stopped walking for a second but started forward when he yanked her. “You pretended to be me?”
“With a little CGI help. It’s pretty convincing. Even better than the one I did back at Harvard. I would’ve taken quite a bit of delight seeing you go to jail, but I always knew that was never going to be enough. Plans changed, so I had to get you out earlier.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Someone from Oak Creek was running information about me a couple of hours ago. I think we can safely say it wasn’t your stupid, illiterate boyfriend, but it was someone. Upped my timeline, but I’m able to adjust to change.”
She still didn’t understand.
He made it to a door that should’ve been locked but wasn’t. He pulled it open to push her inside, but she dug in her heels. Whatever Trenton had planned, it didn’t involve her walking back out of this building of her own accord.
Maybe he’d shoot her, or maybe he wouldn’t, but there was no one coming to rescue her—nobody knew she was in trouble—so she had to make a move now. She yanked her arm from his hand and began to run and scream at the same time.
She didn’t get far. Trenton might be small, but he was quick.
She felt a shock of agony down her spine and her legs crumpled from under her.
“Wrong choice, Dr. Pritchard. Once again, wrong choice.”
She fought to draw in breath as he stood over her, a stun gun in his hand. When he shoved it against her shoulder, there was nowhere for her to go.
He smiled as he clicked the trigger again, and pain ripped through her system. He was still smiling as the blackness closed around her.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Baby couldn’t find Quinn anywhere at the Reddington City police station. He’d tried to call her several times on his drive, but the call had repeatedly gone to voicemail.
Once at the station, he’d asked around, talking to multiple officers, but no one seemed to know where she was. Everyone was discombobulated because the computer system wasn’t working correctly.
Baby had just finished talking to a detective who’d been the last person to see Quinn but didn’t know where Quinn had gone when Kendrick’s call came through on his phone.
“Have you heard from Quinn?” Baby answered without greeting. He walked outside so he could talk without bothering anyone.
“No. She’s not with you?”
“As best as I can find out, she left here about forty-five minutes ago, but no one has any idea with who. I haven’t been able to get her on her phone.”
“Hang on a second and let me see if she took an Uber. That’s pretty easy to hack.”
If Quinn had taken an Uber rather than call him to come get her, they were going to have words.
Right after the words where he explained to her that her fears about self-sabotaging were false and they were going to find out who was behind this.
“No record of her calling for an Uber. I guess she could’ve taken a taxi, but that would be even more expensive. I can’t imagine she wouldn’t have called someone, and by someone, I mean you, to come get her.”
Baby didn’t like this. Something was off.
“I’ll keep looking for her. Did you find something, is that why you called?”
“Hell, yeah I found something. I started thinking about who had both the skill to do all this computer stuff and the desire to make Quinn miserable. And I came up with one person who ticks all the boxes. Trenton Ramford.”
“Should I know who that is?”
“He’s the guy she discovered had cheated on his scholarship application. He definitely has the skills to hack everything she’s had issues with over the past year. I’ve already got ties linking him to it, it’s only a matter of me finding the details. He’s good, but I’m better.”
Baby’s stomach dropped as he began to pace. Suddenly, his body wouldn’t hold still, like he had to run to wherever Quinn was.
“Is the guy dangerous?” Someone who would be willing to put that much effort into making Quinn look bad was definitely not stable.
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’ll email you his file. And you can see what you think.”
There was a moment of silence and then Kendrick said, “Shit. I’m sorry, man, I forgot. I wasn’t trying to—”
“Send it anyway. I have some apps on my phone that can read out loud. It’s not anywhere near perfect, but I can get the gist. But right now, I want to find