“Eric was a manipulative sociopath,” Caroline spat out. “The only things he enjoyed were using people and killing. He used you, Kingston.”
“Maybe because I wanted to be used.”
That was almost certainly the truth. He was as twisted as Eric.
“The person who talked to Eric on the phone that night used cop jargon,” she threw out there a moment later.
“Yes, a nice touch. That was Eric’s idea. He wanted to play with your head, maybe make you think he was talking to Jack.”
That gave her another jolt of anger, and she could see that it’d done the same to Jack. It was too late to punish Eric for that, but they sure as heck could make Kingston pay for his part in it.
She had to pause and gather her breath. “Who else did Eric and you use? Zeller or Lily? How about Grace?”
“None of the above.” Again, no hesitation, but Caroline wasn’t sure it was true.
Apparently, Jack wasn’t convinced of it, either. “You’re sure one of them didn’t help you?”
“Nope. Me and me alone. Well, other than those two incompetent idiots I hired. Amos Treadwell was supposed to shoot you. He failed. Jessa Monroe was the woman who threw the first tear-gas canister. She panicked and tried to run so I killed her.”
Caroline didn’t like having another dead body added to this, but she was glad Jessa wasn’t around to give her boss any help.
“And that’s why I’m doing this myself. Oh, but I did get Scotty to set up Zeller,” Kingston added. “You know, by planting that tracking device on his computer. All smoke, I assure you, since Scotty had already hacked in and gotten the address.”
Caroline figured Scotty had done all of that for money. Lots of it, which Kingston could have gotten his hands on. Scotty probably hadn’t figured the hacking would get him killed.
“And Lily?” Jack pressed. Like her, he must have decided to get all they could from Kingston.
“Nothing to do with me, but I had Scotty do some hacking in her files, too, and she was a naughty girl. Very involved in the sex trafficking. Tell you what. You can have those files for free. Just get them from my computer in my home office. I’ve got her bank records and some personal emails. There should be enough there for you to convict her of multiple crimes.”
“Enough to convict her of murder?” Jack snapped.
“No. Not that.” He stopped. “Oh, I see. You think Lily might have murdered that woman, Nicola, and your dad. Nope. Lily scared some woman into disappearing, but she didn’t kill anyone.”
“Skylar’s alive?” Caroline managed to say.
“Alive and in hiding. If Lily had gotten to her, I would have heard about it. And it was Eric who did Nicola. Don’t know the full story on that, but their paths crossed.”
So, Skylar hadn’t been murdered after all, and once Lily was behind bars, Skylar would likely surface. It didn’t surprise Caroline that Eric had killed Nicola, but there was a huge piece of this that didn’t fit.
“Eric didn’t kill Jack’s father,” she said. “I was with Eric when Buck Slater was gunned down.”
Caroline couldn’t see Kingston’s expression, but she could see Jack. His eyes went dark, and she could feel the dangerous edge whipping off him. And she knew why. Kingston was almost certainly smiling.
Because he’d been the one to kill Jack’s father.
“Eric needed a distraction,” Kingston said. “He wanted gunfire to draw the attention off him so he could get away.”
Her knees nearly buckled. The weight was so heavy on her chest that it felt as if someone was crushing her heart in a tight fist. And despite all of that, Caroline knew what she was feeling was a drop in the bucket compared to Jack. He’d just listened to the man responsible for his father’s murder dismiss it as a mere distraction.
Caroline tried to give Jack a steadying look. A silent “calm down” because she didn’t want the rage overtaking him so that he charged at Kingston. They just needed more time. Time that maybe she could buy them.
“You can’t think you’ll get away with this,” she said to Kingston.
“Depends on what you mean by getting away with it.” She felt his shoulder move in what she thought might be a shrug. The arrogant SOB. “With my lawyers, I doubt very seriously that I’ll be declared competent or sane enough to stand trial. And my psychiatric records will prove it.”
Records that Kingston had likely doctored. Or else Scotty had done that for him. But Jack and she could try to use his confession to prove otherwise. And even if they couldn’t, he would still spend the rest of his life locked up in a mental institution. Not exactly justice, but it would have to do.
Caroline finally saw what she’d been looking for. Gunnar. He crept in behind one of the shrubs near Jack. Kingston must have seen him, too, but he didn’t react. Probably because Gunnar didn’t have any better angle of a shot than Jack did.
