Page 47 of Tangled
“Ava?” Sabina asked.
Ava took a deep breath. “Okay, it’s ugly,” she said, pinning Scarlett with a look. “Honestly, not something I ever thought I’d see. Or ever wanted to.”
Scarlett nodded for Ava to continue as Brad took her hand.
“One of the files, one of the bigger ones, is a video of Gracie. Based on the beginning of the recording, I think she’d been taking pictures of friends, then thought she’d turned it off, but actually turned it to video mode.”
“Okay,” Scarlett said.
“She was approached by a cop for soliciting,” Ava said. “She wasn’t, not then. She was literally doing nothing more than walking across a parking lot.”
Scarlett’s stomach started to twist. She had a feeling she knew where this was going.
“He…” Ava swallowed, and Mitch rubbed her arm, then gave it a little squeeze. “He assaulted her,” she said, baldly. “I won’t go into the details, but he used his authority to subdue andrestrain her, then he raped her.” No one said a word as everyone processed the new information. Mitch kept his arms wrapped tight around Ava, who, as the only one who’d watched the video, visibly struggled to deal with what she’d seen.
After a bit, she cleared her throat and continued. “Everything was caught on video,” she said. “I think Gracie dropped her phone when he handcuffed her, and he didn’t bother to pick it up.”
“His name?” Ethan asked, his voice hard. He and Kara were sitting beside her and Brad on the other end of the couch.
“His name, his face, his…other things, are all there in Technicolor,” Ava said. Then quietly, she added, “As are Gracie’s cries for help.”
Brad wrapped an arm around her, and Scarlett tucked herself against his side as he dropped a kiss on her temple. “I’m so sorry,” he said. She was still processing everything Ava said—and trying not to drown in the thought of her friend’s pain or the sound of Gracie’s voice as she begged for help—and she nodded against his shoulder.
“Is there any chancehe’sthe father?” Sabina asked.
Ava shook her head. “The date of the video was a month before she died. But”—Ava glanced at Scarlett—“I think she was blackmailing him.”
Sabina straightened. “What makes you say that?”
“She posted the video to a file-sharing site. Then she texted the link to a number with a message telling the recipient to have a look and that she’d be in touch. We’re tracing the number, but it’s possible it’s a burner,” Ava said.
“She said she’d found a way to pay for one of the better, longer rehabs,” Scarlett said, her voice sounding distant even to her. “I wonder if that was how.”
“Is it possible the cop could have hired Petrov?” Brad asked.
“He’s recently married to a woman who comes from a wealthy family. He’d have access to funds to hire someone like Petrov,” Ava said.
“So Gracie decides to blackmail him to pay for her rehab and he decides that killing her is an easier route,” Scarlett said.
“He does have a motive for murder,” Ava said. “But there’s more.”
Scarlett slumped into Brad, who rubbed a reassuring hand down her arm. “Okay,” Scarlett said. “Lay it on me. On us.”
“I also found pictures of a notebook. A ledger, to be precise,” Ava said.
“A ledger?” Kara asked.
Ava nodded. “For Sussurri.”
“She had the proverbial little black book, didn’t she?” Scarlett asked.
Ava inclined her head. “Pictures of it, anyway. The names of the people are coded, so it’s not a straightforward list. But the services they received—and what they were charged—is clear.”
“Which is what Kimmie Garza must be looking for,” Scarlett said. She knew the warrant for Kimmie’s arrest had been issued, but Ryan’s team had been having a hard time finding her.
Ava inclined her head. “That would be my guess.”
Scarlett considered this, then sighed. “Any chance Gracie was also blackmailing Sussurri?”
