Chapter Ten
Caroline couldn’t stop the new round of fear and worry that slammed through her when she heard what Grace Wainwright had just said.
There are some things you need to know about Caroline Moser.
She didn’t think she had blank spots left in her memory, but it was possible she did.
Also possible that this woman was about to give her news that she wouldn’t want to hear.
Wouldn’t want Jack to hear, either. Still, that didn’t stop Caroline from moving closer to the phone so that she wouldn’t miss a word.
“Where are you?” Jack asked Grace.
It was one of those square-filler questions that lawmen needed to ask. A face-to-face interview was better than one on the phone, and there was the troubling problem of Grace’s safety. If she was involved in this—whatever this was—then she could be in danger.
“Sorry, but I’d rather keep my location to myself,” Grace answered. She didn’t sound angry or resentful. In fact, her voice was surprisingly calm.
“That might not be smart,” Jack countered. “I could help you.”
“Thanks, but I’ll manage. I don’t exactly trust lawmen and cops.”
Caroline couldn’t muster up a nod of agreement when Jack shot her a glance.
“By now, I suspect you’ve talked to Kingston and Lily?” Grace went on.
Jack paused, obviously considering how much to tell Grace. And when to press her on what she intended to tell him about Caroline. “I have. What do they have to do with Caroline and you?”
Grace made a sound, a sort of hollow laugh. “Everything. Or at least, I think everything. It’s all balled up together, you see.”
“No, I don’t see. Spell it out for me,” Jack insisted. “What did you want to tell me about Caroline?”
“That she’s part of this. Not the crimes. Not the murders. But she’s a part of it.”
“All right,” Jack huffed. “Keep talking. And I’m especially interested in hearing if you helped your old buddy Kingston get to Caroline.”
Definitely no laugh this time. “I didn’t. Is that what he told you, that I helped him?”
“Kingston said plenty,” Jack settled for saying.
Grace gave another heavy sigh. “Well, I didn’t give Kingston any information about anyone. Especially not Caroline. She’s in WITSEC, which would have meant me hacking into federal files.”
Jack lifted an eyebrow. “You aren’t good enough to tap those files?” And this time he was obviously goading Grace, probably hoping to spur her into blurting out more than she intended.
“I’m good at digging out data,” Grace answered. “I’m sure you’ve already heard that, but I wouldn’t have done something to bring the feds, or you, coming after me. Especially you. You would have hounded me to the ends of the earth to get back at me for going after your woman.”
Your woman. So Grace knew about their relationship.
Something like that wouldn’t have been hard to access, but what wouldn’t have been so easy was getting to the depths of Jack’s feelings, which would have indeed caused him to go after Grace and bring her to justice.
It meant Grace had been thorough when she’d gotten whatever she had on Jack and her.
“How did you know I was in WITSEC?” Caroline asked, knowing that it was going to earn her a scowl from Jack.
It did.
He obviously had wanted her to stay quiet, maybe because he thought Grace wouldn’t spill all if she knew someone else was listening, but Caroline had taken a calculated risk.
There was a reason Grace had dug into their relationship.
Into their situation. And she’d called Jack.
Apparently, the woman had something to say.
“Everything pointed to you being in WITSEC,” Grace explained. “When the cops found you in Longview Ridge, Eric was still alive. No way would Marshal Slater have risked Eric getting to you again, and with your head injury, WITSEC is the only thing that made sense.”
Maybe. But it was possible that Grace had confirmed that by hacking into Justice Department files. Of course, that only led Caroline to yet more questions. Why would Grace have done that? Why was the woman so interested in her?
“I’ve been looking into Nicola Gunderson’s murder,” Grace went on before Caroline could press her for more. “And no, I didn’t know her, but her murder grabbed my attention.” She paused. “I felt sorry for her, that she died that way.”
Caroline looked at Jack to see if he believed that last part, but he only shrugged.
It was possible what Grace was saying was true.
Nicola’s death had gotten the attention of a lot of people.
An attractive college student who’d been kidnapped and forced into sex trafficking, only to be murdered.
Of course, the media hadn’t picked up on Zeller’s connection to Nicola.
But did Grace know?
Since that would be giving the woman too much information on their conversation with Zeller, Caroline kept it to herself and waited for Grace to continue. She didn’t have to wait long.
