34. Dane
THIRTY-FOUR
Dane
Warren had been right. Grace really did have me wrapped around her finger.
Grace and I had both seen something horrific today. But if I could’ve placed that burden entirely on me, I would have. My protective side wanted to bundle her up and hide her from any other harm that might come her way. Yet Grace had just told me herself what she truly needed. To figure out what the hell was going on and make sure it stopped.
I agreed with her reasoning. There was something weird going on with that guy in the corner who was watching us, and if the man had any kind of information on Nina or Vincent Brady, now was the time to find out before he disappeared like the other leads we’d had so far.
How this tied back to Knightly Global, to my brother… I didn’t know yet. But I intended to find out.
My muscles tensed as Grace got up from the booth. She went straight for the hallway leading to the bathrooms near the back of the restaurant. I focused on eating and scrolling my phone, but I also kept the man in the corner in my peripheral vision.
The guy waited a minute, then two, drumming his fingers on his tabletop.
Then he got up, adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses, and walked toward the restrooms.
Fury surged in my body. Leaving a bunch of twenties on the table, more than enough to cover our tab and a generous tip, I got up to follow. I didn’t actually think this man would attack Grace, at least not right away. But as for what the guy wanted, there was no telling.
The last time I hadn’t been around when Grace needed help, she’d wound up in the hospital. I wasn’t letting that happen again.
The hallway was long and narrow. I spotted the sign for the women’s restroom at the far end near the back exit. The man stood and stared at the door to the ladies’ room, shifting from foot to foot, like he was waiting for Grace to come out.
He glanced over at me as I came up fast. My hand clamped down on his shoulder. “You wanna tell me why you were following my girlfriend to the bathroom?”
His mouth opened like he might yell. So I hustled him quickly toward the rear exit door and pushed him through. Outside, I slammed him against the brick wall of the building. We were next to a dumpster, which hid us from the view of the parking lot.
“I can explain!”
“Then you’d better get going, because I already got one nasty surprise earlier today, and I’m not feeling very patient.”
Grace pushed through the back door, standing at my shoulder. “Who are you?” she demanded.
The guy glanced from Grace to me and back again. “A reporter.”
I tightened my grip on the man’s shirt. “Some vulture looking for a tabloid story? That’s supposed to make us less pissed off?”
“An investigative reporter,” he rushed to say. “I was supposed to meet Nina Badowski this afternoon. She had information for me. But when I arrived, I found police surrounding the motel. Since then I’ve learned you’re the ones who found her body, I have to assume you might’ve been looking for the same info.”
“Do you know who killed her?” Grace asked.
“I have theories. But nothing to prove them yet, and that’s why I wanted to talk to you. I know you’re Grace O’Neal. And he’s Dane Knightly. You two are the only leads on this story I’ve got left.”
Well, we had that in common, since this reporter was our only lead too. But I wasn’t ready to back off and play nice just yet. “Then why follow Grace?” I demanded. “Why the secrecy? You could’ve come up to us in the restaurant and introduced yourself.”
“You know what happened to Nina. You got a far more graphic warning than I did of what’s at stake here. I have no idea who might be listening, but I don’t want to end up like Nina did.”
“Then why trust us at all?” Grace asked.
“Because I’ve been keeping track of this story for the last month.” He nodded at Grace. “I know you were injured a few weeks ago at a Knightly Global property. And you, Mr. Knightly, barely get along with your family. Whatever’s going on, it’s clear you’re on the outside of it. Someone did come to Hart County to silence Nina, but I’m sure it wasn’t either of you, and it wasn’t me. I’ll tell you everything I know if you do the same.”
I exchanged a look with Grace. She nodded, and I backed away, letting go of the man. “What’s your name?” I asked.
“Norm Haber. Feel free to look me up. My photo and bio are online.”
“We will,” Grace assured him. “But I’d rather go somewhere else to talk. That dumpster really stinks.”
* * *
We chose a deserted picnic area near a hiking trail. Grace and I rode together, while Norm followed in his rental sedan.
“Norm Haber works for a major newspaper on the West Coast,” she said on the way. “He matches the photos on his bio online. It seems like he is who he says he is.”
