Page 144 of The Bone Hacker

Rossiter slid another sidelong glance to his partner. Reid’s jaw tightened and he gave a tight shake of his head.

Despite the negative input, Rossiter continued. “We feel the stakes are much higher than some deranged psychopath knocking off tourists.”

“And those stakes are?” asked Monck, dubious as hell.

“Benjamin had expertise in coding. Computer programming.”

“There’s a hot news flash.”

“And you know what about that?” Clearly, Rossiter’s tactic was to elicit more info than he shared.

Monck didn’t fall for the ploy. “Get to the point.”

Again, the hesitation. The careful choosing of words.

“You’ve had some unexplained incidents involving transport, am I correct?”

“Explain that.”

“Planes—”

“Ross, you can’t—” Reid started to object.

Silencing his partner with a sharply raised hand, Rossiter looked a question at Monck.

Monck’s brows dipped, but he said nothing.

I felt a sudden nudge from my subconscious.

Pssst!

What?

Unguided, my eyes drifted to the hall at Monck’s back.

To the row of framed prints.

A previously ignored detail registered.

A synapse fired up a casual comment made over lunch.

Boom.

Two neurons reached out and joined hands.

“Are you referring to the Piaggio P.180 that went down off TCI a couple years back?”

“And you know what about that?”

“Tail number N774KZ.”

Both feds stared as though I’d named the Zodiac killer.

“And you know what about that?” Apparently, Rossiter’s pet phrasing.

“The pilot and passenger were both DOA. Analysts found nothing wrong with the plane.”

Reid’s face went red enough to goad a bull to charge.

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