Once Skylar was settled in, Trent headed to his office on the opposite side of the house, next to the garage. After shutting the door, he sat as his desk and made a call.
Five rings later, the call was answered, with some choice swear words. “Someone had better be dying,” Callum gritted out. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”
Trent grinned at the sound of his friend’s grumpy voice. “Didn’t wake you, did I?”
“You’re kidding, right? It’s two, no, two eighteen in the morning, on a workday. This had better be good.”
“When does Hamilton County come up in the rotation to have one of their cold cases worked?”
“Hamilton County. Where the heck is...wait, Chattanooga?”
“That’s the one.”
“Heck, I don’t know. No time soon. We just finished prioritizing the next batch of cases and Hamilton County wasn’t in the queue yet. Why? What’s going on?”
“I want to play my pet-project card and work a cold case for Hamilton County. And I want to choose which of their cold cases to take.”
“That’s not how the pet-project card works. You have to look at the list of cases coming up in their queue and choose one of the cases they want us to work, not some random investigation they may not even care about or may already be working on their own. Why are you calling me about this anyway? Ryland’s in charge of this stuff.”
“Ryland’s on vacation, starting today. You’re his backup this week.”
“Oh for the love of... His plane doesn’t fly out until late morning. You can call him. He’s probably home right now, in bed, like me.”
“But you’re already awake.”
Callum swore. “You’re afraid he’ll tell you no.”
“Afraid isn’t the word I’d use. But, you know how the saying goes. Sometimes, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness—”
“Than to get permission. I know, I know. One of your many mottos to live by. You’re going to get both of us in trouble. You know that, right?”
“It’s important, Callum.”
“It had better be. What case couldn’t wait until morning and is worth getting your best friend in hot water?”
“Skylar Montgomery.”
“Who?”
“Skylar Montgomery. A couple months shy of five years ago. Her car was shot at and she managed to park it and run into the Cherokee National Forest. The gunman chased her. One of his shots went through her side, but she managed to get away. When the rangers came in response to shots-fired calls, the gunman must have given up pursuit. They followed the blood trail, got search and rescue involved, called the whole thing off a few weeks later.”
“Wait. Skylar. Isn’t that—”
“The woman in the shootout this morning, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.”
“The one who almost got you killed.”
“No, the idiot shooting at her almost got both of us killed.”
“Hold it, hold it. We talked about this earlier. They found the gunman dead. Your ranger friend, McKenzie, wants to interview her about it. He thinks she killed him.”
“She didn’t do it.”
“You have proof of that?”
“I’m a good judge of character. She insisted she had nothing to do with his death, and I believe her.”
“She insisted? She disappeared this morning before they even found the dead guy. Dang, Trent. She’s there with you, isn’t she? What exactly are you getting me into here?”
“You’re in the clear. I’m neither confirming nor denying that I know where she is. You can’t get in trouble since you don’t know anything.”
“No one’s going to believe that. This is a career killer. Not to mention a potential aiding and abetting charge.”
“She’s not a fugitive. No one has issued an arrest warrant.”
Callum said a few choice words. “They have a BOLO out on her as a person of interest. Every law enforcement officer in the county has been told to be on the lookout for her. Don’t split hairs. You’re in dangerous territory. Are you sure this is the hill you want to possibly die on?”
“No question.”
“That was quick. No hesitation.”
“She’s innocent, Callum.”
“Really? Just how pretty is she?”
It was Trent’s turn to swear. “That’s got nothing to do with my decision.”
“You sure about that?”
“Give me some credit. I’m not a pathetic horny teenager trying to get laid. She’s been on the run for five years. There have been multiple attempts on her life, and she’s got no one in her corner. She’s an only child. Her father’s dead. No living relatives. And the police in Hamilton County never took her seriously. She’s desperate. I’m not going to throw her to the wolves. She needs our help.”
“The police can help her. All she has to do is go downtown and tell them what happened.”