“That’s a decent start.” But I still didn’t know what to make of the reporter. It sounded like he had been investigating Knightly Global as part of this. Norm Haber was taking a risk by talking to me. I would be doing the same. But the truth was what mattered. If Kip was really working with Vincent Brady, I wasn’t going to lift a finger to protect my brother. I had already made my choice.
Vincent had harmed Grace. He’d probably killed Nina. Anybody who was working with the man, related to me or not, was no friend of mine.
We sat at a picnic table. The trail was deserted, probably because the sky overhead was cloudy and gray, threatening snow. Grace zipped her puffer all the way to her neck, and she’d pulled a knit cap over her red and gold strands.
Norm set his phone on the picnic table in front of us. “Okay if I record this?”
Grace and I both nodded.
“So, Mr. Knightly,” Norm began. “I want to take a step back, come at this story from the beginning. I’m curious about your decision to work for your father.”
Grace shook her head. “No, you’re going to answer my questions first.”
Norm looked over at me like he thought I was going to contradict her. As if he assumed I wouldn’t want her taking charge.
I just shrugged and bit back a smile.
I didn’t want Grace in danger, but I enjoyed seeing her like this. Assertive. Telling this guy exactly how it would be.
“You said you’ve been working on this story for over a month,” Grace said. “Did you contact Nina originally? Or did she contact you?”
“Nina got in touch with me,” Norm answered with a sigh. “Said she had sensitive information for me that could implicate some rich and powerful people.”
“A high-class escort ring,” Grace supplied.
Norm looked surprised. “You were aware?”
“Not until a day or two ago. Dane had a private investigator looking into Nina. That’s how we knew she was staying at the motel here in Hart County.”
The reporter nodded. “Nina got in touch about a month and a half ago. Told me she could name names and provide proof. She told me she’d gotten access to the data through a client.”
“Did she say who the client was?” Grace asked.
“No. She refused to give me too many details over the phone and wanted to remain anonymous in any future story. But she did say she had dirt on Knightly Global. That the company has ties to the escort ring.”
Fuck . I’d already suspected my family was connected to this. But it still wasn’t fun to get confirmation. “What did she want from you in exchange?” I said.
He shook his head. “Nothing. Just to expose her employers. If she’d wanted money, she could’ve used the info as blackmail or gone to a tabloid. I think she just wanted to eventually find a way out. But she was afraid of the escort ring’s enforcer.”
“Vincent Brady,” Grace whispered.
“Yes. Brady’s job was to keep a tight hold on the escorts. Given the sensitive information they had access to, the people at the top couldn’t risk leaks getting out. Everything the women did was monitored, except when they were supposed to be with a client. It was hard enough for Nina just to get the burner phone that she used to communicate with me. That’s why Nina and I planned our initial meeting carefully. The whole idea was to have her hand the proof to me right under Vincent’s nose.” He grimaced. “But I didn’t make it.”
Grace inhaled sharply. “The night of the hotel grand-opening party. Nina said her date stood her up. She meant you .”
“But we assumed her client for that evening was Dirk Lancaster,” I pointed out.
Norm explained how it was supposed to go down. Nina had arrived in Silver Ridge to be Dirk Lancaster’s date for the night. Her red mask was supposed to identify her. But she had also planned to meet Norm.
“We weren’t even going to talk,” he said. “I was going to bump into her in the lobby, and she would hand off the data inconspicuously. Since it would be crowded, and she was already there to meet with a client, we figured the exchange would go unnoticed.”
“Why not send it to you online?” Grace asked. “Or in the mail or something.”
“And risk leaving a digital trail? Or having the package intercepted? She already didn’t want to risk contacting a reporter in New York. She said her employers were powerful people with contacts all over the East Coast. These people were willing to kill to keep this stuff secret. As you both have seen.”
Okay, fair point. This whole scenario was bizarre, like a plot dreamed up for a spy movie. But stranger things had happened. When it came to sex scandals, it wasn’t that far-fetched to imagine that someone would kill to keep a witness quiet.
I put my hand over Grace’s on the picnic bench, lacing our fingers.
Norm took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “The night of the grand opening in Silver Ridge, I was on my way to the ski resort when I skidded off the road on a patch of ice. Worst damn luck, and to cap it off, I had no cell service. I couldn’t message Nina on her burner to explain why I was late.”
“So she got scared,” Grace said. “She assumed something was wrong. That maybe her employers had gotten to you and figured out her plan.”
