Flashback (Kendra Michaels #11)

“And end up in jail? There are laws, Lynch.”

“And you desperately want to find those sisters before they end up victims.”

“Yes, I do. I’ll think about it. Maybe I can persuade Williams to talk to me when he comes back home.”

“My way would be much more efficient,” Lynch said.

“No, it wouldn’t,” she said absently. “Actually, if someone was going to break in and look around, it should be me. I’d be much better at it than you. I’d see more.”

“No,” Lynch said definitely. “Hell, no. I’m sorry I even mentioned it. Never. Get it out of your head. If that’s possible. Never you. Understand?”

“I understand.” She shook her head and smiled faintly. “I’m wondering if you do. Since you see nothing wrong with bringing down governments and yet you won’t let me do a little minor burglary.”

“Which you were horrified to contemplate when I was doing the breaking and entering.”

“I had to get used to the idea. First, I’d have to work around the concept to make it both palatable and maybe even virtuous.”

He shook his head. “Never. But we might be able to track him through his phone. I’ll reach out to one of my connections.”

“Good.” She thought for a moment. “In the meantime, we might have something even better.”

“What’s that?” Lynch said.

“You said you had appropriated a copy of that coffeehouse security camera video.”

Lynch nodded. “I did. It’s in my phone and my cloud account. But I don’t know if it shows us anything other than that Williams actually met with Chloe in the days before she went missing.”

“It might show us more.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“When I first got my sight, one of the most amazing things to me was seeing how the movements of lips, tongue, and teeth corresponded with the sounds of speech I’d been hearing all my life. It fascinated me. So I’ve gotten to be a pretty good lip-reader.”

“I’ve seen you do it. But do you think you can read their lips on that?”

“I’m not sure. It needs to be on a much bigger screen for me to even try.”

“How big?”

“Well, I have those big monitors in my studio.”

“Those are, what, seventy inches?”

“Yes. Shall we go take a look?”

“Actually… I just had the system in my house upgraded. I have a hundred-inch 8K monitor in my basement. It’s connected to a state-of-the-art video processor to enhance anything I play on it. Maybe we can go there.”

“A hundred inches? You play Xbox on that thing?”

“I could, if I ever had the time. Anyway, it’s very impressive.”

“I have no doubt. Okay, let’s give it a shot.”

They drove to Lynch’s large Tudor-style home in an upscale neighborhood north of the city. As beautiful as the house was, Lynch had it built as a steel-reinforced bunker of sorts, with bulletproof windows and walls that could withstand a grenade blast. Lynch had made many enemies over the years, both domestic and foreign, and he often said that his house was the one place on Earth where he could totally relax.

Kendra’s eyes widened at the sight of his backyard, visible through a row of floor-to-ceiling windows. The yard seemed to be four or five times its former size, with a gargantuan pool and several elaborate rock formations. She stepped outside through the towering back doors. “When did you do this?”

“Just in the past few weeks. I like to have my renovations done when I know I’m going to be out of town.”