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“SMK.” I’d fallen into using Kelly’s name for him rather than the Bureau’s.
He hustled over. “Yeah?”
I handed him the phone.
“Smart fucker using a Ukrainian website. We won’t be able to get squat from them. And a sadistic son of a bitch with that password.”
He was right. No way would we get any cooperation from the Ukrainians, and we had no way to track any traffic coming or going from that country either. No longer using the interoffice mail also eliminated surveillance cameras in her building as a source. This guy was no idiot. Making Kelly type “rememberBrooks” every morning was a pretty sick reminder of the stakes.
Neil went back to the bank case while I typed out my response to Kelly.
ME: Very smart to use a Ukrainian site. Login and check for a message.
Five minutes later, another text arrived.
KELLY: Here’s the message - what do I do?
The attached picture of the message gave us the first hint of what he was after.
TO: GRIFFIN1897
FROM:
SUBJECT:
Scan the inventory schedule and attach it to this message.
Check every day for additional instructions.
Remember Brooks.
“Whatever it is has to do with an inventory check,” I told Neil.
“Does she know what that means?”
“I’ll find out tonight.” I sent a message back to Kelly.
ME: Do it
At least now we knew more than before.
KELLY: Done - what now?
ME: Nothing
The Griffin1897 struck me as odd. It meant something, but I couldn’t place it. It was going to be a waiting game now. I put my foam earplugs in and went back to bank reality TV without another message from Kelly.
While the bank video threatened to put me to sleep, I inhaled another two cups of coffee. I’d caught three limpers this morning, but none of them was close physically to our robbery Unsub.
In the middle of the next day’s video, it came to me. I paused the footage and looked up the reference on my browser. I was right.
SMK had a sense of humor. Griffin was the name of the invisible man in H. G. Wells book of the same name, which was published in 1897—Griffin1897.
I went back to the video while I worried about what SMK’s endgame might be.
Neil had pointed out what I hadn’t considered when we’d been tasked with this. With the director taking an interest in this case, there would be hell to pay if we screwed up in any way, and with Kelly being related to Ashley Benson, it would be even worse if anything happened to Kelly.
I stopped the video. What if we scared SMK into hiding for a while and he came back out later and hurt Kelly? That scenario made my position even more precarious. On any normal case, the original protection detail wouldn’t be faulted, but this case wouldn’t be handled normally. With Benson’s connection to HQ, I’d be fucked royally if we didn’t catch SMK and he came back later to hurt her. The thought chilled me.
