Page 119 of Moonlit Colorado

* * *

We chose a deserted picnic area near a hiking trail. Grace and I rode together, while Norm followed in his rental sedan.

“Norm Haber works for a major newspaper on the West Coast,” she said on the way. “He matches the photos on his bio online. It seems like he is who he says he is.”

“That’s a decent start.” But I still didn’t know what to make of the reporter. It sounded like he had been investigating Knightly Global as part of this. Norm Haber was taking a risk by talking to me. I would be doing the same. But thetruthwas what mattered. If Kip was really working with Vincent Brady, I wasn’t going to lift a finger to protect my brother. I had already made my choice.

Vincent had harmed Grace. He’d probably killed Nina. Anybody who was working with the man, related to me or not, was no friend of mine.

We sat at a picnic table. The trail was deserted, probably because the sky overhead was cloudy and gray, threatening snow. Grace zipped her puffer all the way to her neck, and she’d pulled a knit cap over her red and gold strands.

Norm set his phone on the picnic table in front of us. “Okay if I record this?”

Grace and I both nodded.

“So, Mr. Knightly,” Norm began. “I want to take a step back, come at this story from the beginning. I’m curious about your decision to work for your father.”

Grace shook her head. “No, you’re going to answermyquestions first.”

Norm looked over at me like he thought I was going to contradict her. As if he assumed I wouldn’t want her taking charge.

I just shrugged and bit back a smile.

I didn’t want Grace in danger, but I enjoyed seeing her like this. Assertive. Telling this guy exactly how it would be.

“You said you’ve been working on this story for over a month,” Grace said. “Did you contact Nina originally? Or did she contact you?”

“Nina got in touch with me,” Norm answered with a sigh. “Said she had sensitive information for me that could implicate some rich and powerful people.”

“A high-class escort ring,” Grace supplied.

Norm looked surprised. “You were aware?”

“Not until a day or two ago. Dane had a private investigator looking into Nina. That’s how we knew she was staying at the motel here in Hart County.”

The reporter nodded. “Nina got in touch about a month and a half ago. Told me she could name names and provide proof. She told me she’d gotten access to the data through a client.”

“Did she say who the client was?” Grace asked.

“No. She refused to give me too many details over the phone and wanted to remain anonymous in any future story. But she did say she had dirt on Knightly Global. That the company has ties to the escort ring.”

Fuck. I’d already suspected my family was connected to this. But it still wasn’t fun to get confirmation. “What did she want from you in exchange?” I said.

He shook his head. “Nothing. Just to expose her employers. If she’d wanted money, she could’ve used the info as blackmail or gone to a tabloid. I think she just wanted to eventually find a way out. But she was afraid of the escort ring’s enforcer.”

“Vincent Brady,” Grace whispered.

“Yes. Brady’s job was to keep a tight hold on the escorts. Given the sensitive information they had access to, the people at the top couldn’t risk leaks getting out. Everything the women did was monitored, except when they were supposed to be with a client. It was hard enough for Nina just to get the burner phone that she used to communicate with me. That’s why Nina and I planned our initial meeting carefully. The whole idea was to have her hand the proof to me right under Vincent’s nose.” He grimaced. “But I didn’t make it.”

Grace inhaled sharply. “The night of the hotel grand-opening party. Nina said her date stood her up. She meantyou.”

“But we assumed her client for that evening was Dirk Lancaster,” I pointed out.

Norm explained how it was supposed to go down. Nina had arrived in Silver Ridge to be Dirk Lancaster’s date for the night. Her red mask was supposed to identify her. But she had also planned to meet Norm.

“We weren’t even going to talk,” he said. “I was going to bump into her in the lobby, and she would hand off the data inconspicuously. Since it would be crowded, and she was already there to meet with a client, we figured the exchange would go unnoticed.”

“Why not send it to you online?” Grace asked. “Or in the mail or something.”

---