Sergei grinned.

Roman chuckled.

Frieda and Evette both cackled, but it was Frieda who rounded off the topic. “Yeah, well, I’m not too worried about you having to keep her from hearing the suggestion again. We left about two minutes after it happened, and I haven’t been able to get her to go back since.”

“We’ll get her there,” Evette said. “You can’t spend time around the lot of us and not have a little wild side rub off on ya.” She winked at Cassie and took a drink of her iced tea.

Frieda’s smile softened and a knowing tone slipped into her voice. “I’m counting on it.”

Kir must have sensed the byplay behind her aunt’s words, because his gaze shot to Frieda, then to Cassie. For a moment, he looked as if he might start digging in with questions.

Sergei intervened before he could. “If we are to make it a family outing tomorrow, then perhaps it would be best for Kir to review what we’ve learned so Cassie can get some rest.”

A silent look passed between the three men at the table. Kir looked conflicted at best, but Roman and Sergei appeared utterly resolved. Given the clueless expressions on Frieda and Evette’s faces, the silent communication moving between them was as indecipherable to them as it was to Cassie.

Kir nodded to Sergei, stood and retrieved a folder from the antique buffet table behind them. “We’ve traced the email Cassie received Sunday morning. It was sent from an IP address originating from the public library. The computer address appears to be one of the public computers provided by the library.” He sat back in his seat beside Cassie. “One of Axel McKee’s brothers in Dallas is a very skilled hacker. Knox Torren. He’s been known to assist the government and has extensive connections in the cyber industry.”

“His wife, Darya, is the one I told you about from Russia,” Evette added. “She and Sergei knew each other, which is how our family ended up tied to them. They helped each other out when a loon from Russia was after Darya.”

Cassie’s head snapped back, and she blurted, “Was after her for what?”

“Unspeakable things that could not be allowed,” Sergei answered with a cold finality that said whoever the loon from Russia was, he probably wasn’t breathing anymore.

Cassie sucked in a slow breath and opted to leave that story alone for the time being. “Okay, so this Knox guy is really good.”

“Very good,” Kir said. “He used connections and found that the sender account was created only minutes before the email was sent from the same IP address.”

“The library has security cameras,” Roman said. “We’ve pulled their footage and compiled snapshots of everyone using public computers during the timeframe the account was created and the email sent.”

Kir opened the folder and slid it in front of her. “We pulled footage from André’s Saturday night as well. Any individual noted with a phone in their hand was captured in a still photo for you to review. Facial recognition did not compile any matches, but the camera angles from the library do not provide clean shots of all people in the computer area.”