“Lily Terrell,” Zeller tossed out there, and he let the name hang in the air.
Jack knew who she was, of course. He knew plenty of the names of people connected to his father’s investigation, and Lily was one of them. For that matter, so was Zeller. Zeller and his father had been bumping heads over the sex-trafficking case they had both been looking into around the same time his dad was murdered. Jack still had some niggling doubts that those confrontations with Zeller or the investigation itself had led to his father’s death, but what was missing was evidence of that.
“You think Lily Terrell is trying to kill me?” Caroline asked, her tone proving that she could sound just as grouchy as Jack.
Zeller sure didn’t jump to say yes. “I think someone in her organization could be responsible,” he answered, and Jack didn’t think it was his imagination that the man had chosen his words carefully.
It’d been a while since Jack had read anything about Lily, but he could still recall plenty of the details. Lily Terrell was a millionaire heiress from San Antonio. Her organization, New Beginnings, ran a counseling center and residential facility for the girls and women rescued from the sex-trafficking ring that Zeller and Jack’s father were investigating.
Jack glanced at Caroline. It was clear from her earlier question that she knew who Lily was. Of course, with her hacking skills, she had likely filled in whatever memory gaps she had.
Jack turned back to Zeller. “You have proof that Lily or someone she knows could be linked to what happened to Caroline?”
“No proof,” Zeller readily admitted, “but there’s something off at New Beginnings. I’ve been keeping tabs on it.”
Jack could see why Zeller would do that. The killer of Nicola Gunderson, one of the girls who’d been trafficked, had never been identified. With all the leads gone cold, Zeller might believe someone at the facility knew something about it.
“A woman has gone missing from New Beginnings,” Zeller went on. “I know that doesn’t mean she’s dead. She could have just left.” He shook his head, grumbling some profanity under his breath. “But what if Lily started that place because she was the one behind the sex-trafficking ring? She could have done that to make sure she could squash any incriminating info that could have come out about her.”
Jack wasn’t surprised, but he saw Caroline’s eyes widen. He’d actually played around with that idea. Call him a first-class cynic, but it made him suspicious when someone like Lily made a grand gesture out of the goodness of their heart. Within hours of the sex-trafficking ring being busted, Lily had come forward with her offer to help the girls.
“Tell me about the missing woman,” Jack said to Zeller.
Zeller didn’t hesitate. “Her name is Skylar Greer. She’d been a runaway when she was lured into sex trafficking. Skylar was eighteen when she was rescued. She went to New Beginnings because she had no other place to go, and she went missing last month.”
“Lily reported it?” Jack asked.
Now there was a pause. “No, she said Skylar just left. Like I said, I’ve been keeping tabs on the place, and I have someone inside I’ve been paying for info. A handyman named Bennie Darnell. Bennie claims he heard no talk of the girl wanting to go, but he did overhear Skylar talking about finding out who’d murdered Nicola Gunderson.”
Now, that was interesting how it’d circled back to his father and his investigation. Well, it was interesting if it was true.
“Skylar had apparently gotten to know Nicola in the short time she was in the sex-trafficking ring,” Zeller went on, “and Skylar wanted justice for her.” He shifted his attention to Caroline. “Lily ticks some boxes on the profiling scale when it comes to something like this.”
Zeller had obviously assumed that Caroline’s memory was clear when it came to her profiling skill set. It was, but Jack didn’t like that Zeller had seemed to know that. It made him wonder if Zeller had kept tabs on Caroline, as well.
“What boxes?” Caroline asked.
“For one thing, Lily has a record. Her folks paid plenty of money to make the trouble go away, but she had a fondness for drugs when she was a teenager. She wasted away a good chunk of her trust fund and then fell in with some girls who bilked money out of rich old men.”
Caroline lifted her shoulder. “A criminal past doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll grow up to run your own sex-trafficking ring.”
“No, but I have it on good word that Lily’s stayed in touch with her criminal friends.”
Still, that was a stretch, and Caroline’s huff let Jack know they felt the same way about the information Zeller was giving them. It could be pertinent.Could be. Or it could be a smoke screen.
“Lily hasn’t been arrested since she was a teenager,” Jack reminded Zeller. “Everything indicates that she’s not only turned her life around but that she also wants to help others.”
But Jack was just playing devil’s advocate on that, since Lily’s life turnaround could indeed be a facade. From what he’d read, Lily was getting lots of charitable donations from her rich friends for New Beginnings, although she’d pumped in some money of her own. That meant a place like that could merely be a sweet tax shelter for her and nothing more.
“Bennie thinks there’s something shady going on there,” Zeller continued, “and for now I agree with him. I’ll keep digging into Skylar’s disappearance. Will do the same for Lily, too, and I’ll let you know what I find out.”
Jack nodded. He wasn’t going to refuse information, but he would darn sure consider the source. A source who could want to get attention off himself and place it onto someone else like Lily.
Zeller snorted, his gaze sliding back and forth between them. “And you’re not buying anything I’m saying. You have a different angle on who could be responsible for the attack today?” That question snapped out like a bullwhip.
Jack debated how much he would say, but he knew it wouldn’t be long before Zeller heard about the man Kellan had in the interview room. Besides, if Jack was the one to tell Zeller, then he could watch his reaction.
“Kingston Morris showed up at Caroline’s WITSEC house shortly before the attack,” Jack explained.