“If it was that simple, the police would solve every case they ever get and none of them would go cold. This is the cold case we should be working on, because we can actually prevent a homicide instead of finding the killer after the fact. We can save a life. If we turn her in, they’ll lock her up for defending herself and might even railroad her into a murder charge. How long do you think she’d last in county lockup before her killer finds her and bribes one of the inmates to shiv her? A day? Two?”
“Look, Trent, I get that this is important to you. That’s coming through crystal clear. What I don’t get is why. All of our cases are important, and we do save lives. Every time we take a killer off the streets, we keep him from claiming another victim. You need to let the police do their jobs. If you don’t turn her in, if you hide her and work on her case, what happens when this all comes out? Even if you don’t end up in jail, you could severely damage our company’s reputation with the law enforcement agencies whose support is critical to our mission. Our boss may even fire you. Grayson can’t allow one rogue investigator to destroy the company he built. You need to let this go. Do the right thing and turn her in.”
“I never told you about Tanya, did I, Callum?”
Silence, then, a moment later, “Your wife? That Tanya?”
“That Tanya. I never told you how she died.”
“Ah, man. You don’t have to do this.”
Trent sighed and scrubbed the stubble on his jaw. “I need you to understand. I won’t go into the details except to say that she was murdered by a man who’d been bothering her at work. He was stalking her. She told me this guy was being a jerk and she got bad vibes around him. I told her to report him to her supervisor because I was too busy doing my job to really listen. If I had, I’d have realized he was more than a jerk. He was a sociopath. And if I’d just done a simple background check on him, I’d have found all the red flags I found after he killed her.”
“Trent, I had no idea. I’m so sorry. I—”
“No sorrier than me. But that doesn’t bring my wife back. I didn’t do what I should have done to help her when I could. And now here’s another woman being stalked, with proven instances of someone actually trying to kill her. I couldn’t live with myself if I turned her over to someone else to protect her and she ended up dead. I have a hard enough time facing myself in the mirror every morning as it is. I can’t tell her no, Callum. Whether you help me or not, I’m in this, with the support of Unfinished Business, or without.”
“You’ll have our support. I’m behind you a hundred percent. All of us are, or will be, once I explain everything. I’ll talk to Grayson in the morning, see what he can do. Gatlinburg PD owes him, big time for all the help we’ve given them on their cases. They may jump at the chance to look the other way and call it even. And that McKenzie guy is a good friend of yours. I’ll talk to him too, see what he can do to de-escalate the situation. Regardless, don’t worry about it. We’ll figure this out. We’ll notify Hamilton County, let them know we’re re-opening the investigation immediately. I don’t guess there’s any reason to send Willow there as our victim’s advocate like we usually do before working a cold case. You said there’s no family to notify.”
“Right. A victim’s advocate won’t be necessary this time. And when you speak to the Hamilton County liaison, be careful. Make sure they know this needs to be kept on the down-low. The fewer people who know I’m digging in, the better, at least until I get a feel for who might be involved.”
“Hold it. Are you saying you think Chattanooga PD is involved in some kind of cover-up regarding Skylar Montgomery?”
“Not at all. I worked with them for years and never had any reason to suspect corruption. But this was a huge media circus years ago. I don’t want to risk loose lips letting something slip and stirring up a firestorm that could interfere with my ability to get the information I need. Whoever’s behind this could go into hiding and I might never catch them.”
“What’s the plan, then? You’re bringing her to the office in the morning to review the case with the team?”
“I haven’t confirmed or denied to you that I know where she is.”
“Screw the double-talk. I’m already in this and only getting deeper. Are you bringing her in?”
“There’s no point. I already checked our files. We don’t have one for this case. The liaison will need to quietly get the case file from the police and send it to you. But I don’t want to wait for that. Once you have it, notify me and I’ll pull up the information online. You and the team can review it on your end without me and we’ll discuss it later. Skylar and I are leaving this morning.”
“Leaving? Where are you going?”
“Back to where it all began. Chattanooga.”