Page 19 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
The lights dimmed further, allowing everyone to have a clear view of the movie screen and Toby. On the opposite side of the room from where she sat with Samuel and Holden, Jamison noticed how the three laptops aimed at Rowan glowed in the partial darkness, highlighting his sharp cheekbones. Tapping at the keyboard, he sent the video of Toby off to one side of the movie screen and ran a never-ending list of stats and details on the other side.
“He’s out of the loop,” Liam announced. “Toby has had no contact with the outside world for seven months. No visitors. No smuggled info.”
“Why seven months?” Anderson asked. “How do you know such a specific time frame?”
Jamison held up her hand, wiggling the diamond on her finger. “He thinks we’re married.”
“We called off our engagement almost seven months ago, and Toby was unaware,” Liam explained. “He likes to keep up with family gossip and pass it along to Zanmi so they can antagonize us with it. He wouldn’t have missed a chance with something like that.”
Agent Anderson’s crystal blue eyes slid between Jamison and Liam, obviously not understanding. “But…”
“It’s best not to get into it,” Klausen whispered loudly to Anderson. “The whole family is…” He smiled apologetically at them. “It’s just that I would leave it alone. They’ve been through enough.”
Slouched low in his chair with his arms crossed, Samuel glared daggers at Klausen. “Careful, Klausen. You almost sound like you’re protecting our privacy.”
“It’s not our job to protect your privacy, Mr. Fairweather,” Agent Anderson replied evenly. “It’s our job to stop the threat that’s endangering your safety.”
Jamison pressed her lips together to keep quiet. Her brother was strung so tight that he could snap at any moment, and no one wasinterested in being around Samuel when he did. Nor did they want to have to bury two FBI agents in the backyard should he decide to take out his frustrations on the very people who were trying to help.
“And Toby is no longer the threat,” Liam cut in, deliberately moving to block Anderson from Samuel’s view. “It looks like BOP and the Marshal’s office were telling the truth. We tested several false scenarios, and Toby didn’t recognize any of them.”
“He could have been acting,” Klausen pointed out. “This is Tobias Miller we’re talking about. The man is a master at manipulation, so much so that you all allowed him into your lives again and didn’t even realize it.”
“He wasn’t faking,” her father said from the back of the room. Never the type to stay still for very long, he paced in the confined space. “When Toby thought Evie was hurt, he believed it. He was upset.”
“How do you know, Ben?” Bernie asked as she reviewed documents with Annabeth. “This is only your second interaction with him since he’s been incarcerated.”
“Laura Jean and I took all the children go-kart racing one summer. While they were on the track, Toby tried to ram into the back of Samuel’s car and knock him out, but the move backfired. Toby struck the railing, jamming his shoulder hard enough that we thought we might have to take him to the hospital. The whole time, he kept screaming the same thing.”
“Say you’re lying.” Annabeth perked up a little when she gasped at the memory. “I remember that! He kept yelling it.”
“Yeah, he sure as fuck did,” Samuel mumbled softly where only Jamison could hear. “He would say it sometimes, but the day he tried to knock me out of the race because Evie brought me a popsicle, he just kept screaming it. After that, it became his crutch phrase when he was upset.”
Jamison blinked. “He tried to hurt you over a popsicle?”
Samuel gave a half-shrug. “Evie was nice to me before we left to go to the track, and I guess Toby got pissed.”
“Because she was nice to you?”
Turning his head to the monitor that showed his family, a hint of a smile softened her brother’s face. “Back then, that was rare.”
Will held up the papers in his hand. “And there are a dozen other indicators supporting Liam’s claim. The biometric scans don’t lie. His body temperature drops when he thinks Evie is hurt. It spikes when provoked.” He looked over his glasses at Samuel. “And yes, that includes your little performance.”
“Whoops.” Samuel smirked, not at all remorseful. “What about this Brandy person? That had to be a lie. He had a horde of women at his disposal, and there’s no way some ‘wife’ would allow him to kill and rape women unless she’s as twisted as he is.”
“And no woman would be okay with her man, or whatever, obsessing over someone else so much that he tries to kidnap her,” Jamison added, agreeing with her brother. “I would think even psycho crazies have standards.”
“I’m combing Toby’s history for a Brandy,” Rowan said. “Just the one so far. Brandy T. Carroll. I’ve got transcripts and a paper trail that ends in Kingston.”
“As in Jamaica?” Agent Anderson quirked an eyebrow. “If she’s Bryan Carroll’s daughter, that would make sense. He hails from Boston but ended up in the Caribbean running drugs for his uncle and later built his own empire.”
“Not Jamaica.” Rowan switched out Brandy Carroll’s school transcripts and brought up an island map. “St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Her dad bought her a house there as a high school graduation gift. She still owns it.”
“St. Vincent and the Grenadines isn’t far from Grenada, right?” Liam stepped closer to the screen as the map expanded, showing he was correct. “According to the transcripts, this Brandy Carroll is a couple of years younger than Toby, so when she graduated, he would have already been at college in Grenada.”
“She’s CeCe’s age,” Annabeth said, pointing to the school transcript for Rowan to bring it back up for them to view. “Maybe they were in the same classes together.”
Liam rifled through a nearby stack of files. Jamison knew exactly what he was after. The single photo they had of a very young CeCe at school, happy and smiling with friends. “Got a visual yet, Rowan?”
