Page 33 of Talk to Me

Cameras.

Were they throughout her house?

Easing past Locke, I made my way to the hard drive cabinet. There were wires going into the wall. I did a quick count.

Too many for just these drives.

“Patch would have backups,” I said abruptly.

“She would.” Remington moved with the same kind of deliberateness he’d had upstairs. He stepped around the mess, studying each angle. Locke, however, seemed fixed on her desk, at the destruction.

I moved back to him and tried to see what he was seeing.

“She let them in…”

At that, I raised my eyebrows and I wasn’t the only one watching him.

“How do you know?” Remington asked.

Locke had on a pair of black gloves. At her desk, he slid his hand under the rim, then glided his hand along a short distance before he pressed something.

The click echoed through the room and the door behind us—the one embedded in the stairs opened. He pressed it again and it closed. He moved his hand, careful, then the door opening into this room closed.

I straightened abruptly at the whiteboard on the door. Remington beat me to it.

It was written in code. If I had a bet though, because of the grid, it was a calendar. The colors probably indicated different contractors. In all likelihood, that was us up there.

We weren’t the only ones.

A crash sounded behind us and I pivoted even as Remington did and we both had guns out. Locke had yanked the hard drive cabinet away from the wall and he was working his hands against the bricks there.

One of them moved.

Oh, my girl was smart as hell. I’d bet there was a second rack of hard drives back there.

A glint of pink caught my eye and I glanced back at the board. There was something sticking out from behind it. I tugged it free while Remington crossed the room.

The slip of paper held fifteen digits.

It didn’t mean anything.

Yet.

I pocketed it before I followed my new companions.

Locke had another door open and he was inside a computer room. The hum I’d been looking for earlier was present.

“We might be working together for a while.”

I didn’t argue with Remington, even as Locke worked his way through the room. The thief was handy.

Hopefully he knew something about computers.

“When we find who did this…”

“We scratch them off,” Remington agreed and I nodded.

“Long as we’re on the same page.”

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