Page 37 of Silent Sins

They were nice to Paul, too, who was uncharacteristically quiet.

Avery got it. She, too, was feeling like the entire Marvel Universe cast just descended on them.

When Fenn tried to engage Avery in conversation about the case, Mason slipped between them, his broad shoulders blocking Fenn’s view of her. “Why don’t we get to work making a plan?” he suggested gruffly, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Tai cleared his throat, his deep voice rumbling through the room. “Anybody else starving?”

Avery felt her cheeks heat again, and she shook her head. “I’m no cook.”

“Mason is,” Tai said. “The man’s a maestro of the grill.”

Fenn nodded enthusiastically. “And the stovetop and the panini press and the?—”

Mason glowered at Fenn and held up a large hand. “We get it.”

A new color in his cheeks, he stalked off to the kitchen. The team followed, waving Avery and Paul in with them.

Once the big group gathered enough chairs and stools, they started tossing around ideas for ways to move forward while Mason studied the contents of Bridger’s fridge and began prepping food.

Paige would dig deeper into the corporate angle to get a better handle on who actually owned Rain Bay Trucking. And she’d take care of getting the three drug samples to a lab. She’d also keep on top of the investigations into the deaths of the three Rain Bay employees.

Avery turned to Paige, her brow furrowed in confusion. “How did you learn that my boss accessed that traffic cam footage?” she asked, her voice low.

Fenn cut in, his voice filled with admiration. “There isn’t a system Paige can’t hack.”

“But it’s the FBI,” Avery protested.

Fenn and Paige exchanged an amused look.

“Everything can be breached, given enough time,” Paige insisted, her voice matter-of-fact. “The Bureau’s system isn’t even that sophisticated. Now a Russian Oligarch’s tech domain? That’s a challenge.”

Avery twisted her fingers together. She had to ask, but the words stuck in her throat. “How did Ryan know to access that footage?”

“You mean who tipped him off?” Paige brushed long, golden bangs away from her eyes. “I’m not sure yet. The main server’s easy to hack, but Bureau-issue cell phones, not so much. He probably got a text or a call. I’ll find out though, okay?”

Paige’s sympathetic expression made tears rise in Avery’s eyes. She blinked them back and nodded. It could be nothing. An anonymous tip or a call from some other agent or a local LEO. Just because Ryan looked at the footage didn’t mean he had any connection to Rain Bay.

But it didn’t mean that he didn’t, either.

While Mason chopped and cooked, tossing boxed pasta into a huge stockpot, the team asked Avery and Paul to go back over the fine details of the case. By the time Mason plated up the meal, she’d caught them up to the present.

Over plates of pasta primavera, Mason and Paige exchanged a look. “Should we ask her now?” Paige asked him, her voice low.

Mason shrugged, but he didn’t look happy. Which made Avery’s stomach hurt. “The drug samples will make great evidence,” he said, “but we need to prove who Rain Bay is buying from … and selling to, right?”

Exactly. Whether they were buying stolen pharmaceuticals and reselling them, or buying and distributing counterfeit meds, the info would be invaluable. And they couldn’t spend the rest of their time following delivery vans around.

“Right,” she agreed. “Plus, I’m hoping for some leads on the murders. Solid info on the four victims would help.”

Paige jumped in, her voice eager. “What we need is access to the warehouse’s data files.”

Avery was confused, and she told them why. She was okay with them looking at whatever files Paige could access. Then she was hoping their surveillance, and Paul’s testimony about the pills he found in the warehouse, would give the Bureau enough evidence for a legitimate search warrant.

Paige explained that that wasn’t the problem. “The problem is getting our hands on the data files in the first place. They’re not on a networked system.”

Avery’s continued confusion must have shown on her face because Fenn took up the explanation. “Paige has accessed every Rain Bay database she could find. And that online pharmacy’s a dead end. It’s basically just a storefront that accepts orders. There are no related data files to access. Nothing. The files must be stored on a non-networked computer. Or maybe even on paper. Whatever file system they use exists only in a physical location. My guess is it’s located inside the warehouse.”

“So we’re done,” Avery said.

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