two-way mirror. When he walked over to Cameron and showed him the text, his brother got the same befuddled look, then gestured with his head for Sawyer to go to the observation room.
“What’s going on?” Evan demanded as soon as he arrived.
“I just got a text from Megan. She’s still at the Omega computer lab. She said another email came in for Lisa Sinclair fifteen minutes ago.”
“Is it on a scheduled timer or something?” Dylan asked.
“No. It was actually sent then. No timer. Megan is sure.”
Nobody dismissed Sawyer’s fiancée. She was smarter than all three of them put together.
But if she was right, that meant Heath Morel wasn’t their perp. Damn it, Evan had really wanted this to be over with.
He rubbed his eyes. “Okay, I guess it’s not him, then. Tell Cam to ask a few more random questions to throw Morel off any scent and—”
Evan froze as his and every other phone in the room began buzzing. They all grabbed for them. Another text from Megan at the Omega office.
Juliet had just activated the emergency transmitter in her locket. She was in trouble.
Evan was running out the door before he even finished reading the message. Dylan and Sawyer were right behind him. Cameron would have to stay with Morel.
They made it to the car, Evan letting Dylan drive because of his shoulder. Sawyer was already on the phone with Megan. He put her on speaker.
“Honey, what’s going on?”
“Juliet pushed the panic button on the locket.” They could all hear Megan clicking away at the keyboard while speaking to them. Multitasking wasn’t a problem for her.
“Are you sure it wasn’t an accident or something? A mistake?”
“No, setting it off accidentally is nearly impossible. And I’ve already tried to call and text her. No response.”
“Is the tracker working, Megan?” Evan asked.
“Yes, Evan. She’s at her house. She hasn’t moved any significant distance since the transmitter was turned on.”
Evan tried not to panic. There was more than one reason Juliet could have hit the emergency button without it actually being a life-threatening situation. She’d gotten smacked around by the Ukrainians pretty hard. Maybe she was just having problems from that.
Evan could recognize the holes in his own theory, but he clung to it. He couldn’t stand the thought of her being hurt again.
As if Dylan could read Evan’s thoughts, he pushed down on the gas and the car shot forward.
Juliet wouldn’t have activated the device if it wasn’t truly an emergency. Everybody in the car knew that.
“Oh crap,” Megan said. Evan had forgotten they still had her on speakerphone.
“What?” All three men responded in unison.
“Hold. Processing.” Megan was a scientist to her core.
If she was telling them to wait, she had a good reason to do so, but those moments were some of the longest in Evan’s life.
“Oh crap,” she repeated.
Evan closed his eyes and forced himself not to scream at her.
“We’ve been digging more deeply into Robert Avilo, since he knew the most about Juliet’s rape. Details that were in the emails.”
“Yeah?” Evan replied. “Juliet talked to the warden at his prison and he said Avilo hadn’t had any contact—written, phone calls, visitors, anything—since he’d been in jail. Evidently Robert’s brother Marco was his only friend, and Marco’s dead.”
Good thing, too, because Evan was pretty sure he would’ve killed him for what he’d done to Juliet if the man wasn’t already in the ground.
“No, that looks correct. Robert Avilo hasn’t had any outside contact with anyone, as far as we can tell,” Megan confirmed.
“But…” Evan prodded.
“But Avilo’s cellmate sends out letters all the time. Sometimes two or three a week. All going to the same person and place. His cousin, a resident of a mental hospital–country club type place in Croatia.”
“Croatia? Like Europe Croatia?” Evan asked. And what the hell did this have to do with Juliet?
“It’s a place where rich parents send their bad teenagers and young adults when they’ve gotten into trouble, and they want to keep them out of prison or out of sight. Nonextradition. Of course, that’s interesting, because Croatia has traditionally been a democratic-supporting country at least in terms of socioeconomic—”
“Honey,” Sawyer said. “Focus.”
“I’m sorry,” Megan replied.
