Page 25 of Tracing Her Stolen Identity (Secure Watch #2)
Cal walked into the meeting with his jaw ticking. Immediately, Reece knew whatever he had to say wouldn’t be good.
Sky’s gasp was loud in the quiet room. “No. No. That’s not true—no. It can’t be.”
Sliding his arm around Sky’s shoulders, Reece scooted closer to her chair, hating that the wheel got in the way of them connecting hip to hip. “My assumption is the cause of death wasn’t natural.”
“Not unless you call blunt-force trauma natural.”
“Nope,” Reece answered, popping the P . “No one saw anything?”
“Whoever left him there did so while avoiding all the cameras.”
“Wait, left him there?” Reece asked with a brow raised.
“That was also my second question. My police contact says there wasn’t enough blood or splatter when compared to his injuries for it to have happened there.”
“What is going on?” Sky asked, mournful and angry. “Do you think this is connected to my case?” She was starting to recover from the shock, so he rubbed her back a bit before releasing her.
“It could be a coincidence,” Cal said slowly.
“And you know what I say about coincidences,” Mina said with a snort.
“Coincidences are easily manufactured,” Iris, Cal and Reece said in unison, playing to Mina’s mantra.
“She’s right, though,” Iris said. “There is no way his death isn’t related to this whole mess.”
“But there’s no way Camille is capable of killing him,” Sky insisted. “She’s smaller than me, and Miles was a big guy.”
“There is always a way,” Cal said with a brow raised. “And one of those ways is to hire someone to do it for you. Not always the smartest regarding the trust factor, but it happens more than anyone thinks.”
“What are the police saying? They can’t possibly think Skylar had anything to do with this?” Reece asked.
“Even though there was a note in his wallet that said this?” Cal handed him the paper, and he read it while trying to keep it from Sky.
“‘If I’m dead, Skylar Sullivan did it.’” Sky’s eyes rolled so hard that Reece feared they’d never return to center. “Lord, he was so dramatic,” she said between clenched teeth. “Tell me the cops don’t believe that?”
“They have to investigate it, of course, but as of right now, they have no leads. Not only are you incapable of that kind of killing physically, but you couldn’t transport him anywhere.
Then we’re back to the idea of hiring someone, which would be difficult for you right now, considering you’re on the run from your other warrant. ”
“That’s what the police think? That I’m ‘on the run’?” she asked, using air quotes.
Cal shrugged in a way that told Reece he was holding back a smile.
“Well, no. The police think you’re hiding out at Secure One while we try to figure out who’s setting you up.
They’re okay with pretending you’re on the run for a bit longer since they can’t find proof you have been in any of the cities with vandalized galleries or took out large sums of cash to pay someone else to do it. ”
“That’s because I didn’t,” Sky said, her words tight. “Could they link Miles to any of them?”
“I don’t believe they were trying,” Cal answered.
“But we have been, and the answer is yes to several,” Iris said. “That’s what I wanted to bring to your attention today.”
Skylar glanced between all of them. “Do you think with Miles’s death the vandalism will stop?”
Cal lowered himself to a chair and leaned forward, clasping his hands together, his metal and plastic fingers clicking into place around his flesh and bones.
Cal had lost half of his fingers on his right hand while in the service, but the prosthesis he wore was so perfectly fitted to him that he could use the prosthetic finger to pull a trigger with deadly aim.
“I’m going to be real with you here, Sky. Someone killed Miles, which means—”
“Someone else is pulling the strings.” Reece felt her heavy sigh all the way to his bones. “I should have thought of that. Even if Miles was doing the vandalism, that doesn’t mean the person behind his death won’t keep doing it.”
“Hey,” Reece said, rubbing her neck again to calm her. “You’ve had a lot thrown at you in the last few hours.”
“And you don’t do this for a living,” Mina added. “That’s why you’ve got us.”
“We’ve got you,” Iris assured her, still not making eye contact. “We may not know who is behind this yet, but we won’t give up until we do.”
“What she said,” Cal said with a wink. “We aren’t giving up. I was sorry to hear about your brother. I’m sure that wasn’t the kind of news you expected to hear during this time.”
“Thank you for your concern, but it’s a relief to know he’s dead and not out there hurting or abusing anyone else.
My brother had problems, and he took a lot of them out on me.
There was no love lost between us, and truthfully, I’m glad he’s dead and buried.
