Brian shook his head. “Until you can place him at the scene, you can’t hold him.”
“Goddammit,” Jack spat. He glared at Noah. “You know he’s going to do it again.”
“I know he’s going to do it again,” Noah spat back, “but he might not be him.”
Brian shrugged. “Cut him loose, guys.”
“We’ll put an unmarked car on his house,” Abbott said. “That’s the best we can do for now. Get something physical to connect Girard. But first, take a break and cool off.”
“I don’t need a break,” Jack said, disgusted. “I’m going to the morgue. Maybe Ian’s finished with Samantha Altman by now. Maybe he’s found something physical.”
Noah winced when Jack shut the door too hard.
Brian Ramsey was looking at him with concern. “You okay, Web?”
“Too little sleep, too much coffee.” And too much worry. “Thanks for coming.”
Abbott looked distinctly unhappy. “I’ll cut Mr. Girard loose. Noah, go to my office.”
Feeling like a kid about to be scolded by the principal, Noah could only obey.
Ten minutes later Abbott closed his office door, a cup of coffee in each hand. “There’s a fine line between too much and not enough,” he said, handing him a cup.
“Too much and not enough what?” Noah asked and Abbott shrugged.
“You tell me,” he said, sitting in his chair. “And I mean that. You better tell me.”
Noah’s head nodded. His mouth, however, did not cooperate.
“Sometime today,” Abbott added sharply. “What’s going on between you and Jack?”
“Too much and not enough,” Noah muttered, then met his boss’s eyes. “Eve.”
Abbott looked unsurprised. “Are we talking turf war or cold war?”
Noah laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “Both. Jack’s been after her for months.”
“Yeah, I knew that. I go to Sal’s. I’ve got eyes. And today Eve locks lips with you.”
Noah’s brows went up. “You know about that, too?”
“Yes,” Abbott said, clearly annoyed Noah would even ask the question. “I sent two uniforms to keep an eye out. Instead they got an eye full. What were you thinking?”
I wasn’t. For those few seconds he’d held her, Noah hadn’t thought about anything at all. Except that he’d wanted more. He still did.
“It wasn’t planned, Bruce. She’d been confronted by her advisor’s assistant and that asshole Buckland within the space of an hour. She was trying to keep her involvement… secret. Jack accused her of doing so to protect her job.”
“And wasn’t she?” Abbott asked, and Noah shook his head.
“No. She knows it’ll all come out eventually and she’ll lose her spot in the program.”
“There are other graduate programs.”
“She said she’d be blacklisted from those. Anyway, Jack apologized later, said he was basically jealous. Of me.”
“Yeah,” Abbott said, again unsurprised.
“Why do I get the impression that you know all and you’re just making me dance?”
“Being captain is more than nodding when you bring me information,” Abbott said testily. “I know my staff. Personalities have to work. Until this week, yours and Jack’s did.” His frown softened. “And you didn’t see your face last night when she was talking.”
“When?” Noah asked, feeling testy himself now.
“Every time she opened her mouth. Do I need to take you off this case?”
“No.” Noah drew a breath. “She called you about the male avatar, right?”
“She did. I’ve been following him off and on.” Abbott pointed to his screen. “He’s still there, doing the tango. And if he’s in there, Girard can’t be him. Is that it?”
“Partly, yes. And partly that it just doesn’t feel right, Bruce. After all he’s done to date, he drove his own car and let it be photographed by security cameras.”
“How could he have known he was being photographed?”
“Because there were about a hundred signs all over the goddamned parking lot,” Noah snapped, frustrated. “That was the point of the surveillance system. The two store owners wanted everybody to know they were on candid camera. That was the deterrent.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Plus, I just don’t think he did it, Bruce. I’ve been doing this job a long time and I don’t think he did it.”
“Jack’s been doing it a long time, too,” Abbott said quietly.
“Don’t you think I know that? Don’t you think he informed me of that, several times?” Noah pushed his knuckles into his throbbing temples. “There’s more I couldn’t tell him.”
“Because you’re not supposed to know.”
Noah looked up. “Now you’re scaring me.”
“I figured this was bound to happen. Eve hacked into ShadowCo’s server. What did she find that we can’t legally use?”
“Times that the killer logged in and changed the avatars’ faces.”
Abbott’s eyes sparkled with interest. “Times that Axel Girard will need alibis for. Why didn’t you tell Jack?”
“Today Eve offered to go onto the university’s server to get us the test subjects’ files. She said she could do it faster. That’s when Jack accused her of trying to keep her job and said we couldn’t use the info anyway. About the second thing he was right. But a week ago? He would have grabbed those files as fast as she could have printed them.”
“Now you’re wondering how much of Jack’s sudden moral uprightness is true belief and how much is the fact Eve rejected him. And how much of your willingness to accept illegally gotten information is because you want to catch a killer versus being smitten.”
Noah sucked in one cheek. “God, you are scary good.”
“That’s why they pay me the medium-sized bucks. I’ll find out if we can get a warrant for Girard’s house and office, including the computers, based on what we know.”
“If he is guilty, he’ll wipe the evidence tonight. Or he’ll destroy it.”
“Then we’ll have to go the conventional route, request ShadowCo’s records, and hope that they cooperate.”
“Have they so far?”
Abbott shook his head. “We requested the victims’ files and they said that they are ‘committed to providing their users with a place where their anonymity remains secure.’ ”
“Sometimes you want to go where no one knows your name,” Noah said.
“Exactly. We’ll keep an eye on Mr. Girard tonight, then in the morning the two of you pay him a visit at work. Find out where he was at the times Eve said the killer changed the avatars. We can at least do that.”
Noah stood. “Did Olivia and Kane search that apartment next to Martha Brisbane’s?”
“They did. It was filled with bags of garbage. Some was Martha’s mail.”
“Because he made her clean the house.” Noah frowned. “Why would he do that?”
“Don’t know. I made sure Carleton knew, so he could incorporate it into his profile.”
“Were there any papers, documents showing her Shadowland movements?”
“So far no. Olivia and Kane have gone through about half of it. Micki had the carpet vacuumed and all surfaces dusted for prints, but if we find Kobrecki’s prints, they’ll just say he was doing maintenance. Micki will have a prelim report tomorrow morning.”
The thought of Micki reminded Noah he needed to ask if anyone had found Eve’s keys. One thought of Eve spurred another. “Eve had some screen name possibilities for that dancing avatar. She thought you might be able to use them in a warrant.”
“I already know his name. He’s Romeo62.”
Noah looked at Abbott’s screen. “What happened to your other guy?”
“Ditched him. Meet Lola.” Lola was a statuesque raven-haired stunner. “I’m trying to get Romeo to talk to me, ask him to meet me. My guy avatar was a definite liability.”