But Caroline didn’t panic. She simply nodded in response to Eli. So maybe that was progress. Soon, though, she’d need to trust all the Slater lawmen because they were her best shot at staying alive.
“I found the rental car,” Eli threw out there, causing both Jack and Caroline to turn to him. “It was on an old ranch trail less than a mile from where you were attacked. No one was in it, but the CSIs will go through it.”
Good. Finally, there was news that Jack wanted to hear. He hadn’t expected the shooter to still be with the vehicle, but maybe the person had left fingerprints or trace evidence behind.
“There’s a second set of fresh tire tracks on the trail,” Eli went on. “Either the shooter had stashed another vehicle there so he could use it to getaway or else someone was waiting there for them.”
A partner. Yeah. Jack had considered that, too, though he was hoping the person was working alone.
“Can we get the model of the second vehicle from the tire tracks?” Jack asked.
“CSI will try, but it’s the longest of long shots. They said it was a common tread.”
Okay, so they likely wouldn’t get much from that. Still, there was another angle on this. “Who rented that sedan?” Jack asked.
“Brad Smith,” Eli immediately answered.
It was a common enough name, and judging from Caroline’s headshake, it didn’t ring any bells for her. Jack took out his phone to start a search on the man.
“Smith reserved the rental car online, but he had a valid credit card in that name,” Eli went on. “It was one of those deals where Smith used a code the rental company gave him and used it to get the car from a specific spot on the lot.”
“In other words, Smith didn’t have face-to-face contact with a clerk,” Jack concluded.
Eli confirmed that with a nod. “The rental company has security surveillance cameras in the lot where the vehicles are kept, and they’ve agreed to turn over the feed to us. They’re emailing copies here and to the Ranger lab.”
Jack was glad the rental car company was cooperating, but he was betting how this would play out. Smith—or whoever the hell he really was—likely knew there’d be cameras and had probably worn a disguise. Heck, a ball cap could have obscured his face. Still, they’d be able to get height and build, which in turn might give them something they could use against Kingston.
Well, it would if Smith matched Kingston’s description.
“There’s more,” Eli said, and this time his tone had a darker edge to it. He made eye contact with Jack. “I had the Ranger lab do a deep run on all the Brad Smiths in the area, and something interesting came up.”
“I’m listening,” Jack grumbled when Eli hesitated.
And even with that prompt, Eli hesitated some more. A muscle jerked hard in his jaw. “Brad Smith was an alias that came up in an investigation a few years ago. Another sex-trafficking ring that wasn’t connected to Dad’s case. But according to the file notes, Smith was actually an undercover marshal.”
Hell. Jack knew how this was about to play out, and he finished what Eli had been about to say. “Brad Smith is Lee Zeller.”
Chapter Seven
Finally. That was Caroline’s first reaction to what Jack had just said about Lee Zeller being Brad Smith.
That connection between Zeller and the rental car used in the attack brought together some of the pieces of this puzzle. She hadn’t been wrong about overhearing Eric talk with someone in law enforcement. Or at least someone pretending to be in that line of work. But there would have been no pretense needed if Eric’s conversation had indeed been with Zeller.
Jack turned to her, the questions all over his face, but Caroline didn’t have the answers he wanted.
“No, I don’t remember Eric ever mentioning Zeller’s name,” she volunteered. “But he didn’t say any specific name during that phone call.”
Plus, she’d been injured and drugged. She didn’t want to bring that up now, though, because Jack and his brothers already had enough doubts as to what she’d overheard. She didn’t want to add to those doubts and cause them to soften their attitudes about Zeller or any of their other fellow lawmen.
Jack made a sound to indicate he was thinking about this. “If Zeller did help Eric, if they were somehow connected to the sex-trafficking ring, then maybe Zeller thought you’d overheard something to incriminate him.”
Maybe, and if so, that could be Zeller’s motive to eliminate her. Still, there was something that didn’t fit. “Why wouldn’t Zeller have eliminated me sooner?” Caroline asked. “Or at least tried to do that? He’s a marshal and could have easily gotten the location of the WITSEC house.”
“Not easily,” Jack insisted. “I’d put the location under several more layers of security, and if someone unauthorized had been poking around the files to find the address, the system should have alerted me.”
“Still...” She shook her head. “Zeller probably could have managed it. So why wait to kill me?”
“As long as you didn’t have your memory, you weren’t a threat.” Jack answered that so fast that it let her know he’d already reached that possible conclusion.
“But the timing doesn’t fit,” Caroline argued. “We were attacked only minutes after you learned I’d regained my memory. How would Zeller have...” She stopped when something occurred to her. “Zeller could have known about the computer searches I’ve done over the past few days. It wouldn’t have been easy for him to do that, but if he’d been keeping tabs on me, he could have figured it out.”
Both Jack and Eli nodded, causing the realization to settle hard in her stomach. Her searches could have been like loading a gun. Then, Zeller had pulled the trigger.
Well, maybe.
A possible motive was still a long way from proof that he’d committed a crime.
“You’re sure when your father was investigating the sex trafficking that nothing incriminating came up about Zeller?” she asked.