That’s a part of my life I am happy to put behind me. ”
You could hear a pin drop in the room, and Reece kept his hand on her neck to let her know he supported her.
“I’m sorry, that was dirty laundry I didn’t need to air.”
“No need to apologize to us,” Mina said with a shake of her head.
Cal turned to Mina. “Have there been any videos uploaded to the Facebook page today?”
“I haven’t gotten any notifications,” Reece said, pointing at his tablet. “I have it set up to alert me.”
Mina held up her finger and clicked around on her screen. After a few moments of silence, she let out an oof and leaned back in her chair. “There were no videos, but look.”
She clicked, and the screen on the wall mirroring hers lit up. It showed that the page’s owner had responded to every negative comment. “Those responses started about five thirty this morning and went until nine thirty.”
“Which means Miles wasn’t running that page,” Reece said.
“It doesn’t appear so,” Mina agreed.
“The IP address for the first few comments came up as overseas,” Iris said. “I’ll check these new comments to see if that’s changed, but I’m sure they’re using a VPN.” Anyone capable of taking control of Sky’s digital signature would certainly use a virtual private network to avoid detection.
“I agree.” Reece glanced at everyone in the room. “I feel like whoever is behind this just sent us a checkmate message with Miles.”
“From one security guy to the other, same,” Cal said.
“Maybe Camille is behind this,” Skylar insisted. “Miles was a puppy when it came to her. What’s to say she didn’t have other guys doing her bidding, too?”
“Trust me,” Cal said, leaning back in his chair, “that’s the working theory now. Someone is behind this, so all we can do is wait for another message or finally crack through the Facebook page to see who’s behind it.”
“I’m just afraid by the time we wait for another message to arrive, another gallery will be damaged, or someone else will be hurt,” Skylar whispered, her gaze taking in all the comments on the board.
Reece was sure everyone else felt the same way, so when no one said anything, she snapped off the brakes on her chair and wheeled out of the room.
* * *
T HE SUN WAS setting over the manufactured pond at the back of the property.
Skylar couldn’t get over how gorgeous the land was, and she truly appreciated the little bit of peace and quiet she got sitting there watching the sun sink below the horizon.
Besides an arduous trek back to the cabin across the grass, she was safe.
Since the meeting this morning, she’d tried to stay away from the case, but as night neared, she would have to face Reece again.
He’d given her an update when she woke up from a nap earlier but hadn’t pressured her to take part in the investigation or to try to focus her thoughts on the videos.
Even if the person behind the mask was Miles, he was dead now.
Dead because they were connected. They were missing something, but she couldn’t figure it out.
Then again, it was more like missing someone—a key player in the campaign to destroy Skylar Sullivan.
The only person left whom she dealt with regularly with any hostility toward her wasn’t capable of killing a grown man.
Was she capable of hiring someone to do it?
Well, Skylar couldn’t deny the answer to that question was yes.
Camille was gregarious and gorgeous. She could easily convince someone to do her bidding, and she sold high-priced art pieces, so she could afford to pay for it.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Land said as he approached her from the direction of the cottage.
“Sorry, I wanted to sketch the sun as it set over the pond,” she explained, motioning at her sketch pad.
“I don’t blame you,” he said, his hand to his head as he stared at the sinking orb. “I always make it a point to watch the sun rise or set at least once when I’m here. It’s different than in the city.”
“When this is all over, I want to make this into a stained- glass piece for the cafeteria,” she explained. “It’s not much, but it will come from my heart for what they’ve done for me.”
Land squeezed her shoulder with a smile as he gazed down at her. “They’d be lucky to have an original Skylar Sullivan piece.”
“Not if we don’t find the person behind this,” she sighed as she closed the book. “I’m sorry I checked out earlier. My brain couldn’t take any more.”
“Everyone understood,” he promised, smoothing a hand down her cheek. “You hadn’t even had time to deal with Silas’s death when we dropped Miles on you. Did you get any rest?”
“Some,” she answered, glancing up at him. “I haven’t slept well the last few nights, so I needed it. I also wanted to let the catheter drain freely for a few hours. I always feel like we’re a minute away from having to take off again.”
“I’m sure you do, but we’re safe here until we or the police sort out who’s behind these threats against you.”
“You mean against the galleries.”
After kneeling next to her chair, he tipped his head to the side. “No, I mean against you. They have a vendetta against you. They’re just using the galleries to escalate it.”