“After Nicola’s murder and Eric’s death, I started researching the investigation,” Grace explained. “I believe whoever was running the sex trafficking got Eric to kill Nicola.”
Caroline felt that hot tightness in her stomach. “Why do you think that?” she snapped. This time the memories came with a hefty dose of anger. Mercy, were they going to have to add another name to Eric’s list of murders?
“Because of info I got from hacking into some files. And no, I won’t tell you specifically which ones, because if you do manage to find me, I don’t want to be arrested for it.”
Caroline could see the debate going on in Jack’s eyes. No way could he offer Grace immunity, because hacking was a serious crime. Plus, the woman might not even be telling the truth.
“Does the name Skylar Greer mean anything to you?” Grace asked.
That got every bit of Caroline’s attention. Jack’s, too, because his eyes widened, then narrowed. “What about her?” Jack countered, obviously keeping his investigative cards close to the chest.
“She was in the sex-trafficking ring, too, and was rescued,” Grace went on after a long pause. “Afterward, Skylar started asking questions and was trying to figure out who’d been running the ring.”
Caroline didn’t think it was much of a stretch that the woman had done that while living at New Beginnings.
“Do you know where Skylar is?” Jack asked.
“No.” Grace didn’t hesitate before that answer. “But it’s possible she’s in hiding. I hope she is, anyway. I hope her questions didn’t get her killed.”
Caroline hoped the same thing, and it twisted away at her to think of the worst-case scenario here. That Skylar may have been murdered by the same person responsible for taking her into the sex-trafficking ring.
Maybe Lily or Zeller.
Heck, maybe even Kingston. Grace had said this was all balled up together, and Kingston was definitely in the mix.
“Do you know if Skylar saw a counselor or therapist while she was at New Beginnings?” Jack pressed, and Caroline knew why. If she had, then that should have been in the file.
“I’m not sure. Maybe,” Grace concluded. “She was eager to turn her life around. Eager to find answers, too, and I think it was that search for the truth that maybe landed her in trouble.”
Jack gave an impatient huff. “What did Skylar find in that search and how is all of this connected to Caroline?”
“Again, I’m not sure what she found.” Grace hesitated.
“But I believe whatever Skylar learned, someone wanted her silenced for it. And that leads me back to Caroline. If Eric did kill Nicola at the request of the person running the sex-trafficking ring, then that person might believe Eric told Caroline about it. Eric had her a long time, and he was cocky. He could have bragged to her about it.”
Yes, Eric was cocky, but he’d never mentioned Nicola.
Of course, that didn’t mean anything. Eric had only talked about his murders in a general kind of way.
He’d been far more interested in taunting Caroline for not figuring out sooner that he was a serial killer.
The taunts had been like an arrow to her heart because they’d been true.
“Do you have any proof to back up what you’re saying?” Jack asked Grace.
“None. It’s based on conversations and files that no longer exist. Someone wiped them. Someone who almost certainly wanted to cover up their crimes. I’ll leave that to you to figure out.”
“Obviously, you wanted to help with that or you wouldn’t have returned my call,” Jack quickly pointed out.
“No, I returned your call to get you off my back. Also to warn you that I believe this all goes back to Caroline and what the killer thinks Eric might have told her. I don’t want to be dragged out into the open so I can be silenced.”
That was another arrow strike. Maybe Skylar and Nicola had both been killed to protect a killer’s identity.
A fatal tying up of loose ends. Both Grace and she also could fall into that category, but there was one major difference between them.
Grace obviously knew a lot more about this than Caroline did.
“I want you to back off and not try to contact me again,” Grace added, and before Jack could say anything, she ended the call.
Cursing, Jack immediately hit Redial to call Grace back. No answer, and Caroline was betting the woman had used a burner cell, so there was no way to trace it.
“She hacked into the New Beginnings files,” Caroline concluded, and she got an instant nod of agreement from Jack.
“That’s why I need to talk to her again and find out if something was deleted from Skylar’s record.” He looked at her. “Any chance you can find Grace?”
“I’ll try. I don’t know her, not personally, but it’s possible we brushed up against each other in cyberspace.”
Jack’s eyes narrowed a little, enough to let her know that he didn’t want that “brushing up” to get her into legal hot water.
“I’ll be careful,” Caroline assured him.