“Yes,” Gemma answered after a short pause. “She dropped by my office shortly after the project started, before you started working on it.”
So that was why Caroline hadn’t recalled anything about this. “You didn’t want Lily involved with it?”
“No. Because Lily didn’t want to merely be involved. She wanted control of the project.”
Control? Caroline tried to think of a logical reason for that. Maybe because Lily believed she could use it to help with stopping things like sex trafficking? But that seemed a stretch since the program was being designed to catch killers.
“It was hard to turn down the funding that Lily offered,” Gemma added, “but I wanted the data and reports to be as objective as possible. For that to happen, I thought it best if I handled the process. For all the good that did,” she muttered.
Maybe Gemma hadn’t meant for her to hear that, but she did. And Caroline couldn’t even argue with Gemma on that point ortry to make her friend feel better. Because Eric had made dupes out of both of them.
“Was Lily angry when you turned down her funding?” Caroline asked.
“Possibly. I mean, she didn’t yell or anything, but she also didn’t contact me again. Once when I saw her at a party, she didn’t even speak to me.”
That sounded like anger to Caroline, but she couldn’t see it leading to attempted murder. If it had, Lily would have likely gone after Gemma instead of Jack and her.
“You’re staying safe, right?” Caroline pressed, just to make sure.
“Of course.” Gemma huffed. “Kellan has one of the reserve deputies guarding me, and the ranch hands are on alert.”
“Good. Keep it that way.”
“What’s this all about?” Gemma demanded. “Was Lily involved in the attack?”
“We’re not sure. If she is, you’ll be one of the first to know. Take care of yourself, Gemma.”
When Caroline finished the call and turned back around to hand Jack his phone, she realized Kingston was gone. “I sent him to the interview room so he could read the report,” Jack said. “I figured you didn’t want him hanging around here.”
“I don’t.” The guy made her extremely uneasy. Of course, any admirer of Eric would. “Did Kingston tell you anything else about Lily?”
Jack shook his head. “Did you get anything from Gemma?”
Caroline put it in a nutshell. “Lily wanted control of the project, and Gemma refused. I’m not sure if it plays into this, though.”
He made a sound of agreement. “Hard to see how it would fit. Well, unless Lily thought she could manipulate the program forsome kind of vigilante justice or to launch her own illegal spree. Yeah, I know, it’s a long shot,” he added.
It was, but... “When Crime-Track first started, it was all about gathering data about murders. The idea was to use that data to try to predict when and where other killings would take place and to combine that with profiles to identify possible suspects. It was meant to become a tool for law enforcement, but maybe someone with unlawful intent would want to stop the project in its tracks.”
Jack nodded. “And one way for Lily to do that would be to fund it and then crush it.”
Yes, but that seemed like an inefficient way to hide her criminal tracks. Still, it was a possible piece that Jack and she could eventually fit into this puzzle of an investigation.
Before Jack could even put his phone away, it rang, and she saw the muscle flicker in his jaw when he looked at the screen.
“It’s Teagan,” Jack said, and for a moment Caroline thought he was going to put the call on speaker so she could hear any updates on the case. He didn’t. And he stepped away from her when he answered.
Combined with the tight jaw and his sudden secretiveness, this couldn’t be good. Nor was the fact that he was practically whispering his fast-clipped responses. She heard him say “What?” Then he followed it with some profanity.
The conversation didn’t last long. Less than a minute. But Caroline was certain that Jack had just gotten bad news.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded the moment he finished the call.
He took his time answering, which only put her more on edge. “Teagan did a scan of the laptop you used at the WITSEC house, and she found a new tracker called Geo-Trace on one of the sites you accessed. A site about Eric Lang.”
She listened carefully to each word, processing it and Jack’s dark mood that went along with the explanation. “Geo-Trace,” she repeated. “It was still in the experimental stage last I checked.”
Jack nodded. “It’s apparently operational now, and someone put it on that site.”
