Bitter was certainly an apt description of Juliet Prince.
“It doesn’t give us much,” Brantley acknowledged, “but it’s more than we had before.” He glanced at JJ then back to Luca. “Nice find.”
One of these days, something very similar to that would lead them right to Juliet’s doorstep. It didn’t unearth anything important this time, but at some point, she would fuck up and they’d have her. It meant they simply had to keep digging.
“And we know she dumped the burner and the motel manager’s car,” JJ explained. “All her accounts are frozen, which means she’s either stayin’ in a shelter or she’s still got some runnin’ money.”
“I figure it’s the latter,” Reese noted. “We know she cleared out a couple of accounts before Nicholas cut her off.”
“But how much are we talkin’?” Hunter asked.
“One had a balance of two-fifty, the other five.”
“I don’t suppose we’d get lucky and that’d be under a thousand total?” Kye asked.
“Seven hundred fifty thousand,” Reese clarified. “We do not know how much of that she’s runnin’ with. She has to keep movin’, and in order to do that, she’s payin’ cash for everything, includin’ a couple of cars she’s had.” He glanced from face to face. “If the Mustang she was drivin’ is anything to go by, she’s not bein’ frugal in her selection, either.”
“Nor is she buyin’ from dealerships. Cash transactions only,” Baz elaborated. “I was able to track down the previous owner of the ’65 Mustang. Bill Warren, address in Homer Glen, Illinois. I spoke to him briefly, and he confirmed he sold Juliet the vehicle, only she was going by the name Joan Anderson. Said she was pleasant but twitchy.”
Trace spoke up. “From the profile I had done on her, Juliet’s not lookin’ to go lean. She feels she deserves the finer things in life, and in her mind, Travis had no right to take that away from her. Doesn’t mean she’s not bein’ smart.” Trace motioned toward the screen. “We can see she’s stayin’ in cheap motels, but it’s not to keep costs down, more so to stay off the grid.”
Brantley agreed with that assessment. “He’s right. She’s stayin’ in those motels to avoid scrutiny on an identity. If she doesn’t have one already, I figure she’ll be lookin’ for a fake one soon enough, but only the best’ll do. Until then, she’ll stay where they’ll take cash with no questions.”
“And we know she’s still spendin’ money because she bailed on all her personal items at the last motel,” JJ noted. “Her stash included high-end beauty products, new clothes. She’s shoppin’ and not at Walmart. But she is keepin’ her computer with her. I found a charger still connected to the wall, but the laptop was MIA.”
“Did they find any cash?” Hunter asked.
“Not anything significant. About two grand in an envelope under the mattress,” Reese relayed. “So that means she’s keepin’ it hidden or she’s burned through it already. It has been eight months since she took the money.”
Trey spoke up when the conversation lulled. “I have a question.”
All eyes shifted to him.
“Any chance we can lure her out?”
Brantley liked his brother’s line of thinking. “How?”
Trey shrugged a shoulder. “I haven’t thought that far ahead.”
“What if we leveraged the daughter?” Luca questioned.
“Doubt it’d help,” Reese answered. “From what we can tell, she’s made no attempt to see her daughter.”
“I’ve confirmed that with Nicholas Prince,” JJ said. “I called him the day after…” She cleared her throat. “After the festival. I wanted to see if he’d heard from her. He was firm in sayin’ he has not spoken to her. And accordin’ to him, he doesn’t expect to. I got him to open up a little about their former relationship and her relationship with the kid. It sounds to me like Juliet never had an interest in bein’ a mom. Her reason behind wantin’ to keep her daughter after the divorce had been for financial gain.”
“That could be what he wants you to think,” Trace said. “Makes him look like a stand-up guy since he filed for sole custody and was granted it.”
“Could be,” JJ agreed. “But I don’t think so. He sounded sincere. When I explained what she’d done—bombin’ my house and runnin’ down Kylie—he was horrified but not surprised. He said Juliet’s always been unstable.”
“Why wouldn’t he open up before now?” RT asked, his gaze swinging from JJ to Brantley.
“He’s been out of the country for a while,” Brantley told him. “We’ve made numerous attempts but he was initially hidin’ behind his lawyer.”
“He thought someone was gonna come after him for damages,” JJ mentioned. “He told me himself. Plus, he’s scared of her.”
“He said that?” Brantley asked, surprised.
“Not in so many words, but I could tell. Evidently, Juliet’s been siccing people on him. Her hatred runs deep and it runs hot, and from the sound of it, she’s spreadin’ it around to anyone who’s wronged her in the past.”
