That was going to tighten Caroline’s forehead, too, and break some rules, but that car behind them certainly wasn’t putting her at ease, either. Ditto for Lucille. Both women had turned to watch it again.
“I need to make another call,” he told Teagan. “Get me the name on the rental car.” Jack hung up and hit the button on his steering wheel.
“Call Kellan,” he instructed his phone.
As expected, Caroline whirled back around while shaking her head. Frantically shaking it. There was no need for her to repeat her warning that while she thought she could trust Jack, she didn’t feel that way about other cops. Or anyone else with a badge and a police radio who could maybe listen in on their conversation. So, while he waited for the call to his brother to connect, he gave her proof for why she should want Kellan in on this.
Jack sped up.
So did the car behind them.
When he slowed, the sedan followed suit. It let Caroline know that there could be a real threat behind them. Maybe it was Kingston. Maybe hired guns paid for with Kingston’s trust fund. It could be someone who wasn’t even on their radar, who’d used Kingston as a dupe.
Whatever this was, this situation could get ugly. In fact, the only reason it probably hadn’t already was because the driver was waiting until they reached the road leading to Longview Ridge. It was wider and didn’t coil around like a rattlesnake. It would be easier to make a move there. Jack was guessing the guy might try to run them off the road or else shoot at them.
Caroline’s eyes were already wide, and only grew bigger when she saw how closely the sedan was mirroring their moves. Lucille saw it, too, and she threw her small suitcase on the floor of the truck, no doubt to free up her hands. She drew her gun just as Kellan answered the phone.
“You’re on speaker,” Jack warned his brother right off. “And I have Caroline and Lucille in the truck with me.”
“What happened?” Kellan snapped.
“Kingston Morris, a possible groupie connected to Eric, showed up at the safe house, and now I think he could be following us. And no, you won’t find his name in our files. That’s because Caroline only told me about him less than a half hourago. Apparently, Kingston visited Caroline’s office while Eric was there, and Kingston made a strong enough impression for her to remember him.”
Jack paused to give his brother a second to let that sink in. It sank in quickly.
“She got her memory back,” Kellan concluded, and without even taking a breath, he added, “Dad’s killer?”
Jack had anticipated that would be the first of his brother’s questions. “She claims she doesn’t know.”
Jack figured the skepticism in his wording was going to piss her off, and it did. But he didn’t care. She’d lied to him. And while her lie might not be responsible for the car following them, if he’d known the facts—all of them—he might have been able to pick up Kingston before it even came to this.
Even without having the details spelled out for him, it obviously riled Kellan, too, because he cursed. “Where are you? You need backup?”
“Yes to the backup.” Jack gave Kellan his location. “I’m heading to your office, so meet me.”
Jack didn’t wait for his brother’s assurance that he would do just that. No need. Kellan would get there as fast as he could. Maybe it would be fast enough, but Jack didn’t like the bad feeling that was slithering its way down his back. That turn with the straighter, wider road was coming up fast.
“You know how I feel involving your brothers in this,” Caroline snapped the moment he was off the phone with Kellan. “They could trust fellow cops who are dirty.”
“Lesser of two evils,” Jack reminded her, and just to prove his point, he slowed down. The sedan kept pace.
She made a sound to indicate she was considering what he’d said, but she didn’t argue. Caroline twisted back around to keep watch.
Jack considered just flooring the accelerator and trying to outrace this moron. But that was risky. Curvy roads could lead to accidents, which would in turn make them sitting ducks. Plus, the sedan engine might be souped-up enough that it wouldn’t have any trouble catching up with them. Jack wanted to delay the showdown until Kellan was closer.
“Who’s Marshal Zeller?” Lucille asked. Her voice was a little shaky. So was she. But she was holding her own and didn’t look ready to panic. “Why didn’t you want him for backup?”
“Because he could be dirty,” Caroline grumbled before Jack could say anything.
As answers went, it was a pretty good one. In her mind, Zeller could indeed be dirty. The jury was still out on that for Jack, but if there’d been any red flags to find, Jack figured he would have found them by now. That was because he’d dug and dug deep. Not just on Zeller but on any-and everyone connected to his father’s investigations.
“Zeller headed a sex-trafficking case that popped a little over a year ago,” Jack told Lucille. Like the women, he still had his eyes on the sedan. “One that involved some college students. One of those students, Nicola Gunderson, was abducted from a diner in Longview Ridge, and then she turned up dead. That’s how my dad got involved. My brother Kellan too, since he was a deputy at the time.”
“Oh, yes. I remember.” Lucille’s voice was a little tight, but Jack knew that wasn’t because she had something to hide or even any personal knowledge of the case. However, she did have plenty of knowledge about sex offenses since she’d been a victim of a violent rape fifteen years earlier.
Zeller wasn’t the only person Jack had vetted all the way down to ground zero.
Jack hadn’t considered Lucille’s past a concern, but rather he saw how she responded to it by cultivating her current assets.She’d learned to protect herself and continued her nursing career, and Jack figured that was a bonus skill set when it came to choosing who would be staying with Caroline. Right now, he appreciated that skill set very much, but he hoped he didn’t need Lucille to play backup.
