Chapter Ten #2
He studied her a moment, then went to her and brushed a kiss on her cheek.
Considering the heat that was always there between them, it seemed almost chaste.
Something she hadn’t thought possible from Jack.
He eased back, their gazes connecting and holding for a long time.
Too long. Because she saw more than the fire fueled by the attraction; she saw the worry he had for her.
“I’ll be careful,” she repeated, and this time Caroline was the one who dropped a kiss on his cheek.
He studied her a moment longer as if he wanted to say more, and then he tore his attention from her. “I’ll get you a computer.”
Jack went into the bullpen and spoke to Gunnar, and a few moments later, the deputy took a laptop from one of the empty desks and handed it to Jack. Jack was on his way back to Kellan’s office when Caroline saw the visitor come in.
Kingston.
She was still feeling raw from everything that had already gone on, but she didn’t mind going around again with him. Everything she and Jack learned could put them a step closer to catching their attacker, and Caroline was positive that Kingston knew more than he’d told them.
Jack, however, didn’t seem as eager to meet with one of their persons of interest, and it was obvious he didn’t trust Kingston, because Jack immediately stepped in between Caroline and him.
Then Jack passed her the computer, no doubt to free up his hands.
Since she wanted to do the same thing, Caroline put the laptop on Kellan’s desk.
“I’m here to sign the statement that I gave to your brother,” Kingston said. “Somebody called and told me it was ready.”
“I did,” Gunnar spoke up. “Give me a sec, and I’ll get it for you.”
Kingston didn’t go to the deputy. He stayed put and cast glances at both Jack and her. “I gotta say that the two of you don’t make many friends. I was at the diner across the street and saw Lily when she came out. She didn’t seem happy.”
“She wasn’t,” Jack verified. In the same breath he added, “What were you doing at the diner?”
“Waiting on a call that the report was ready. There’s a storm moving in, and I thought I’d go ahead and drive out here while the weather was still clear.” Kingston got that smug look on his face, as if pleased that he’d had a plausible answer.
Gunnar came to the doorway and handed Kingston the report and a pen. “Look that over and let me know if there are any corrections that need to be made.”
Kingston nodded and moved as if to step away, but Jack stopped him. “I just had an interesting conversation with someone you know. Grace Wainwright.”
Like Jack, Caroline was watching Kingston’s face, and she saw it. The flash of concern. “Grace? What did she want? Where is she?”
The last question seemed to only increase his concern. But Caroline didn’t know where that particular emotion of his was aimed. Was he worried about an old friend, or did Kingston think Grace had given them info they could use against him?
“She’s fine,” Jack answered. “Safe.”
Caroline figured that last part was wishful thinking on Jack’s part, along with being bait to see more of Kingston’s reaction.
“Good,” Kingston said, but his expression didn’t mesh with the response. “I was worried about her. Grace tends to champion causes that can get her into trouble.”
Interesting. And Caroline didn’t believe it was her imagination that Kingston had thought carefully about how he was going to say that.
“What causes did Grace recently champion?” Jack asked.
Kingston lifted his shoulder. “I don’t have anything specific, but that’s just the way Grace is.”
Jack stared at him. “Nothing specific, huh? Nothing about the woman missing from New Beginnings?”
“Oh, that.” Kingston dismissed it with his tone. “Yes, I suppose it’s possible Grace would have poked around with that. She would have likely known the woman since they were at New Beginnings together.” He lifted the reports. “I’ll just find someplace quiet to go over this.”
Jack stepped in front of him before he could leave. “Does Lily have any reason to harm Caroline or want to silence her?” Jack asked.
Kingston huffed and shook his head. “I don’t have any details about the sex-trafficking ring. If Lily had a part in that, I don’t have proof.”
“Any other reason you can think of?” Jack pressed. “Something that’s perhaps connected to Eric Lang?”
Again, Kingston shook his head and turned as if to leave, but then he stopped. “Maybe Lily’s still upset about the Crime-Track program that Caroline and Gemma were working on.”
Of all the things Caroline had thought Kingston might say, that wasn’t one of them. “Crime-Track? Why would Lily be upset about that?”
“Lily tried to invest in it,” Kingston calmly said.
Jack immediately looked at her as Caroline said, “I don’t remember that.” And she didn’t. She was sure there hadn’t been a single conversation about Lily when it came to Crime-Track. Unless she truly had gaps in her memory and this one had slipped through.
“I don’t think she advertised her interest in it,” Kingston explained, “but she contacted Gemma. Lily wanted to fund the project, but Gemma turned her down. It might have caused some bad blood between them.”
Jack took out his phone and handed it to Caroline so she could call Gemma. She went to the other side of Kellan’s office while she did that. Not that the distance would give her much privacy, but at least Kingston wouldn’t be able to hear her every word.
Caroline scrolled through the contacts, pressed Gemma’s number and said a quick prayer of thanks when Gemma answered on the first ring.
“Is everything okay?” Gemma quickly asked. “Was there another attack?”
“No. We’re fine,” Caroline assured her, and she felt guilty that she’d caused her friend an obvious moment of terror. Not just because of Jack and her but also because the man Gemma loved could have been in the line of fire.
The breath of relief Gemma took was audible. “Sorry. I’m on edge.”
Caroline was right there with her. Too bad things would stay that way until they made an arrest. This phone call might help with that.
