"Oh come on," she said. "You knew it already. Why would you needmeto tell you?"
"Maybe I knew itthen," I said. "But I don't know anythingnow. Even about those daily updates, if Jackreallywanted to know how I was doing, why wouldn't he just talk to me himself? Or askmeto give him updates?"
"I don't know," Anna said. "But I'm sure he's thinking about you."
That was Anna, the eternal optimist.But me? I wasn't so sure. Regardless, I was definitely thinking abouthim.
In fact, I thought about Jack non-stop, even as I toured the castles on my list. I was taking plenty of notes, too. But all of this was during the day.
Meanwhile, every night, I was doingotherresearch, which in the end, proved to be evenmoreinteresting.
Chapter 70
Becka
My jaw dropped as I stared at the image on my computer screen. It was a mug shot of a heavy-set man in his sixties.
I'd seen the guy before.
I was absolutely certain. Oh sure, inthispicture, he was wearing clothes, and his sex-partner was nowhere in sight. But it was definitely the same guy.
Here in Romania, it was nearly midnight. For the past two hours, I'd been holed up in our latest hotel suite with my head buried in my notebook computer.
Anna was in her private bedroom talking to Flynn. On the other side of her closed door, I heard laughter and giggles – the kind that suggested I'd be smart to stay away.
Good.
The truth was,Ididn't want to be interrupted either.
As far as the guy on my computer screen, I'd found his picture while scouring the local news sites within a two-hour radius of Worthington, New York – one of the last cities I'd visited with Jack.
In what couldn't be a coincidence, this also happened to be the city where I'd caught him with those naked pictures.
Now as I stared at the mug shot on my computer, I couldn't help but wonder what those lewd photos had to do with this latest development. They were definitely connected.
Theyhadto be, right?
Above the guy's photo, the headline announced,"Local Judge Arrested in Corruption Probe."
When I read the news article, I learned that the guy had been caught accepting bribes for favorable outcomes. Allegedly, his customers included a whole slew of shady characters ranging from high-level drug dealers to a local businessman involved in some sort of human trafficking case.
The judge had been arrested just yesterday, which explained why I hadn't come across the story earlier. Until now, he'd apparently kept a fairly low profile.
It was no wonder.
Now as I stared at his mug shot, I racked my brain, trying to figure out Jack's role in all of this. He definitely had one. Of this, I was certain.
I read the article a second time, and then a third. When it netted no new clues, I changed my focus to other stops along the book tour.
During our time together, Jack and I had visited over a hundred cities – double that if I accounted for the fact that we rarely stayed in the same city as the actual book-signing.
As I considered the vast quantity of locations, I frowned.And what about all those cities we'd driven through?
There were a lot.
Feeling almost light-headed now, I started from the beginning.
I found nothing of particular interest in Atlanta. Or more accurately, I foundsomuch news that it was hard to zoom in on a single thing.