Norm nodded dejectedly. “Exactly. She decided to disappear. Right then.”
“And she gave me her mask. To create a distraction. She knew Dirk Lancaster would be looking for her, and so would Vincent Brady. She was lucky to slip away at all without Brady noticing.”
I rubbed my jaw with my free hand. “But what about the data she’d wanted to turn over about the escort ring? What did she do with it? Could it have been on her burner phone? If she kept it with her, then her killer probably found it in her motel room.”
Norm shook his head, leaning forward. “No, I don’t think so. Listen. After the grand-opening party, Nina got rid of her burner. I couldn’t reach her for a while. Had no idea what happened to her. I even called around to the local police in Hart County in the hopes of finding her, but I couldn’t risk revealing my name. Otherwise I’d be revealing her as my source.”
Grace’s eyes widened. “So that was you . Police Chief Landry mentioned an anonymous call about a missing woman. That’s how we figured out her name, at least the name she was using then. Nina Jamison.”
“But then she did contact me again, about a week ago. She’d managed to get access to another phone, and she told me she was in hiding and hoped I could help her. She was running out of money. Didn’t know where to turn. And she said she didn’t have the data on the escort ring with her anymore, but she had an idea of where to find it. Because she’d given it to someone else .”
Norm and I both looked at Grace. She sat back. “Wait, you mean me ?”
“Did she give you anything else the night of the party?” Norm asked. “Anything besides the mask?”
Grace bit her lip, seeming to think. “No. Nothing. And I don’t even have Nina’s mask anymore. It was stolen.”
“Hold on,” Norm said. “ Stolen ? When did that happen?”
“About a week after the grand-opening party.”
Grace told him about the break-in at her house. The three of us talked a while longer, trying to fit all these strange puzzle pieces together, but it wasn’t easy.
Finally, we’d exhausted our theories. We exchanged numbers so we could keep in touch and share whatever we found.
“I’d like a more extensive interview with you on the subject of Knightly Global,” Norm said.
“I’ll consider it. But you need to talk to Sheriff Douglas. You have information on Nina’s murder.”
“I plan to come forward. I’m more concerned right now about Nina’s killer coming after me. I have no idea how much they know. Whether they’re aware she was in touch with a reporter. No offense, but I’m not telling anyone where I’m going. Not until I have enough to break this story wide open.”
“Then maybe, after we’re all convinced the danger has passed, I’ll agree to an interview.”
Not long after that, Norm took off in his sedan. Grace and I went to the Range Rover and got in. There was nothing else for us to do but head back toward Silver Ridge.
Hell, it had been a long day. I wanted to do something to make Grace feel better. Fuss over her. Take care of her, because the truth was, it made me feel better too.
I wanted us to take care of each other, and I was hoping she’d give that to me forever.
Yet at the current moment, Grace didn’t seem like she wanted a pleasant distraction. She looked like a woman who meant serious business.
“What’re you thinking about?” I asked as we pulled onto the road.
“Nina. Remembering when we met. She seemed upset and distracted. She didn’t know what to do. I wish she’d asked me for help. Maybe I could have…” She trailed off.
“It’s awful what happened to her. But I don’t like the fact that she used you as a pawn.”
“Nina was scared. The strap on my mask broke, and she decided to use it as an opportunity.”
“Sure, but giving you the mask is one thing. If she knew how violent Vincent Brady is and she gave you sensitive information, she should’ve expected he might come after you.”
“Nina didn’t know if Vincent would stop her before she could get away that night, and she couldn’t let him find her with top-secret data about her employers. She probably just wanted to get rid of it and wasn’t thinking too much about what would happen later.”
“Yeah, but?—”
Suddenly, Grace sucked in a breath, hand clapping over her mouth. “Wait a minute. My purse .”
“Did you leave it at the pizza place?” I slowed the SUV, about to make a U-turn.
Grace waved her hands. “No. That’s not it. Not the purse I have today. Just…keep driving. We’re going to Piper’s house.”
“Want to elaborate? I love you, and I’ll do anything for you, but I gotta admit, I’m confused.” I glanced over at her and was surprised to find Grace wasn’t frowning anymore.
Instead, she was smiling.
“I think I know where Nina’s top-secret information is.”