Hopefully, Jenna had done exactly what he’d instructed, and the cavalry would be arriving shortly.
He scooted across the floor. “Are you okay?” he whispered.
Tina opened her eyes. “Who are you?”
“I’m Jagar Bowie, the chief of police for the city of Langley.”
“You’re the man who stopped by my house,” she said.
He did his best to help her to a sitting position. She was bound the same as he was, but since Kara neglected to tie them to anything, he should be able to get them both out. He just had to do that before Kara came back.
And before she got ahold of Callie.
“I am, and my girlfriend, Callie Dixon, was going to try to set up a meeting with you today to discuss your stepdaughter.” Jag pushed his back up against Tina’s and started fiddling with the tape that bound her wrists. He had to be patient and methodical.
The latter he could handle.
The former still took a lot of practice.
“I know. I got her message. I was about to call her back when Kara showed up.”
Jag paused. “You know her by that name. How is that possible?”
Tina let out a long breath. “When she moved back here with Renee, I ran into her.”
“And you didn’t tell your husband?”
“No.” Tina slumped. “This is all my fault,” she said with a tremor in her voice. She sniffled.
“Why do you say that?” He managed to fold back a piece of tape from her binding. His pulse increased. He should be able to have her hands freed in a few minutes. Hopefully that would give them enough time. Of course, he had no idea where they were. Or how long he’d been knocked unconscious.
“My husband is going to kill me,” Tina mumbled.
Jag twisted his body, tugging at the tape, trying to unravel it. “I’m sure all he’s going to care about is that you’re safe. And I just want to help both of us get out of here. But I suspect Kara is going to go after my girlfriend, and I need to stop her. I think you might have some information that can help me.”
“I first met Kara when I was an RA in her dorm. She was a freshman, and I was getting my master’s degree. We had a short affair right before I met her father. When I broke it off and told her about her dad, she didn’t seem to care. I married her dad and had the twins and Kara went nuts. I couldn’t tell her dad about the affair nor could I tell him that I thought she might have killed her roommate, but she was cleared. I always wondered, but I figured the police knew what they were doing.”
“We do, but sometimes we get it wrong,” Jag said. “And Kara had some help from her mother.”
“That poor woman,” Tina said between sobs. Her shoulders shook up and down, making it harder for Jag to deal with releasing her hands, but he wasn’t going to say anything.
The woman needed to cry.
“What happened when you saw her and Renee?” Jag asked.
“At first, she tried to pretend she didn’t know who I was. I let it go. I figured it was for the best. But then she reached out to me. I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to see if she was willing to talk to her father. He missed her so much and felt so guilty.”
Finally, he’d pulled off the last piece of tape from her wrists. He held out his hands in front of her, and she immediately went to work.
“I take it she wasn’t willing to reconcile,” he said.
“Not with her father, no. But I made a huge mistake, and I had an affair with her for three months. I called it off about two weeks before her wife was murdered.”
“Jesus,” Jag muttered as he shook out his hands and went about releasing his legs as well as Tina’s. “Did you ever think she might have killed her wife?”
“Honestly, the thought crossed my mind, but I was selfish. I wanted her out of my life and was willing to do whatever it took, but she let me go. Just told me to go back to her father and forget all about her. She told me she was fine. When Renee was murdered, I thought about reaching out, but I never did, and she never contacted me, so I went on with my life.”
“Did you ever follow the Trinket Killer murders?” Jag asked.
“Not really. But a couple of the murders, my husband made the comment that the victims looked like me. He worried about me wandering around the city by myself, so I didn’t.”
Jag managed to push to his shaky feet. His head throbbed. His stomach churned. He outstretched his arm, helping Tina.
“She’s the killer, isn’t she?”
“I believe so,” Jag admitted.
“What have I done?” Tina cupped her face and shook her head. “I was so scared she’d hurt me or my boys or ruin my marriage. She can be so intoxicating, and I let that control me even though I knew deep down what I was doing was wrong.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over this. Kara worked with my girlfriend for years. I was one of the officers who ruled her out as a suspect. She had everyone snowed. None of this is your fault.”
“I wish I could believe that, but I think deep down I’ve always known Kara wasn’t quite right in the head, but she can be so charismatic.”
Jag would have to agree. Kara was intelligent and carried herself with a sense of humble confidence. She never got in your face, but she always spoke her mind, and she always had facts to back it up. She had a way of making everyone around her feel comfortable.
But she also had an edge. One he’d seen a few times but ignored because she was, well, Kara.
“I understand,” he said. “But for now, we need to focus on how to get out of here.
