stop even when he spoke. “Someone who can hack all three of those systems... I don’t mean this with any disrespect, but someone with those skills ought to have better things to do, good or bad, then to mess with one college professor’s life.”
Kendrick’s fingers stopped their movement on the keyboard at the same time he stopped talking.
“What?” Baby asked.
“Give me a second. I just thought of something.”
Kendrick switched to the other keyboard and began typing even faster, if that was possible.
“I need to make some calls,” Gavin said. “Get back into the office, let my colleagues in Reddington City know that there’s something weird going on. It probably won’t be enough to get them to release Quinn altogether, but it will change their entire attitude about her.”
Gavin headed toward the door.
“Thanks for hearing me out, Redwood.” Using Gavin’s codename seemed even more appropriate now–the man could be stubborn, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t listen to reason.
“We’re going to get your girl home, Baby. What you do with her then is up to you.”
With a wink, his friend was gone.
Baby kept out of Kendrick’s way to allow him to work. He tried to reach Boy Riley again, but it went to voicemail. They were seeing doctors all weekend, so Baby wasn’t surprised. His next call was to Clifford Reed, the lawyer. Baby spoke quietly, explaining the situation to the man. He wasn’t a criminal attorney, but he gave Baby the contact info of someone who practiced in Reddington City.
He was about to call when Kendrick’s curse had him rushing over to the desk. “What?”
“You’re not going to like this, but I don’t think Peter the Prick is behind Quinn’s troubles.”
“Why?”
“I’m waiting for some details to run, and I was examining the video footage closer. That bun,” he pointed to the picture of the would-be Quinn on the screen, “is Quinn’s actual hair. This video has been manipulated, but very cleverly. The person is real, the hair is the only thing that has been rendered. If you hadn’t been talking about the difference in the real Quinn’s body language and the one here, I wouldn’t have thought to look at it. Whoever did this is highly skilled.”
“More highly skilled than Peter Pritchard?”
Kendrick shrugged. “Unless he’s been spending all his time—and I mean all of it—developing various computer hacking and graphic skills, then definitely more talented than him.”
“Could he have paid someone?”
Kendrick clicked on another screen. “I’m not finding anything in his financials that would suggest it. It would cost quite a bit to have something like this done. Between messing with Quinn’s bank, her academic systems, and manipulating the footage? It would probably cost less to hire a hitman to take her out.”
“I know you’re helping, Blaze, so I will not throw you on the ground and start punching you right now.”
Kendrick grimaced. “Sorry, man. I just meant—”
“I understand. You meant that this is a lot of trouble to go through to get back at someone, especially an ex-wife who you’ve had relatively few fights with.”
“Exactly. Why continue once you’ve run her out of Harvard and almost all academic circles? Seems like overkill.”
Baby picked up his phone again. “Let’s work on getting her out of wherever they’re holding her, then we can figure out who’s behind this. I’ve got the number of a lawyer.”
Kendrick nodded and Baby was about to call when his phone buzzed in his hand. He didn’t have any names programmed into his phone since numbers were no problem for him. He had nearly everyone’s memorized and answered Gavin’s call on the first ring.
“Gavin. I’m just about to call a lawyer in Reddington City. I couldn’t get in touch with Riley, so I thought—”
“There’s no need. They’re releasing her.”
Relief poured over Baby. “They are? Why? They figured out something with the footage?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. The system is fucked up again, but this time it’s in our favor, so let’s take it.”
“I’m on my way to get her now. Call me if you have any more news.”
“I will.”
He turned to Kendrick, but the other man held up a hand. “I heard. I’ll keep working. I’m glad they’re releasing Quinn, but something’s wrong with this whole scenario. We’ve got to figure out what.”
Baby ran out the door.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Quinn had no idea what was going on. She had spent the past four hours sitting inside some sort of police interview room.
She’d been in there by herself for most of that time. At one point, a detective in her mid-fifties