Page 62 of Fatal Vision

“You have a call on line one,” she told Theo. “It’s SAC Martinez.”

The head of the Tulsa office. Theo gave Shelby a strained smile. “Good to see you. Let me know when your doctor releases you for work.”

He vanished and Shelby kept her composure while letting out a mental breath. The blank USB in her pocket was about to be put to good use—if she could get the black dots dancing around her eyes to go away. She motioned Colton to the office at the end of the hall.

“What was that all about?” Denbe asked under his breath as he walked with Colton and Shelby. His office was across from hers on the left.

“He’s under a lot of pressure,” Shelby said, “running back and forth between here and the Tulsa office. Both places are understaffed and overworked. Too many cases, not enough resources. You know how it goes.”

They arrived and she saw Colton roll his eyes at Denbe. “Personally? I think he’s just a douche.”

Denbe grinned. “You’re not wrong, my brother.”

He patted Shelby on the shoulder. “I’m glad you came by. We missed you.”

“Thanks,” she said as Colton shook his hand, then reached for the doorknob.

The old brass knob squeaked, the door sticking slightly, forcing Colton to push his shoulder into it. Once open, he wheeled her across the threshold and closed the door behind them. “Let’s do this and get out of here. Place gives me the creeps.”

It wasn’t exactly the most beautiful, modern office building. Her window blind was closed and a musty odor hung in the air with the dust.

She traded the wheelchair for her office chair, moving without Colton’s help. She turned on her computer and signed in, pointing Colton to her file cabinet. “I’m guessing Theo has the paper file, but the one he had yesterday was from my desk. There’s a backup in there. Case 17.5ACX.”

He grabbed a handle, tugged. “It’s locked.”

Locked? Right. She probably locked it before she left that night to meet Colton.

“That’s probably normal, but I…” Pain shot through her temple. She grabbed her head. “Oww.”

Colton was by her side in an instant. “What is it?”

The pain was getting sharper every time she tried to force the memories of that day. She breathed through it, then looked up at Colton. “I honestly don’t remember ever locking that file, or if there’s a key. I mean, it makes sense, I’m sure I did it every night before I went home, but I can’t remember.”

He massaged her shoulder. “You got any paperclips?”

She opened her pencil drawer. “Yeah.”

He picked out two large ones and started straightening them. “You check the computer, I’ll get the file. Ol’ Theo will be in here before you can say double douchebag.”

The icons on the screen were colorful and stimulated something inside her brain. She would have to enter her password in the database to access the file.

Duh!

Theo, or anyone else, could see she’d been in the system and which files she’d pulled up.

Why hadn’t she thought of that sooner? Damn brain.

Use Theo’s passcode.

The idea made her sit back in her chair. While she may have inadvertently figured out her boss’s passcode a long time ago, it was a direct violation to actually use it. No way she was doing that.

“Theo’s already suspicious. He’ll be watching for my passcode to sign into the database. I can’t access the computer file.”

The file cabinet lock popped open and Colton tossed the paperclips—his makeshift lock pick—onto her desk. “So use someone else’s.”

She shook her head. “Regardless of whose passcode I use, the date and location stamp will give us away. It will show the file was accessed from this computer while you and I were in here. Plus, using another agent’s access is a steep code violation.”

Colton shrugged as if committing a felony was like brushing your teeth. Maybe to him it was. “Up to you. We need that file, and it was your case. If you solve it—and you will—I doubt your superiors will care about you accessing it while on medical leave.”