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“Wouldn’t it have to be? This type of concerted effort would take serious planning as well as access to forensics, weapons. They would need the connections. People who would look the other way. Brains and money. Even more important, they’d need the will and ability to tamper with evidence and make it disappear. Mess with cars and drugs. Create or destroy forensics.”
“That’s daunting.” Impossible, really. She tried to think of even bigger words to describe the unlikelihood of that sort of massive covert undertaking.
“But a certain type of crowd does have access to all those things.” He tapped one final file: a thick one that he placed on top of the others. “Here are copies of all of Tami’s notes. It shows how she put the pieces together and why she discounted some deaths as actual accidents or suicides and not others.”
Okay, that didn’t sound completely irrational, which scared her a bit. “But why was Baines on this covert group’s hit list?”
He shrugged. “I think you’d know the answer to that better than I would.”
Secrets.The word flashed in her mind, and she concentrated on blinking it away. “Who would do this? The risk is huge, both in getting caught and in having someone else from the grouptalk. There are too many variables, and people have too little discipline for this to actually work.”
She talked herself into amaybethen right back out again. In her experience, secrets like this leaked out. People couldn’t sit on volatile information... except maybe her. But the idea that a group of people, all working in tandem, would be able to keep the ruse up, keep killing, and no one would talk or mess up? Nope. Humans didn’t work like that.
“I thought that, too.” Rob leaned forward. “Then I started digging. There are names that show up more than once in these cases. Prosecutors. Police. Judges. Lawyers.”
“Yeah, now I know you’re wrong. I went to law school. I know lawyers. You’re talking about a competitive crowd that craves the spotlight. They’d never pull off secretive and trusting, even in a small group. They’d be too busy fighting to take credit.” Which was one of the reasons she got the degree then never used it. A legal career wasn’t for her, not after she saw what some of her classmates were willing to do to succeed.
“Do you know who Judge Loretta Swain is?” he asked.
Everybody did. The woman was a legend. The first Black woman on the state’s highest court. A millionaire who chose public service. She’d taught at Gabby’s law school. Students fought to be in her class then tripped over one another trying to impress her.
“You’re saying she’s involved?” Gabby used her bestyou’ve lost ittone.
Rob didn’t seem to notice. “I’m not. The file does, or it suggests she could be, which is why I’ve been trying to talk with thejudge. To study the people closest to her. Someone inside must feel . . . I don’t know, sickened by all of this?” His voice grew more distant. “I can’t believe killing Tami was part of the original plan. She stumbled in and . . .”
His words crashed together as he spoke. He drifted from one idea to another as if he needed to race to get all his theories out. She wondered if his grief had manifested into something almost delusional.
“I think the group is expanding, which means even more people will die,” he said.
That sounded like a leap. “How do you know that?”
“Her. She’s been visiting Retta.” He grabbed his phone and flipped through the stored photos until he got to what looked like a woman standing outside of a gate. “Jessa Hall.”
Oh, come on.Speaking of fellow law school students who would trample over anyone who got in the way of her capturing the spotlight. Jessa rose to the top of the sludge pile. “Why does messed-up garbage always come back to Jessa?”
“If I’m right, you’ll soon see bad press about her.”
“Not surprising.” The way Jessa lived, the corners she cut, a bad end was all but guaranteed. Gabby had predicted that years ago.
“If that public attention immediately shifts from negative to positive, you know she’s in the group. It means she gave in and joined up,” he said, reinforcing his own theory.
Gabby regretted not ordering coffee. She needed caffeine to get through this. “I’m happy to jump on the anti-Jessa bandwagon. Honestly, I’ve been on that ride for a long time, but youdon’t have any evidence. All you have is theories. And loss, and for that part I’m really sorry.”
He shoved the stack of files closer to her. “These are for you. Review them.”
There had to be twenty files, maybe more. “I don’t have time for this.”
Rob’s manic arguing and attempting to convince slowed long enough for him to lean back in his chair. “If they came for you through your daughter, do you really have a choice?”
Chapter Thirty
Jessa
The office visit Jessa dreaded happened an hour after Faith left. Covington walked in and shut the door behind him. He held a file and didn’t give her eye contact. That could only mean more bad news.
She tried to launch an offensive strike. “I’m guessing you’ve heard. But you should know—”
“Detective Schone had some questions for me about your work activities.”