“I have a question about Crime-Track,” Caroline explained. “Did Lily Terrell ever contact you about it?”
“Yes,” Gemma answered after a short pause. “She dropped by my office shortly after the project started, before you started working on it.”
So that was why Caroline hadn’t recalled anything about this. “You didn’t want Lily involved with it?”
“No. Because Lily didn’t want to merely be involved. She wanted control of the project.”
Control? Caroline tried to think of a logical reason for that. Maybe because Lily believed she could use it to help with stopping things like sex trafficking? But that seemed a stretch since the program was being designed to catch killers.
“It was hard to turn down the funding that Lily offered,” Gemma added, “but I wanted the data and reports to be as objective as possible. For that to happen, I thought it best if I handled the process. For all the good that did,” she muttered.
Maybe Gemma hadn’t meant for her to hear that, but she did. And Caroline couldn’t even argue with Gemma on that point or try to make her friend feel better. Because Eric had made dupes out of both of them.
“Was Lily angry when you turned down her funding?” Caroline asked.
“Possibly. I mean, she didn’t yell or anything, but she also didn’t contact me again. Once when I saw her at a party, she didn’t even speak to me.”
That sounded like anger to Caroline, but she couldn’t see it leading to attempted murder. If it had, Lily would have likely gone after Gemma instead of Jack and her.
“You’re staying safe, right?” Caroline pressed, just to make sure.
“Of course.” Gemma huffed. “Kellan has one of the reserve deputies guarding me, and the ranch hands are on alert.”
“Good. Keep it that way.”
“What’s this all about?” Gemma demanded. “Was Lily involved in the attack?”
“We’re not sure. If she is, you’ll be one of the first to know. Take care of yourself, Gemma.”
When Caroline finished the call and turned back around to hand Jack his phone, she realized Kingston was gone. “I sent him to the interview room so he could read the report,” Jack said. “I figured you didn’t want him hanging around here.”
“I don’t.” The guy made her extremely uneasy. Of course, any admirer of Eric would. “Did Kingston tell you anything else about Lily?”
Jack shook his head. “Did you get anything from Gemma?”
Caroline put it in a nutshell. “Lily wanted control of the project, and Gemma refused. I’m not sure if it plays into this, though.”
He made a sound of agreement. “Hard to see how it would fit. Well, unless Lily thought she could manipulate the program for some kind of vigilante justice or to launch her own illegal spree. Yeah, I know, it’s a long shot,” he added.
It was, but... “When Crime-Track first started, it was all about gathering data about murders. The idea was to use that data to try to predict when and where other killings would take place and to combine that with profiles to identify possible suspects. It was meant to become a tool for law enforcement, but maybe someone with unlawful intent would want to stop the project in its tracks.”
Jack nodded. “And one way for Lily to do that would be to fund it and then crush it.”
Yes, but that seemed like an inefficient way to hide her criminal tracks. Still, it was a possible piece that Jack and she could eventually fit into this puzzle of an investigation.
Before Jack could even put his phone away, it rang, and she saw the muscle flicker in his jaw when he looked at the screen.
“It’s Teagan,” Jack said, and for a moment Caroline thought he was going to put the call on speaker so she could hear any updates on the case. He didn’t. And he stepped away from her when he answered.
Combined with the tight jaw and his sudden secretiveness, this couldn’t be good. Nor was the fact that he was practically whispering his fast-clipped responses. She heard him say “What?” Then he followed it with some profanity.
The conversation didn’t last long. Less than a minute. But Caroline was certain that Jack had just gotten bad news.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded the moment he finished the call.
He took his time answering, which only put her more on edge. “Teagan did a scan of the laptop you used at the WITSEC house, and she found a new tracker called Geo-Trace on one of the sites you accessed. A site about Eric Lang.”
She listened carefully to each word, processing it and Jack’s dark mood that went along with the explanation. “Geo-Trace,” she repeated. “It was still in the experimental stage last I checked.”
Jack nodded. “It’s apparently operational now, and someone put it on that site.”
It didn’t take her long to fill in the blanks. “And that someone used my search to track me to the location of the house.”
He met her eye to eye. “Yes.”
Caroline groaned and pressed her fists against each side of her head. “How could I have been so stupid?”
“You didn’t know,” he simply said, and it was layered with sympathy. Something she didn’t want. Didn’t deserve. What she’d done was more than just stupid, though. It had nearly gotten them killed. “God, Jack. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t,” he warned her, and he went to her, pulling her into his arms. “This isn’t your fault. It’s the fault of the person who put the tracker on the site.”
There was something else in his voice now. Anger. And she didn’t think it was directed at her—even though it should have been.
Think, she demanded, fighting her way through the emotions that were flooding her mind. Think. Had the Geo-Trace been put on the site specifically to find her?
Possibly.
If so, she didn’t have to guess why that’d happened.
The person wanted her dead, and it almost certainly went back to the night Eric had taken her hostage.
Either someone thought Eric had told her something or that she’d overheard or seen it.
Something that her attacker wanted to keep hidden, and the way to do that was to silence her permanently. Jack would just be collateral damage.
“There’s more,” Jack went on. “I asked the computer guys to do a reverse search to try to find out who put Geo-Trace on the site. And they found the source.”
The relief came, but it didn’t last. That was because Caroline knew that this wasn’t good news.
“Zeller,” he said, his voice clipped. “Geo-Trace was loaded on the site from Zeller’s office computer.”