Red After Dark (Blackwood Security #13) - Elise Noble Page 0,81
area. Not for me to move in with him, because that would have been a big step—too big a step—but I could definitely have seen myself staying over.
“What if he didn’t know he had a kid? Sam didn’t realise for two years that he was a father.”
“That was different. You were locked in a jail cell and you also thought he was dead.”
“I’m just saying that the mother might not have told him.”
“I guess it’s possible,” I grudgingly agreed. I’d been trying not to think about the logistics. What was the girl’s name? Did she look like Alaric? “But that still doesn’t change the fact that he told his personal assistant of one week all about her and he didn’t so much as mention her to me.”
“Mudak. And stealing the contents of the briefcase would have been straightforward for him.”
“Yes. But I’m still struggling with a motive. It cost him far more than he would have gained. His job, his reputation, his inheritance.”
Me.
And why would he still be looking for Emerald if he’d been responsible for letting her slip through his fingers back then?
“So who did gain?” Ana asked.
I was getting better at this. “Black.”
“Assume for a moment that Black is the culprit. In the same way that it would have been easier for Alaric than anyone else to replace the pay-off, Black has the advantage when it comes to breaking into his own home.”
“But he’d still have to bypass the security system, and it’s monitored in real time by the Blackwood control room.”
“Every door?”
“Yes.”
“Every window?”
“Yes.”
“What about the roof?”
“Pressure sensors.” Ever felt all the colour drain out of you? It’s like a slow chill that starts at your hairline and works its way downwards through your forehead, nose, cheeks, and chin. “Except…”
“Except?” Ana asked. “What’s wrong with your face?”
“Around that time, we had a new roof put on the guest house. The tiles were old, and… It doesn’t matter. But the sensors got removed and replaced too, and each building has an escape hatch onto the roof.”
“So somebody could have climbed up onto the roof?”
“No, that’s not possible. We have cameras at the roofline.”
“What about dropping down?”
“From where?”
“A tree?”
“There aren’t any trees tall enough, not nearby.”
“A plane? You say Black arrived in one.”
“Is that even feasible?” We stared at each other. Both of us had made plenty of parachute jumps, but the guest house roof wasn’t all that big. “It was daylight when me and Alaric went into the bedroom, and the windows face the stables, not the guest house. I suppose… I suppose that theoretically, someone could have landed there.”
And Black had known the bare bones of the FBI operation. On the phone the evening before, I’d mentioned that Alaric would be bunking at Little Riverley overnight, although he’d arrived earlier than I thought he would.
“Were the sensors replaced before or after the theft?” Ana asked.
“I can’t remember. When do I have time to organise building work?”
“Would Bradley know?”
“About the roof, sure, but I doubt he’d have got involved with the sensors. That’s Nate’s domain.”
“So we have to ask Nate?”
“We’re not asking him. Are you crazy? He’d go straight to Black and ask him why I wanted to know.”
“There must be some kind of record. Emails, text messages… Nate wouldn’t just turn up one day with a pile of sensors.”
“Probably, but Nate’s got more layers of security on his devices than you have on your house.”
And considering even Quinn set the alarms off on occasion and he lived there…
“Well, somebody needs to find those details.”
“Fuck.” I wasn’t a bloody hacker. Mack could do it. Or possibly Agatha, but I didn’t want any of our Blackwood clan getting involved. Asking them to split their loyalties wasn’t a route I was willing to go down. There was only one person I could ask. “I’ll speak to Luke. He might be able to help.”
That would still be hella awkward since he was married to Mack, but we had history and he owed me favours.
Ana squeezed my hand. “And if the timing fits, you know what we have to do.”
Go and sob quietly in a corner somewhere? Because if Black had been involved in the theft, it meant he’d lied to me—perhaps by omission, but it was still a lie. I thought back to the way he’d defended Alaric for failing to tell me about his daughter. Had he been feeling guilty because he’d done a similar thing?
No, I couldn’t quite see it. Black didn’t feel guilt. It was one of the traits