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They worked in silence. BB searched carefully through the brush, periodically pausing to look for signs of trouble around them. He noted the license plate and any identifying features about the car. Otherwise, his search revealed nothing.
Gennessey stepped from the car, and he could feel an urgency in her movements. She motioned for him to follow her as she hurried back up the embankment as quickly as it allowed.
“What’s up?” he called after her.
“I found Autumn’s phone. It’s password protected. We need to get this back to see if Owen can help us hack it. We also need to get to a spot to call out, so the cops can come and dust for prints.”
“How do you know it’s Autumn’s?”
“Because she had a picture of her and Cohen as her lock screen.” She climbed inside the truck behind the wheel, and he tried not to snort in frustration as he climbed in beside her.
“Try one through six,” he told her instead of fastening his seatbelt.
“What?” she said, pausing once she started the engine.
“The passcode. Try one-two-three-four-five-six. It’s one of the more common passcodes people use.”
“Learn a thing or two from Owen, did you?” she teased as she pulled the phone from her pocket.
“Pluh-ease. It’s investigation one-oh-one. We have three guesses before it locks us out, so we might as well give it a try.”
She scowled but tried the passcode anyway. “Didn’t work.”
“Try Cohen’s birthday.”
She tapped the screen, and then her eyes widened comically. “I’m in. Remind me to change my passcode to something more random.”
BB leaned closer to her, so he could watch her search the phone. Other than saved voicemails from Cohen, a call history which included her friends, family and fiancé, and pictures dating back several years, nothing seemed out of place with Autumn’s phone.
She opened the notes app to see one untitled file. She tapped it, and he felt a weight settle in the pit of his stomach. The words were hard to follow, but it didn’t take either of them long to get the gist of the message.
Haf bro taken use me trouble kill help enemy gang
“She’s in trouble. Someone’s taken her half-brother? Big Tommy has a son?” BB studied the words as if they would somehow rearrange themselves to be clearer.
“Maybe. Enemy gang could mean another mob family. Maybe they were behind the shooting. Could her half-brother have been there? Could he have been the target?”
BB shrugged. “Wouldn’t she have said something to Cohen if her half-brother was going to be a guest at the wedding?”
“Unless she didn’t know he was there. She may not have known he existed until after the shooting. She thought her ancestry results were inconclusive, remember?”
“How is it Autumn is mixed up in something when no one was supposed to know who she’s related to?”
“Just another argument for the possibility of a leak in the Marshal service. Either way, we need to track down Big Tommy’s son and see if he has any answers for us.”
BB reached out a hand. “You drive. I’ll keep poking around her phone. There may be more in here, but you’re right. We need to get back to civilization and quick.”
“I can’t believe Mr. Needham was right about this road,” she said as she did a five-point turn to head back the way they came.
“Our lead wasn’t because of Needham. It was because of you and your hunch. Your family may not see it, but we do. Your instincts for this work are spot on. You were born for this.”
He hoped his compliment would lift her spirits. He wasn’t prepared for the sadness in her eyes.
“Thank you, but all the hunches in the world won’t matter if we can’t find Autumn safe and sound. I don’t know if Cohen will forgive me if I can’t bring her home to him.”
A myriad of protests sprang to his mind, but he pushed them away. He realized what troubled her wasn’t her fear of Cohen’s reaction if something happened to Autumn, but it was her guilt because something could happen on her watch. And he wasn’t sure he had the words to take her burden away.
Chapter Twenty-Five
