Not his smartest decision if he wanted to avoid the complications relationships entailed—but now he had a professional excuse to spend a few minutes in her company.

He paused outside the conference room, resettled his jacket on his shoulders with a shrug, and entered, shutting the door behind him.

“Sure you don’t want a warm-up?” He motioned toward her half-empty mug.

“No, thanks.”

He took the chair beside her. “I wanted to brief you on where we are with the case.”

“Does that mean there’ve been new developments?”

“Nothing specific.” He set his cup to the side and angled toward her, resting one elbow on the table. “The lab didn’t come up with any leads from the bomb package or the note. We ran basic background on the Monday callers Ryan identified as regulars once we isolated their cell number, but no red flags popped up.”

“I didn’t think they would. What about the social media comments and letters Meg pulled?”

“I spent several hours going through those yesterday, looking for patterns, flagging the ones that came across as threatening.”

“You must have ended up with quite a stack.”

“I did. However . . . I couldn’t detect any pattern in the threats—and most weren’t specific. A few of them wished you ill but didn’t indicate they personally intended to cause any harm.”

“Where does that leave us?” Faint furrows creased her brow.

No place good.

But he wasn’t ready to admit defeat.

“Until this morning, I’d have said we were in a waiting mode to see if the person who left the package took any further action now that you’ve made it clear you weren’t intimidated by the fake bomb. Today’s call answered that question.”

“In other words, this game isn’t over.”

“It doesn’t appear to be.”

“And we’re no closer to an answer than we were on Friday.” The corners of her mouth drooped.

“We don’t have an ID, no—but the language today’s caller used suggests we’re dealing with someone well-educated. ‘The moral high ground you advocate’ and ‘inconsistent with the image you present’ isn’t the typical speech pattern of the average person on the street.”

The twin grooves on her forehead deepened. “That’s almost scarier. Someone who’s smart and savvy is a more formidable foe.”

He couldn’t argue with that.

“That’s why you should keep watching your back.”

“You think he’ll try again if this doesn’t work?”

“Let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s another attempt to silence you.”

She swallowed, watching him. “Yet he hasn’t done anything to physically harm me.”

Her comment was straightforward—but the underlying question was clear.

“Yet.”

She sucked in a breath. “So you think that may be coming.”