Yo Bro! You ok? Hyde! Fuck!
He’s brief and to the point, as ever. He must have seen the news, or Ana’s told Kate. I call to fill him in on events, and we agree to meet up over the weekend. He wants to talk about something, but not over the phone.
“Whatever, dude,” I say. “And by the way, your girlfriend has been leading my wife astray. She should have been here in the panic room—instead, she was out getting drunk with Katherine.”
“Katherine, eh?”
“Kate.” I roll my eyes. “Whatever.”
“And you’re telling me this why?”
“I don’t know, dude, just sharing my thoughts.”
Elliot sighs. “You’ll have to take it up with her.”
Oh. Have they split up? What does that mean?
He continues before I can ask any questions. “This guy who follows me around. Do I still need him?”
“Let’s see what happens with Hyde over the next few days.”
“Okay, hotshot. It’s your money.”
“Laters, Elliot.”
Ryan and Sawyer give Taylor and me a full debrief. I can’t decide if Ryan is a hero or an idiot for letting Hyde into the apartment. His face is pretty battered, and he has a cut over one eye after their “altercation.” Judging from his bruised face, he must have had quite the skirmish with our intruder. He says he only let Hyde in because Ana wasn’t here. I glance at Taylor, whose mouth is set in a grim line. Ryan put Gail at risk, panic room or not.
The good news is that Prescott, before she left this morning, located the CCTV footage of Hyde arriving in the basement garage. His van is still down there.
I ask Sawyer to let Detective Clark know.
“Yes, sir.”
“Is that all?” Taylor asks Ryan and Sawyer.
“Yes, sir,” they say in unison.
“Thank you. For everything,” I tell them. “I’m grateful you caught the bastard, Ryan.”
“I felt an enormous sense of satisfaction knowing I brought the guy down.”
“Let’s hope the police charge him,” I add.
Ryan and Sawyer leave.
“I have a carpenter arriving in about half an hour to repair the broken door,” Taylor informs me.
“Good. I’m going to scour what was on Hyde’s computer to see if I can find any further clues as to what could be behind all this.”
“Sir, we have a potential problem,” Taylor says.
“What?”
“Technically, Ryan did grant Hyde access to the apartment.”
I pale. “Only under unique circumstances. And Hyde was armed.”
“True. But it’s something to bear in mind when speaking with the cops.”
“Yes. Agreed. Talk to Ryan.”
“Will do.”
“Taylor, take the night off. Gail, too. In fact, all of you.”
“Mr. Grey—”
“You had a very late night and little sleep, as did Sawyer and Prescott, watching my wife last night.”
Taylor looks grim. “I’d like to leave Ryan on lookout. He’s in no fit state to go out.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you, sir.” Taylor nods and exits while I turn my attention to my computer. Specifically, the files that Barney recovered from Hyde’s hard drive.
At 10:45 I stop combing through his creepy, obsessive collection of all things Grey, and log on to WebEx. Vanessa is online, too, and we start our conference with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It’s a brief and convivial chat, and GEH is co-opted onto a task force that will examine the issue of conflict minerals in tech.
When we hang up with the SEC, Vanessa informs me that she’s located Sebastian Miller, the truck driver who rescued Ros and me when Charlie Tango went down. She’s introduced him to our logistics team and he’ll shortly become an affiliate with the haulage contractor that GEH uses.
“That’s great news.”
“Mr. Grey, he was stunned to get the call.”
“I bet. Thanks for tracking him down.”
When that’s over I call Senator Blandino.
Our conversation is short and we resolve to have lunch next time she’s in Seattle.
Taylor is standing in the doorway when I finish the call.
“Yes?”
“Detective Clark is here, sir.”
“Show him in.”
Detective Clark has a firm handshake and a curmudgeonly, hangdog appearance. “Mr. Grey, thank you for seeing me.”
“Please sit.” I direct him to the chair in front of my desk.
“Thank you. I was hoping to get a brief history of your dealings with Jackson Hyde.”
“Of course.” I explain that I own SIP, and that Ana used to work for him, until he was fired, and all the circumstances around that, including my run-in with him at SIP.
“You assaulted him?” Clark’s eyebrows are raised.
“I taught him some manners. He attacked my wife.”
“I see.”
“If you check his employment history, he has a track record of being fired for assaulting his female colleagues.”
“Hmm… You think he’s behind the GEH arson attempt?”
“I do. We have the CCTV from Grey House.”
“Yes. I’ve seen it. And thank you for the CCTV from the garage. The forensic team have been examining the van.”
“Did they find anything?”
“This.” He pulls out a plastic evidence bag. In it is a note. He shows it to me so I can read the note through the bag. It’s scrawled in black Sharpie:
Grey, Do you know who I am?
Because I know who you are, Baby Bird.
I look at the words blankly.
What a weird note.
“Do you know what this means?” Clark asks.
I shake my head. “No idea.”
He slides it back into the inside breast pocket of his jacket.
“I have some more questions for Mrs. Grey. How is she?”
“She’s good. She’s remarkably tough.”
“Hmm… Is she here?”
“She’s at work. You could phone her.”