Page 44 of Tangled
“Not really sick,” she replied. “I can’t believe we did that,” she added on an exhale. “I mean, he’s not the first killer I’ve sat across the table from. Or the first drug runner. But, well, I think I’m a little worked up these days,” she said, gesturing shakily to her stomach.
“We’ll wait for Chad and the team to confirm he’s out of the building before we go back to the apartment,” he said. “The goodnews is, it’s only five fifteen so you can lie down before dinner if you need to.”
Before she could respond, Chad and Sabina joined them, pulling over an extra chair. “Well, that was interesting,” Sabina said.
Scarlett looked up, a beat passed, then she chuckled. “Yeah, you could say that,” she said.
“I assume you heard it all?” Brad asked. His phone, with the microphone on, was in his front pocket. He pulled it out and shut it off so that the rest of their conversation wasn’t overheard.
“We did,” Chad said.
“So did we,” Ryan chimed in, dragging a fifth chair over. “Do you believe him?” he asked, directing the question to Scarlett.
“The only reason I have to believe him is that there’s no reason not to,” she said.
“Come again?” Sabina asked.
“If the Wolf has something to do with Gracie’s death, why not just kill everyone he thinks is involved, like Halliwell? The fact that I’m alive, as is Kimmie and, presumably, Petrov, does lend some credence to his story.”
“You can’t get information from a dead man,” Brad said.
“Well, technically…” Sabina said. “I’m just saying,” she said defensively when Chad laid a flat look on her. “But I hear you, Scarlett,” she continued. “If Katz wants to figure out what happened to Gracie, then he needs the witnesses or the people who were involved alive. At least for a little while. If he were covering something up, though, the scorched-earth approach seems to be more the Wolf’s style. I’m not 100 percent ready to get behind that conclusion though.”
“Because hedidkill Halliwell,” Chad said, and Sabina nodded.
“Maybe Katz confirmed Halliwell was involved in Gracie’s death, which is why he’s dead. Or maybe he had nothing to dowith Gracie’s death and was killed for some other reason. We did discuss that option,” Scarlett pointed out.
Sabina inclined her head in acknowledgment as all their phones chimed. Brad glanced down at his device to see a message from Eli—Katz was in his car and headed toward town.
“We can go home now,” he said to Scarlett. She looked to Ryan, then Chad, then Sabina.
Sabina reached across the table and took her free hand. “Go,” she said. “There’s nothing more you can do tonight. Eat your dinner, do…other things, and get a good night’s rest. Leo is close to recovering all the files, and I think tomorrow is going to be a big day.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“When does the DNA come in?” Scarlett asked Kara.
“Monday or Tuesday, I’ve been told,” she replied. They were curled up on the sofa, Kara with a cup of coffee and a mug of hot chocolate for Scarlett. Ethan, Chad, and Brad had taken the babies out for sled rides. With Jasper only six months old and Will a few months older, Scarlett had thought them a little young. But no one else seemed to think anything of it, so she decided it was just one of those things that people who grew up with snow did.
“Do you think it will tell us anything? Anything useful?” she added.
“You know how it is. It will give us the scientific information. Unless there’s a match, though, it won’t tell us who the father is.”
“And even if there is a match, we may have a name, but it won’t tell us if he’s the killer.” Scarlett sighed, repeating what Sabina had said a few days earlier. “What kind of person commits murder over a baby born out of wedlock these days? It used to be politicians would care about that sort of thing, but now? It’s in the news all the time, isn’t it? Infidelity, prostitutes, drugs…”
“Makes you wonder if the father is involved at all,” Kara agreed.
“It also makes me wonder if there’s someone we missed. If we believe Katz, which I’m inclined to, then the Wolf didn’t sendPetrov, someone else did. And if Gracie’s pregnancy had nothing to do with it, and the father didn’t send him, then who?”
“Maybe he and Kimmie were both sent by the owner of Sussurri? When Petrov failed, they sent Kimmie up to search for Gracie’s things?”
Scarlett considered this. The timing did work. But it seemed odd to start with the most drastic of measures—murder—then move on to breaking and entering. “Hmm, possibly,” she said with a wag of her head.
“You said you had some of Gracie’s journals. I know you went through them already, but now that we know for certain that the Wolf is involved, as well as whoever Kimmie and Petrov represent, is there a chance you’d see them through a new lens?”
Again, maybe. At the very least, it would give her something to do. She said as much to Kara, who promptly texted Ryan about getting access.
Three hours later, she, Sabina, and Kara were in the living room going through the six journals when Chad, Ethan, and Brad walked in with Jasper and Will. The babies, still wrapped up in snowsuits, were both sound asleep. To Scarlett’s surprise, Brad pulled a foldable crib from the closet, and they set the boys down to sleep in the middle guest room.
