Chapter 12 #2
“I do know that.” Natalie leaned closer, her eyes alight with whatever information she hadn’t yet revealed. “But what if Tara was the whole reason Gina moved to this town in the first place?”
Jordyn felt her eyebrows shoot up. “Okay, I’ll bite. What did you find out?”
“Have you been listening to The Clean Break backlist?”
“I have. Gina’s name didn’t come up in any of those though.”
“It wouldn’t. Because she didn’t go by Gina then.”
“She appeared on the podcast?” Jordyn couldn’t believe her ears. It didn’t seem possible. “Wouldn’t Sophie and Tara have recognized her?”
“They don’t necessarily see the people since it’s all done with audio recordings.”
“But they must check out who their guests are. Put together bios and backgrounds on the guests. There are show notes on each episode where you can find out more about the people.” She’d scanned through a lot of those herself.
“In this case, the woman not only changed her name, she changed her whole look. Dumped her Cajun accent.”
“And you don’t think the book club members know who she is?”
“There’s no way in hell they know who she is.
” Natalie retrieved her phone and scrolled through some tabs before turning the screen toward Jordyn.
“Gina Vallot is Evangeline Jameson Ribeki, wife of the two-timing NFL player who went on the program for divorce help and wound up being the victim of a publicity stunt.”
There, on the screen, Natalie had photos of Gina side-by-side with one of Evangeline, who had a notoriously scrubbed online presence.
For being married to a very public figure, Evangeline had scrupulously avoided the media and had stated on The Clean Break that she found social media harmful toward women.
She made a habit of appearing in sunglasses and a hat in public, but Natalie had a blurry photo of her as a younger woman in a picture that looked like it might have been taken from a high school yearbook.
“How can that be?” Jordyn’s hand went to her lips as she compared the faces.
The eye color and hair color were different now.
She’d almost certainly had some cosmetic surgery on her nose, which changed the look of her face.
But the shape of her mouth was the same.
“Evangeline was furious about that show. She’s suing Sophie.
I don’t understand how she could do all of that without ever coming face-to-face with her nemesis. ”
Natalie took back her phone. “Her lawyer has been the one to handle the case, so Gina doesn’t necessarily need to appear in front of a judge. I’m texting you the sign-in information for the digital file with everything I shared today.”
“Should we call the police with this?” Jordyn was reeling, trying to process the news about Evangeline/Gina. “In light of who she is, there’s no way that it’s a coincidence that Tara died the night of Gina’s first book club. She obviously moved here to exact her revenge.”
“Maybe. But why would she kill Tara right away and not lift a finger to do anything against Sophie when she obviously holds Sophie more accountable, based on the statements her legal team made to the media?”
Jordyn hadn’t spent much time reading about the football player’s wife or the lawsuit she’d brought against Sophie and The Clean Break because she had assumed there was no connection between that episode and the killer in the book club.
An oversight she would remedy as soon as possible.
Finding out that Evangeline had slid right into the lives of her enemies changed everything.
“Because Sophie has deeper pockets and more influence? Maybe Evangeline figured she would kill one of the partners and sue the other one?” Jordyn grabbed her phone again, needing to confirm that she had the right sign-in information from Natalie.
She needed to go over all of the information they’d gathered with a fine-tooth comb.
Double check everything and figure out what to do next.
“Thanks for sending that. But what do you think I should do as far as sharing this with the police?”
She didn’t want to involve law enforcement. Yet she couldn’t deny feeling a renewed sense of danger now. How far would Gina go to protect her secrets?
“It’s your call.” Natalie slid off the barstool and tucked her notepad into her handbag before shouldering the strap.
“But I suspect they would just confront Gina and start asking questions of all the book club members, so you’d lose the advantage of knowing a key piece of information that no one else in the group does.
Maybe see what you can find out on the Witch Walk before you decide either way? ”
“You’re right. The whole reason I’m here is to feel out the situation for myself.
Get to know the players in the group.” She said it to herself as much as Natalie, appreciating the reminder of why she’d traveled across the country, ended a relationship, gave up a home, and possibly risked her own neck to get to know the women in Sophie Durand’s book club.
The Witch Walk was a public event, so Jordyn would be safe enough.
She would leverage her access to Tara’s former friends. Rattle some cages. See what happened. Starting with the woman who called herself Gina Vallot.