Page 46 of Constant Risk
Something clicked in Bree’s mind. “Elliot said it was like a chess game? Specifically that?”
Tanner nodded. “Yeah. He mentioned chess when we were talking to him. Why?”
“Of course,” she muttered. Elliot was smart. It made sense.
“What?” the other people in the room all asked at the same time.
“There’s a chat room from his middle school chess club. I wanted to kill Elliot when I saw it. Why would anyone keep a chat room from a middle school chess club? We did a preliminary search of it, then immediately filed it as nonessential.”
She turned to Tanner. “I have to go.” It was time to think outside the box.
THEMIDDLESCHOOLchess club chat room was the key.
It took Bree a few minutes to determine their code words and what they meant, but once she established that baseline, everything about the kidnapping plans was broken open.
“This is definitely it,” she said.
Everyone was huddled around her workstation in a way that would have normally driven her crazy. It drove her a little crazy now, but she forced herself to ignore it. They all just wanted to finally hear some good news.
Bree was happy to be able to give it to them. When she knew what she was looking for, it wasn’t difficult to find everything they had planned. They had discussed—using coded terms to make it seem like their discussion was about chess—the particulars about everything from the sizes of the boxes to the dimensions of the rooms where they would be held. The physics behind exactly how long it would take to fill the water coffins had been discussed at length.
“Damn,” Whitaker muttered. “That’s more details than Noah had building the ark.”
Bree nodded. “Yes, their plans had to be exact. Otherwise we would’ve noticed right away that the boxes or the water levels were different. They know exactly when the victims will drown.”
And it was six and a half hours from now.
“Get it on a timer,” Penelope said. “That’s our countdown clock. I’m going to trust their math.”
Bree agreed. They hadn’t left anything to chance.
There was some talk about victims, but not enough detail to give them positive IDs. That was disappointing for everyone.
But there was good news. The perps had all been checking in to the chat room regularly. They were starting to wonder where Elliot, or Number 3 as they called him, was, but no one was worried enough to panic yet.
“All we need is for one of them to hop in one more time,” Bree said. “Once they do, I’ll be able to decipher their location pretty quickly. I should also be able to clone their username and try to draw the others into coming online so that we can trace them too.”
She felt Tanner’s kiss at the top of her head. “We’ll be ready.”
“It’s important that we move quickly, once I start to trace them. If we move too slowly, they may be able to warn one another.”
“Got it,” Penelope said. “We’ll have to keep this on pretty tight radio silence. If the press gets hold of it they could tip off the killers.”
Bree winced. “If that happens, the killers will go to ground. They would know better than to get back on the chat room.”
And that would be it for the victims.
Everyone dispersed to get ready to go when Bree had a location.
“Why don’t you take a break?” Tanner said. “Someone else can watch for entry into the chat room. I promise we will wake you up immediately if there’s any activity.”
“No, I can do this. I’m okay.” She turned to look at him and could see the worry in his eyes. “Honestly. I know my little blackout incident was bad. Probably scary—”
“Not scary because I think you’re weak. But scary because you shouldn’t be pushing this hard. You were taught to work past your breaking point.”
She reached up and grabbed his hand. “I haven’t reached my breaking point yet. Having you here makes me stronger. I’m okay, I promise.”
He studied her for a long moment, looking like he wanted to say more.
