“She saw her ex-husband.”
“He’s out of prison?”Callum calculated how long it had been.“That’s not right.”
“Seems as though a few federal witnesses recanted their testimony, and poof!”Vivian lifted her fist and splayed her fingers.“An appeals court had no choice but to release him.”
“Then they should find new witnesses.”
“Double jeopardy?I don’t know.Maybe they are.But I’m not an attorney, and that’s not the point.”
The point, the point… “A dead woman sees her recently released ex-husband who she’s been hiding from.”
“Yeah.”
Grace was alive, and her nightmare of an ex-husband was also aware.“Even if Marino is out of prison and knows Grace is alive, that doesn’t constitute a call to Titan Group.”He lifted his shoulders.“What else?”
“No one can find her.”
“She lives in hiding.Of course no one can find her.”He lifted his eyebrows.“She went into hiding to keep from Marino once before.She probably did it again.”
He still couldn’t wrap his head around the situation.In what world did Grace pretend to die instead of facing the problem head-on?And, hell, in what world did Hayden agree to go along with the story?He pinched the bridge of his nose.
“What else do you know about her ex-husband?First impressions.Last impressions.What are your thoughts?”
He forced in a long breath and held it for a five-count.“At first glance, I thought he was a dick.But we didn’t realize how bad it was until after the FBI raided Marino’s houses and offices and led him away in handcuffs.”He dropped his head back and stared at the ceiling.What to say when he couldn’t substantiate anything beyond gossip and conjecture?“He probably abused her.”
“From the redacted divorce documents…” Vivian nodded.
“Hayden and I knew some details from their stepmom, but not enough.How long has he been out of prison?”
“A few months.”
His eyebrows hit his hairline.“That’s all it took to find Grace.”
“The last known sighting of her was in Maryland more than a week ago at a small-town grocery store, where she asked the store manager to let her out the delivery entrance.”
“Hayden knew that?”
“No, her voicemail was only about her ex-husband.Her family has not been able to reach her since.”
“How do the grocery store and the voicemail connect?”
Vivian waffled her hand.“That’s what Dean is working on.A day after the grocery store incident, the manager reported the abandoned car and interaction with the woman to local police.The car was registered to an untraceable shell company.That might or might not be Grace, but the car was also tied to a nearby cabin where a woman paid upfront in cash for a few months.The name on the contract doesn’t match Grace Willoughby, but the description from the grocery store manager vaguely does.”
“What about CCTV footage?”
She shook her head.“No security cameras.This was a small place in a tiny town.”
“But the manager’s description matched?”
“To that?”She gestured to the picture on the screen.“No.About the right height.Hair in a ponytail.But no makeup.Quiet voice.Nervous eyes.”
“Quiet with nervous eyes doesn’t sound like Grace.”
“A lot can happen to steal someone’s sparkle.”
He swallowed hard.His disbelief was gone, and he wasn’t ready to deal with the implications of his closest friend lying, but he couldn’t stomach a nervous, quiet Grace.“What else?”
“I had hoped to have something for you pretty quickly from Dean, but Grace knows how to cover her tracks.Hayden provided her aliases, phone number, and emails.Despite all the money she apparently still has access to, she works as a freelance calligrapher and illustrator.”
