Page 80 of Finding Carly
He’d just finished working out with his team and was sitting in his car in the parking lot at the Naval base, getting ready to drive home to shower and change. When his phone rang, Jag was so startled, he jumped. He shook his head wryly. Some badass SEAL he was. He’d been so lost in his head, he’d totally blanked.
“Jag here,” he said after he clicked on the phone.
“It’s Baker. Your woman called me yesterday. Said she needed a favor.”
Jag was a bit stunned. He hadn’t thought Carly was serious about calling Baker, but obviously she was. “Let me guess…Bridget Smith?”
“Bingo. You want to tell me what this is all about?”
“No,” Jag said. He wasn’t about to get into what had happened. It was hard enough telling Carly and his therapist. He wasn’t at a place yet where he could confess to his teammates or Baker, no matter how close he was to them.
“All right. Just tell me this—does Carly have a good reason for wanting me to ruin this woman’s life?” Baker asked.
Before the other night, Jag might’ve said no. Might’ve avoided anything having to do with his past, just wanting to keep it buried. But he couldn’t pretend he didn’t love how protective Carly was of him. And after talking with the psychologist, and Carly, he merely said, “Yes.”
“Consider it done.”
Jag wondered if he should feel guilty over what was about to be unleashed on Bridget…but he couldn’t.
“I might need some more info. Bridget Smith is pretty damn vague. I’m good, but notthatgood.”
“What kind of info?” Jag asked.
“Age, where she grew up, that kind of thing.”
“She’d be around forty-two or so today. Grew up in my hometown in Oklahoma.”
“Went to the same high school as you?” Baker asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay. I might call in some help on this one, I know a guy in Colorado who’s really good at finding people. But I didn’t call just to talk about that.”
Jag braced as his friend continued.
“I dug up some more info on Jeremiah Barrowman.”
“Keyes’s friend who works at the country club,” Jag said.
“Yup. Seems he has a pattern,” Baker went on. “Fucks up, apologizes, gets back into a woman’s good graces, then does the same damn thing he did before.”
“Like hit them?”
“No. Like mind-fuck them,” Baker said. “He makes them think they’re slowly going crazy. I talked to two ex-girlfriends and they both said he definitely had two sides. One was nice and gentlemanly and extremely remorseful, and the other was almost psychopathic. His favorite thing was sneaking around outside their homes at night, making them think an intruder was trying to get inside. The women would freak out, call him, and he’d come over to save the day. Then he’d come back the next night and do the same thing.
“One of the women put up a camera without telling him and caught him red-handed. He apologized, saying he was just worried about her living alone and wanted to make sure she was taking every precaution. He was convincing enough that the woman took him back. Only for other weird shit to start happening. Things were moved around in the house, but nothing was taken. He denied it was him. Then she started getting threatening emails. She eventually discovered it was Jeremiah and broke up with him.”
“So you think his apology to Carly when he showed up at Duke’s was bullshit?” Jag asked.
“Probably. All of Keyes’s buddies knew he was obsessed with Carly. He openly talked about getting revenge on her for dumping him, even mentioned how he planned to teach her a lesson. But of course, no one admits to believing he was truly serious. But Jeremiah is now at the top of my list of people who would probably drop everything to help scare the shit out of her.”
“And the boat?” Jag asked.
“Still working on that. There are a lot of fuckin’ private docks and boats on this island,” Baker said. “And there are a lot of people who go to the Waialae Country Club who Jeremiah could’ve borrowed from that night. It’s slow going interviewing the members with boats, but I’m working on it.”
Jag owed Baker. Huge. It was obvious he was frustrated that he hadn’t already nailed down Keyes’s accomplice, but he was doing everything in his power to make sure whoever it was didn’t get away with finishing the plan. “Carly’s supposed to work later this morning. In your opinion, is she in danger?”
“She’s been in danger since she broke up with that asshole,” Baker said bluntly. “But if you’re asking if she’s inmoredanger than she’s been the last few months, the answer is, I don’t think so. But I still don’t have a good feeling about the situation.”
