Page 147 of Running to You

“How awful.” How many more people were going to get hurt before Jed was stopped?

“Somebody”—now Grant glared at the spot where Michael’d been sitting—“smoothed things over with the local police, but in the future, if you ever find a dead body, call the police right away.”

“We were trying to stay alive.” That from Sam, who didn’t sound amused at his brother’s lecture.

“Glad you did. Just saying, next time, go to the police.”

“So we can be questioned for hours—again?” Sam sounded disgusted. “And then be released to deal with it ourselves?”

“They’re doing their best, man.”

“Yeah? Are the thugs still in custody?” By the challenge in his tone, Sam knew better.

Grant didn’t look away. “They were released on bail.”

“Too bad, considering now we know they killed that woman.”

“We don’t know that.” Grant turned his focus to Eliza and softened his tone. “Coroner believes she was killed sometime Monday afternoon, when your attackers were in North Conway and then jail.”

“Meaning someone else did it?” Her voice was too high. Even she could hear the terror in it. How many people were after them?

“Looks like it.”

Sam squeezed her hand but offered no words of comfort.

The room was quiet for a few minutes as Sam and Grant returned to their research, and then Grant spoke again.

“I’ve been looking into Gil Lyle. Do you remember anything else about the assault charge? The one against Nicole Moore?”

Eliza hadn’t thought about it, but now that she did, the details filled in. “Nicole was sick and had to see a doctor. Gil was telling her to get in the car, but she was distraught, begging Jed to go with her. He just patted her shoulder and told her Gil could handle it. Gil has all the compassion of a loaded shotgun, so I could see why she’d have preferred pretty much anyone else to drive her. I think she’d had a miscarriage.”

“Gil’s kid?” Grant asked.

“Keller’s, probably.” Sam’s words sounded angry. He looked at her for confirmation. “Right?”

“That was before I knew Nicole and before I started figuring out what was really going on, so…” She shrugged. “Gil drove her to the city. She was delivered back to The Ranch the next day in a police car. She scurried off to the dorm, but the officers came inside and asked Jed about Gil’s employment. Jed downplayed it, saying Gil did some odd jobs sometimes. I was the one who made out his paychecks, so I knew he was employed full time. He and Elliot lived in a trailer on the property.”

Sam asked, “They weren’t guards at that point?”

“I never thought of them as guards, but in retrospect, maybe they were. The cops suggested that Gil didn’t have the temperament to be around young, vulnerable women. I agreed wholeheartedly, even then. The guy was a creep.”

“Did you tell the police that?” Grant asked.

“They didn’t ask me.”

“You could have offered the information,” Grant said. “Keller lied to the police, and you thought it was—what? No big deal?”

“I figured he had his reasons.”

Grant grunted. She could feel another suggestion coming on about how she should trust the police, but he seemed to think better of it, returning his focus to his laptop. “Police report says Gilbert Lyle and Nicole Moore got into an altercation at the hospital, and he was arrested.”

“And the charges dropped, right?” At Grant’s nod, Sam added, “I’m betting Keller made her drop them.”

Eliza asked, “Why are you looking into that?”

“It’s good to know your enemies. The more we know about the men we’ll be facing, the better shot we’ll have at defeating them. What about the other guy? Elliot Ramsey? What do you know about him?”

“As creepy as Gil was, Elliot was worse. Gil always had hatred in his eyes, which is scary, but at least you know what you’re in for. Elliot was more…” She wasn’t sure how to explain it. “While Gil looked like he wanted to kill, Elliot…” She crossed her arms and tucked her hands in, suddenly feeling a chill. “When I made the mistake of meeting his eyes, I saw hunger in them.”