a judge. But the journal entry pointed to the reason for Nina’s death. She knew too much. She had made a lot of connections. And she was going to do something to right what she saw as a wrong. She was killed to shut her up, and Hope Dupree was killed because she had told Nina. But who would know that?
“Who do you think Nina was talking about?” Moira asked.
Jack was watching the windswept stalks of corn passing by the window, swaying to music that only nature could hear. He was thinking that the computer entry could be challenged in court even if Nina had named her late-night suitor. Maybe the journal would continue with “Tonight I’ll see Eric,” or maybe it would say, “Tonight I’ll wash my hair and read a book.” It didn’t matter now.
He decided not to answer her question. He had promised Katie that he would protect Moira.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” he said, and pulled back on the river road.
Eric had lied about knowing Hope Dupree. He lied about how he entered Nina Parsons’ house, and how he knew the key was in a magnetic box hidden on top of her porch light. He gave up the key because he thought the old neighbor woman had seen him. Eric drove a dark sedan, like the one the neighbor saw visiting Nina’s for several months, and then the visits ended about a month ago. According to Moira, that was about when Eric had proposed to Katie. His fingerprints were found on the outside and inside of the front doorknob at Nina’s, but those were conveniently explained away by his being called by Trent, who was called by Cindy McCoy, and all this verified by the three of them. Jack had nothing on Eric except a gut feeling that he was guilty of something.
Maybe Eric was trying to protect his reputation by all the lies he had told. He was going to be Trent’s successor and it wouldn’t look good if he was tied to a murder victim. But it was Eric’s reputation that had fueled Jack’s suspicion in the first place. In any case, Eric was a womanizer, and he definitely wasn’t husband material for Katie. But was he a stone-cold killer, or maybe had hired these guys?
And then there was Eric’s alibi. During the time that Alaina Kusta was killed, Eric was schmoozing some big money people in a campaign meeting at the Convention Center. Jack had checked with a friend who also attended. And he definitely wasn’t one of the men on the video from New Harmony or the one from the Civic Center. But he could be pulling their strings.
And then there’s Trent’s running for governor and Eric moving into the post vacated by Trent. If some impropriety, or, given Eric’s past affairs with ladies in his last job, if there were some sexual connotation made with all the cases on Nina’s flash drive, it would sink any election chance either man had.
Alaina Kusta, Dick Longest, or Samantha Steele weren’t connected in any way to the list of cases on the flash drive. Hope Dupree’s pimp, Dick Longest, might have been collateral damage, but the dancer, Samantha Steele, or the civil attorney, Alaina Kusta . . . what could they have done to put them in the killers’ sights? Were they collateral damage as well?
Eric had lied to Moira the night she was targeted in the Civic Center. He was the one who gave her the assignment in the basement that kept her working late in the evening. And he had lied to her about telling Jack that she wouldn’t be able to meet for dinner. Instead, Eric had taken Katie out to eat. If Moira had been killed, who would know that he lied?
In any case, Eric couldn’t afford to have Moira snooping around anymore. If Eric was behind the killings, and he found out Moira had picked up where Nina left off, then he would have no choice but to put Moira on their “still-to-do list.”
“Come on, Jack,” Moira protested. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking I’m hungry and you’re buying.”
“Besides that, I mean. Do you think these two ex-military types are carrying out contract killings for someone in the prosecutor’s office? I can’t put it all together. Help me out.”
“I think you’re on to something,” Jack said. “Trent and Eric are the killers. They beat Liddell up and robbed the pharmacy in New Harmony, and they tried to kill us last night.