Chapter Eleven #2
He didn’t have to think long and hard about that. She was right. So he handed her his phone.
“Any chance that your name and number are in Scotty’s contacts?” she asked. “Because I don’t want ‘Marshal Jack Slater’ flashing on the screen.”
“I haven’t talked to him in a while, and I’ve gotten a new number since then.”
With a nod, she pressed in the number from her notepad, put the call on speaker and waited. After three rings, the call went to voice mail. He saw the brief debate she had with herself about what to do, but she left a message.
“Scotty, this is Caroline Moser,” she said. “Call me back at this number ASAP. It’s important.”
Good. Of course, if Scotty did call, Jack would have to pass his phone to Caroline. He didn’t want the man hanging up on them before he even got the chance to question him.
Jack saved the number Caroline had dialed to call the man and put it under Scotty’s name.
He was still in the process of putting his phone away when there was a knock at the door.
As he’d done since this whole ordeal with Caroline started, he moved in front of her and made sure it would be easy for him to reach his weapon before he answered it.
The person standing there was exactly who Jack had expected it to be.
Zeller.
And surprise, surprise, he wasn’t happy.
Jack had riled Zeller so much in the past twenty-four hours that he was going to owe him a huge apology if it turned out that the marshal was innocent. But Jack had no intentions of believing in that innocence just yet.
There was water dripping off Zeller’s hair and running down his face, and that caused Jack to glance out the front windows. The storm had moved in all right, and it was pouring.
“I didn’t put anything on Caroline’s computer that caused the location of her house to be breached,” Zeller spat out, though Jack wasn’t sure how he could even talk with his jaw muscles that tight.
“Who told you about that?” Jack immediately asked.
Jack hadn’t thought it possible, but the muscles tightened even more. “I have friends at the office, and one of them alerted me that you went behind my back and had my computer checked.”
“I did,” Jack readily admitted. “And as you obviously know, the techs found something. Care to explain how that tracking program got from your laptop to Caroline’s?”
Of course, if Caroline’s theory was right, a hacker could have made it look as if Zeller’s computer had been used. But no way was Jack going to share that with a man who might want them dead.
Zeller opened his mouth as if ready to shout out an argument, but then he stopped and lowered his shaking head. He stayed that way for several long moments before his attention came back to Jack.
“I didn’t do this,” Zeller said, his voice weary and hoarse now. “I’m being set up, and the person’s doing a damn good job of it. I’m being investigated and people are talking. Even when I’m cleared of the computer charges—and I will be—my reputation will be hurt.”
In the beginning, it would be. Jack couldn’t see a way around that, but a bruised reputation was a small price to pay for getting away with murder.
Heck, Zeller could get away with the computer charges, too, because there might not be enough evidence to pin this on him.
A lawyer could argue that plenty of other marshals would have had access to his workplace computer.
“It’s either Kingston or Lily who’s doing this,” Zeller went on. “Kingston maybe because he’s carrying out some sick beyond-the-grave orders from Eric.” He looked at Caroline. “You know that Eric was capable of doing something like that.”
She nodded. “Eric was capable of a lot of things, but he liked to taunt. That’s not happening here. The tracer on the site was, well, sneaky. And, yes, Eric could have managed to get someone to do that, but he would have wanted me to know that he’d bested me even after he was dead.”
Caroline was right, but Jack could mentally play devil’s advocate and see this from a different side. Kingston could have done it as an homage to a twisted SOB that he admired. If so, Kingston might not be in the mindset of gloating and taunting.
And that left Lily.
Jack wasn’t sure if Lily had the computer skills, but the woman had enough money to hire someone. Plus, setting up Zeller and having him arrested and convicted would definitely get any heat off her.
“You were getting a warrant on the files at New Beginnings,” Zeller continued a moment later. “Lily’s stonewalling that, and it could be because she’s got plenty to hide.”
Jack could feel himself scowling. “How did you know about the warrant request?” he asked Zeller.
But Jack immediately waved that off. If Zeller had heard about the computer tracker being linked back to them, then he could have easily heard about the warrant.
In fact, he would have taken that as some possible light at the end of a very dark tunnel if they could use that warrant to find anything to incriminate Lily.
Since Zeller had brought it up, Jack took out his phone and texted Teagan to get an update on the warrant. His partner answered right away.
Lily’s lawyers are trying to block the warrant, Teagan messaged. They’re claiming some of the files have medical info protected under the law. It might take a while to get it all sorted out.
Hell. They didn’t have a while. A delay like this could give Lily a chance to destroy any evidence that might be in those files. Jack consoled himself, though, with the thought that a smart person would have already made sure there was nothing incriminating to find.
“Just let the investigation of your computer play out,” Jack told Zeller. “If someone planted the tracer to frame you, that will come to light.”
He hoped. While Jack still considered Zeller a suspect, he wanted to get to the truth of what was going on.
Zeller’s gaze slashed between Caroline and Jack for several moments before the man cursed and walked away.
He didn’t storm out this time, and there was a weariness to his posture as he exited the building.
Of course, Jack was cynical enough to think that anything Zeller did right now could be fake.
Part of the facade to make them believe he was innocent.
Caroline stepped to Jack’s side and watched until Zeller was out of sight. “Do you think his computer skills are good enough to pull off planting a tracker on multiple websites?”
Jack had to shake his head. “I’m not sure.”
But it was something he could find out. If he could have gone into his office, he would have been able to talk to his fellow marshals, but no way was he going to leave Caroline.
Or take her into what she’d consider a lion’s den, since she didn’t have a whole lot of trust for lawmen.
That meant he’d just have to rely on getting that info from Teagan.
On a heavy sigh, Caroline moved back to the table where she’d been working, but she stopped when Jack’s phone rang again.
Scotty’s name was on the screen. Jack hadn’t expected the hacker to actually return Caroline’s call, but he was glad Scotty had.
He handed his phone to Caroline again so she could answer.
“Scotty,” she said after she put the call on speaker, but that was all she managed to get out before the man interrupted her.
“I’m in trouble, Caroline.” Scotty’s words were rushed together, and he sounded scared out of his mind. “You’ve got to help me. God, Caroline, I think someone’s trying to kill me.”