“By now, I suspect you’ve talked to Kingston and Lily?” Grace went on.
Jack paused, obviously considering how much to tell Grace. And when to press her on what she intended to tell him about Caroline. “I have. What do they have to do with Caroline and you?”
Grace made a sound, a sort of hollow laugh. “Everything. Or at least, I think everything. It’s all balled up together, you see.”
“No, I don’t see. Spell it out for me,” Jack insisted. “What did you want to tell me about Caroline?”
“That she’s part of this. Not the crimes. Not the murders. But she’s a part of it.”
“All right,” Jack huffed. “Keep talking. And I’m especially interested in hearing if you helped your old buddy Kingston get to Caroline.”
Definitely no laugh this time. “I didn’t. Is that what he told you, that I helped him?”
“Kingston said plenty,” Jack settled for saying.
Grace gave another heavy sigh. “Well, I didn’t give Kingston any information about anyone. Especially not Caroline. She’s in WITSEC, which would have meant me hacking into federal files.”
Jack lifted an eyebrow. “You aren’t good enough to tap those files?” And this time he was obviously goading Grace, probably hoping to spur her into blurting out more than she intended.
“I’m good at digging out data,” Grace answered. “I’m sure you’ve already heard that, but I wouldn’t have done something to bring the feds, or you, coming after me. Especially you. You would have hounded me to the ends of the earth to get back at me for going after your woman.”
Your woman. So Grace knew about their relationship. Something like that wouldn’t have been hard to access, but what wouldn’t have been so easy was getting to the depths of Jack’s feelings, which would have indeed caused him to go after Graceand bring her to justice. It meant Grace had been thorough when she’d gotten whatever she had on Jack and her.
“How did you know I was in WITSEC?” Caroline asked, knowing that it was going to earn her a scowl from Jack.
It did.
He obviously had wanted her to stay quiet, maybe because he thought Grace wouldn’t spill all if she knew someone else was listening, but Caroline had taken a calculated risk. There was a reason Grace had dug into their relationship. Into their situation. And she’d called Jack. Apparently, the woman had something to say.
“Everything pointed to you being in WITSEC,” Grace explained. “When the cops found you in Longview Ridge, Eric was still alive. No way would Marshal Slater have risked Eric getting to you again, and with your head injury, WITSEC is the only thing that made sense.”
Maybe. But it was possible that Grace had confirmed that by hacking into Justice Department files. Of course, that only led Caroline to yet more questions. Why would Grace have done that? Why was the woman so interested in her?
“I’ve been looking into Nicola Gunderson’s murder,” Grace went on before Caroline could press her for more. “And no, I didn’t know her, but her murder grabbed my attention.” She paused. “I felt sorry for her, that she died that way.”
Caroline looked at Jack to see if he believed that last part, but he only shrugged. It was possible what Grace was saying was true. Nicola’s death had gotten the attention of a lot of people. An attractive college student who’d been kidnapped and forced into sex trafficking, only to be murdered. Of course, the media hadn’t picked up on Zeller’s connection to Nicola.
But did Grace know?
Since that would be giving the woman too much information on their conversation with Zeller, Caroline kept it to herself and waited for Grace to continue. She didn’t have to wait long.
“After Nicola’s murder and Eric’s death, I started researching the investigation,” Grace explained. “I believe whoever was running the sex trafficking got Eric to kill Nicola.”
Caroline felt that hot tightness in her stomach. “Why do you think that?” she snapped. This time the memories came with a hefty dose of anger. Mercy, were they going to have to add another name to Eric’s list of murders?
“Because of info I got from hacking into some files. And no, I won’t tell you specifically which ones, because if you do manage to find me, I don’t want to be arrested for it.”
Caroline could see the debate going on in Jack’s eyes. No way could he offer Grace immunity, because hacking was a serious crime. Plus, the woman might not even be telling the truth.
“Does the name Skylar Greer mean anything to you?” Grace asked.
That got every bit of Caroline’s attention. Jack’s, too, because his eyes widened, then narrowed. “What about her?” Jack countered, obviously keeping his investigative cards close to the chest.
“She was in the sex-trafficking ring, too, and was rescued,” Grace went on after a long pause. “Afterward, Skylar started asking questions and was trying to figure out who’d been running the ring.”
Caroline didn’t think it was much of a stretch that the woman had done that while living at New Beginnings.
“Do you know where Skylar is?” Jack asked.