Both Eli and Jack gave her flat looks. Of course, they were sure. They’d likely memorized everything about the case, and it had to eat away at both of them. Here it was their job to bring criminals to justice, and they hadn’t been able to do that for their own father.
“It was more of a gut feeling,” Jack said. “When Nicola’s body turned up and my father had to investigate it, Zeller didn’t want him involved. Part of me gets that. The sex ring was his case, but Zeller didn’t even want to work with my dad. In fact, he tried everything to exclude him.”
Caroline had worked with enough law enforcement officers, so she knew it wasn’t unusual for one of them to feel that way and go all territorial. But in this case, it could be a red flag if Zeller hadn’t wanted Sheriff Buck Slater digging into anything that would incriminate Zeller himself. However, it was just as possible that Jack and his brothers were being hypercritical. A sort of grabbing at straws in the hope that they could bring their father’s killer to justice.
“And then there’s Zeller’s possible connection to the breach of security at your WITSEC house,” Jack went on. “That gave me another bad feeling. Someone texted Kingston that address. Maybe Kingston himself, if he managed to hack into Justice Department files, but it could be someone else.”
“Someone like Zeller,” Caroline finished for him.
Jack nodded. “That’s why I’m having Teagan go through the files to see who accessed that address.”
“Maybe you don’t trust Jack’s partner, either?” Eli asked her after a long pause.
“Eric called a man that night,” she quickly pointed out. But then Caroline had to pause, too. “Of course, that doesn’t prove Teagan is clean, but I’ve got enough trouble without putting her under a microscope.”
“Good point,” Eli grumbled, and then he tipped his head to the computer on Kellan’s desk. “You got access to that?” he asked Jack, checking the time. �
�If so, the surveillance footage from the car rental company should be ready.”
“Yeah, I’ve got access,” Jack said as if still in deep thought. Troubled thought, Caroline mentally corrected. Even though Jack didn’t fully trust Zeller, it still had to be hard for him to think of a fellow marshal trying to murder them.
Caroline went to the computer when Jack did and she stood behind him, watching him work his way through the password and into Kellan’s official emails. The file from the car rental company was there. When he clicked on it, Eli came to his side and all three of them focused on the monitor.
“It was an 8:00 a.m. pickup,” Eli said, glancing at the notes on his phone.
Good. That would save them from watching hours of the feed. The timing also fit with something else—Zeller would have had plenty of time to get the car and drive out to Longview Ridge. For that matter, though, Kingston would have, too. Or any other suspect.
She watched as Jack fast-forwarded the images, but then he slowed to a normal speed when the figure came into view. A tall man who walked toward the black four-door sedan. And Caroline groaned at the same moment that Jack and Eli cursed.
The man was wearing a baseball cap, and he had on a bulky dark blue windbreaker with the collar turned up high on his neck. He kept his head down, the camera only getting a good shot of the hat and not the man’s face. Worse, the build didn’t help, either, because it appeared he’d stuffed things in his pants pockets, which could make him look heavier than he actually was.
Jack rewound the feed and went through it frame by frame until he stopped on the image that gave them a partial view of the guy’s chin. Between the high collar and the shadow created by the ball cap, it wasn’t very clear.
“That could be either Zeller or Kingston since they’re about the same height,” Jack grumbled under his breath.
Yes. Or someone either of them could have hired to get the car. “What about the handyman Zeller mentioned?” she asked. “Bennie Darnell. Can you pull up an ID on him?”
Jack didn’t point out that it was a long shot. Even though it was. He just tapped into the DMV files and accessed the man’s photo and the details listed on his driver’s license.
This time, all three of them cursed.
Because Bennie, too, had a similar height and weight to Zeller and Kingston. Not only were they not able to rule anyone out, but now they’d added another potential person of interest.
“Bennie has a record,” Jack explained as he went through another database. “He was arrested for drug possession and driving under the influence ten years ago. He’s been clean ever since.”
Obviously, his record hadn’t stopped him from getting a job, and Caroline doubted he’d been hired without some kind of background check. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to do a deeper run on him. She was about to suggest that when Jack’s phone rang, and she saw Zeller’s name on the screen.
Eli must have seen it, too, because he muttered something about getting a cup of coffee, and he headed out of the office. Jack answered the call and put it on speaker.
“You wanted to talk to me?” Zeller snapped the moment he was on the line. He sounded annoyed, and Caroline bet his irritation would only increase after this chat.
Jack didn’t waste any time responding. “Who knew about your alias, Brad Smith?”
Now there was some hesitation. “Why?” Zeller demanded.
“Because someone using that name rented the car used in the attack against Caroline and me.”
She’d been right about the annoyance, but there was also some anger when Zeller belted out a string of profanities. “Someone’s trying to set me up.”
“Who knew that was your alias?” Jack pressed, speaking right over Zeller’s cursing.
“Hell, anybody with access to our computers,” Zeller spat out. “Anybody who came in contact with me when I was on an op and using that name.”
“Narrow it down,” Jack insisted. “Go through your case files and find someone who intersects with Caroline and me.”
“Believe me, I will. Because I didn’t have anything to do with that car or the attack. What about security cameras at the rental place?” Zeller quickly tacked on.
