The Girl and the Deadly End (Emma Griffin FBI Mystery Book 7), стр. 8

“I know. But just try to compare. Where I’m standing right now. Does it look right?” I ask.

“Maybe,” Sam says. “It’s a little off.”

I shift to the side. “Okay. Now look.”

“That’s closer.”

“Okay, look again.” I shift back to the first position. “Here.” I shift again. “Or here.”

“The second one,” Sam tells me.

“The second one,” Eric’s voice confirms from somewhere behind him.

“Great. Thanks guys. You can come back down here, now,” I tell them.

I hang up and head back to where Bellamy and Dean are standing.

“What was that all about?” Bellamy asks.

“My hunch was right,” I say. We wait for a few minutes for Sam and Eric to get back. I lead them into the parking lot and step behind Eric’s car again, pausing behind the driver’s door. “This is where I was standing the first time. And this is where I was the second.”

I step to the side, positioning myself in front of the passenger door behind the driver’s seat.

“He didn’t get behind the wheel,” Sam says.

I shake my head.

“No. He stopped behind the driver’s door and probably said something to whoever was there, but the camera was too far away, and the footage is too grainy for us to actually see him speaking. Then he got in behind him. Martin isn’t a particularly large man, so it was harder to see him over the two cars, but he got in the back seat. Not the front. That means he wasn’t alone.”

“So, we have to figure out who was driving that car,” Eric notes. “Do you think it was your uncle?”

“I don’t think so,” I say. “Did you notice what section of the hospital this parking lot is for?”

They all follow my point to look at the large letters above the overhang in front of the doors to the building.

“Women’s Center,” Dean says.

“Yep,” I say. “And what do you think is included in the Women’s Center?”

“The maternity ward,” Sam says.

“Catch Me didn’t need to leave a note to keep me following the trail. Martin was the trail.”

“So, we have to follow him,” Dean says.

“Call the police,” I tell Sam as we rush back toward Greg’s room. “Let them know what happened to me. I’ll make a statement.”

“You want to get them involved?” Eric asks, sounding surprised.

I pause and turn to look at him. A surge of anger, frustration, urgency, and sadness swells in my chest and threatens to crack my ribs as I stare into his face. The muscles of my jaw twitch.

“No,” I admit. “I don’t want them involved. I want him all to myself. But this isn’t some nightmare I’m just going to wake up from. I have a monster in my closet and another one under the bed. I can’t fight them both at once. As much as I want to, I can’t. Technically, I was assaulted in there. Making a police report will put Martin on their radar. They can get people on the ground and handle more on a local level than we can without getting the Bureau involved.”

“Why not involve the Bureau?” Eric asks.

“You seriously want me to call Creagan and get him tangled up in this? Why don’t you just wrap me in the red tape and toss me out in traffic now? If I call him, it becomes his case, and I’m not doing that. Not again. This is mine, and I’m not letting them get in my way.”

I start walking again, but Eric doesn’t move.

“Am I in your way?”

I stop and turn back to him, taking a step closer.

“Eric, you are one of my closest friends,” I say quietly, forcing the anger out of it. “You know me like no one else does. You know what all this has put me through. But I also know how much your career means to you. What I have to do might compromise that. I can’t promise you everything is going to be by the book. I might not follow the rules. I might not do things the way other people would want me to do it. I’ll do what needs to be done. I won’t tell you your skills and access wouldn’t be helpful, but I will understand if you can’t do this with me.”

I glance over at Bellamy. “You, too, B. You’ve both already done so much. I can’t ask you to put yourselves in danger and risk your careers, your pensions, everything.”

“No, you can’t,” Eric says. I draw in a breath, trying to ignore the sting on the backs of my eyes. “You would never have to.”

“No. Please don’t—”

“Shut up, idiot,” interrupts Bellamy. “We’ve got you. We’ve been with you from the beginning, and we’re not stopping now.”

The breath bursts from my lungs.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course we are,” she smiles. “Like you said, we’ve known you for far too long and seen you go through far too much to just walk away. This is about you, which means it’s about us. We know the risks. They’re worth it for you. You’ve cooperated long enough. If there is anyone in this world who can end this, it’s you. And we’re beside you.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, taking both of their hands and squeezing them.

“What’s next?” Dean asks.

We start toward Greg’s room again, and I try to gather the fragments of my thoughts and piece them together.

“Sam is going to contact the police and handle them, so they stay out of it as much as possible. We’ll have them on the lookout for Martin. It’s crucial they don’t make a big deal out of it or get the media involved.”

“Why?” Dean asks.

“Catch Me wants me to keep following him. He’s dangling Martin as my next clue. But I have other things I need to pursue. If he finds out the police are the ones tracing him, he’s going to do something else, something more extreme to get my attention back. They need to track him, but not make it public. It’s not going to work forever, but