“I’m looking at it right now, and I can’t rule you out.”
“No, but you can sure as hell rule me out because I’m not a dirty marshal. Somebody’s setting me up,” Zeller repeated. “I want a copy of that surveillance feed. While you’re getting that to me, I’ll go through the files and get back to you.” And with that, Zeller ended the call.
Caroline hadn’t expected Zeller to just fess up to renting the car and then hiring someone to shoot at them. No. Even if he was as guilty as sin, Zeller wouldn’t cop to anything because he’d know there wasn’t any concrete evidence against him.
Not yet, anyway.
“I know the Ranger crime lab will try to enhance the security footage,” she said, “but I’d like to have a go at it, too. I might be able to match the jawline to Bennie, Kingston or Zeller.”
Jack didn’t refuse her help, but he did look her straight in the eyes. A look that likely told him that she was exhausted. She also had a dull, throbbing headache. There’d been no time for her to calm down after the shooting. No chance for her to regain her footing. And the kiss hadn’t helped with that. Maybe that was why Jack didn’t come to her. Instead, he crammed his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
“As soon as Kellan finishes up with Kingston, we should be able to leave for another safe house,” he said.
Her first response was relief. She could get some quiet time and try to level out her nerves. But another concern popped up immediately. For her to get to a safe house, she’d have to leave the sheriff’s office and go outside, where their attacker could be lying in wait for them. It was a risk. Then again, she couldn’t stay here amid all the badges that she wasn’t sure she could trust.
So this was the rock and the hard place.
“Where’s the safe house?” she asked.
Jack didn’t get a chance to answer her, though, because Eli stepped back into the doorway. “You’ve got a visitor,” Eli said, shifting his gaze to both Jack and her.
Instant alarm went through Caroline. Jack seemed to stiffen with attention. He immediately stepped in front of her.
“Who is it?” Jack pressed.
“Lily Terrell,” Eli answered. “She says you’ll want to see her because she believes she’s a suspect in today’s attack.”
* * *
WELL, JACK HADN’T seen this coming. In fact, he’d thought he was going to have to contact Lily to let her know that he had some questions for her. He’d expected an heiress like that to give him some flak. Instead, here she was, walking straight toward Kellan’s office.
Jack closed the laptop and checked to make sure there was nothing that a person of interest shouldn’t be seeing. There wasn’t. Well, nothing other than Caroline. Jack didn’t care for the fact that she was going to have to face yet someone else who may have had a part in the attack.
“She’s not armed,” Eli told Jack.
Jack appreciated that his brother had frisked the woman, but after getting a good look at her, he figured there weren’t many places Lily could have hidden a weapon. She was a tall woman, close to six feet, and she was rail thin. The cobalt blue dress she was wearing clung to every inch of her. No chance of her hiding much in the tiny hand-sized purse she was holding.
“Marshal Slater,” she greeted, her voice a sultry drawl. It went well with her cool violet eyes and the auburn hair that tumbled over her shoulders.
She flashed him a smile, extending it to Eli and then to Caroline. “Miss Moser,” Lily added.
“How do you know me?” Caroline asked, taking the question right out of Jack’s mouth.
“I’m familiar with your work on Crime-Track that you did at the university with Gemma Ha
nson.” Lily’s answer was quick and unruffled. Actually, unruffled was a good description for the woman herself. If she was bothered by being considered a suspect, she didn’t show it.
Caroline had indeed worked on that project, and Jack figured that was common knowledge. The media had hashed and rehashed it after one of the research assistants on the project, Eric Lang, had been uncovered as a serial killer.
“It’s work you should continue,” Lily added to Caroline a moment later. “It could be very beneficial to law enforcement agencies.”
Caroline lifted an eyebrow. “I doubt anyone wants to trust a profiler who worked side by side with a serial killer and didn’t know it.”
Lily made a sound that could have meant anything and turned back to Jack. “The shooting was on the news,” she said. “Details were sketchy, but when I heard your name and Caroline’s, I thought it best if I came in.”
“And why is that?” Jack had no intention of showing his hand until he found out more about this visit.
“Bennie Darnell is a handyman at New Beginnings, and he told me about Marshal Lee Zeller’s interest in me. When I heard about the attack on the news, I assumed Zeller would be trying to convince you that I was somehow involved. So I came here to clear my name.”
Jack exchanged glances with Caroline and saw that she was just as surprised as he was. Zeller had made it seem as if Bennie was his mole, but obviously the handyman still had some loyalty to his employer. In turn, that called into question any info that Bennie had given Zeller, because maybe Bennie was just the sort who liked to tell people whatever it was they wanted to hear.
“Why exactly does Marshal Zeller have an interest in you?” Jack asked. He tried to keep his tone level, more of a request than a demand, since he was still trying to figure out if Lily was playing some kind of game or if she truly was concerned about making sure her name was clean.
“Because of Skylar Greer.” She didn’t hesitate, and Lily looked him straight in the eyes when she spoke. Then she dragged in a long breath. “Even though he’s never come right out and said it, Marshal Zeller seems to believe I had some part in Skylar leaving New Beginnings. I didn’t.”
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