"What do you think?"
"Honestly?" She shrugged. "I don"t know. I"d like to think that despite the current investigation overlapping with the old cold cases, we can do our jobs effectively without allowing our emotional connection to one of the missing toddlers to cloud our judgment."
"You"ll be walking a tightrope," J.D. said. "Especially Garth, since that missing toddler was his nephew." He glanced through the open door. "Where is Garth?"
"Talking to Dad, trying to persuade him not to replace us."
"Hmm...Your family and the Sherrod family have been friends for a long time, huh?"
"As long as I can remember," Tam said. "My dad and Wayne went through the academy together. And Audrey"s mom and mine were college friends, which considering their vastly different backgrounds seems implausible. My mother never knew her father, and her mother worked two jobs to support them, so for the most part my mom was raised by her grandmother. My mother grew up very poor whereas Norma Colton grew up with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth."
"Audrey"s mother came from money?" He should have known. Despite being the daughter of a retired police sergeant, she had an air of superiority that often came with being filthy rich.
"Oh, yes. Norma came from old Chattanooga royalty." Frowning, Tam shook her head and snorted. "Audrey"s grandparents disowned Norma when she married Wayne Sherrod. Audrey never met her mother"s parents, and even after Norma and Wayne divorced, she didn"t try to mend any fences with them. Then when she died, her parents didn"t come forward and acknowledge Audrey as their grandchild. Of course, that was years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Colton are both dead now."
"Interesting."
Tam eyed him suspiciously. "Why all the interest in Audrey?"
"I don"t think I initially asked you about Audrey," he told her. "I believe I asked if your family and the Sherrod family had been close for a long time."
"So you did. My mistake."
Tam"s close scrutiny bothered J.D. It was as if she were trying to read his mind. "Shall we exchange information about the case we"re working on?" he asked, hurriedly changing the subject and getting back to business.
Tam rose from her desk. "It"s about time for my morning break. I"m getting a c.o.ke and some crackers out of the machine. Want anything?"
"Nothing, thanks."
She left him sitting there for only a few minutes. When she returned, she was munching on cheese and wheat crackers. She placed the open cola can on a colorful ceramic coaster before sitting down in the brown swivel chair behind her desk.
After chewing and swallowing and taking a sip of the c.o.ke, she said, "Talk. I can listen and eat at the same time."
J.D. went over some basic info about the Baby Blue kidnapping cases and then tossed out a couple of the hypotheses he had discussed with George Bonner.
"Let me get this straight," Tam said. "You think it"s possible that Jeremy Arden or one of the other kidnapped toddlers who somehow survived could be our killer?"
"It"s a thought. We know that Jeremy Arden has been back in Chattanooga for a while now and that he visited Regina Bennett several times before she died."
"Why do you suspect Jeremy and not the unknown nephew?"
"Maybe Jeremy Arden and the nephew are one and the same."
"Oh..." Tam considered the possibility. "That would be a reasonable a.s.sumption if only one of them, either Arden or the nephew, had visited Regina Bennett, not both of them."
"Maybe only one of them did, but using two different names and possibly a disguise of some type when he visited as Corey Bennett."
"Why would he do that?" Tam asked.
"Who knows, maybe to throw suspicion off himself if anyone started snooping around trying to find out who had visited Regina."
"Okay, that"s possible, but the idea that maybe one of the other Baby Blue toddlers survived isn"t feasible. We know now that the first two missing boys are dead and the sixth boy was rescued. That leaves three possible survivors." Tam scrutinized him with a surely-you-don"t-believe-this-is-true expression on her face. "There is no reason why Regina Bennett would have kept one of those little boys alive, not if she thought each one of them was her son Cody."
"Probably not," J.D. agreed. "Like I told you, I"m just tossing out possibilities. Anything and everything that might help us to discover who our Rocking Chair Killer is."
"Until a better choice becomes available, my money would be on Corey Bennett, whoever he is."
"Yeah, whoever he is."
"You don"t think he exists, do you?"
"I think he exists, but I don"t think he goes by the name of Corey Bennett."
"Was he ever Corey Bennett?" Tam asked.
"I"m not sure, but if he was, that means he was in some way related to Regina. Brother, cousin, uncle, nephew, or son."
"Son? But-but I thought Cody was her only child."
"The only child we know about," J.D. said.
"How could she have hidden a second child? When the FBI arrested her and rescued Jeremy Arden, there was no other child with her or with her aunt and uncle."
"And there"s no record of Regina having any siblings or an uncle or a cousin or a son by the name of Corey. But it isn"t out of the realm of possibility that she had another child, that he lived with her during the years when she killed Cody and the other toddlers."
"If that were true, then where was he when the FBI arrived at the farm that day?" Tam asked. "What did she do with him? And where has he been all these years?"
"I don"t have the answers," J.D. admitted. "All I have are a few unsubstantiated scenarios and a lot of questions. Maybe Corey Bennett is Regina"s other son. Maybe he"s Jeremy Arden. Maybe he"s really her nephew. Maybe Jeremy Arden is our Rocking Chair Killer, or it"s possible, if there really is a Corey Bennett, he"s our guy."
Tam dropped the two remaining crackers in the garbage, took a sip from the can of cola, and then said, "I"ll agree that either is possible. But the idea that one of the other toddlers survived and is now killing Regina Bennett over and over again is a little far-fetched."
J.D."s brow wrinkled. He knew Tam was right. "Okay, here"s another scenario, a more probable one, but one you"re not going to like and are going to refuse to consider."
"Try me."
"Okay. What if the killer is a member of one of the Baby Blue toddlers" families?"
She stared at him, her expression telling him plainly that she wasn"t certain she"d heard him correctly, and if she had, she didn"t quite grasp his insinuation.
"Each little boy had a mother and a father. Some of them had siblings. They had aunts and uncles and cousins," J.D. said. "Let"s say that this guy named Corey Bennett had nothing to do with the murders; then our description of him is meaningless as far as a description of our killer goes."
"You think a relative of one of the Baby Blue victims is our killer?"
"It"s worth looking into." J.D. leaned forward and gazed straight into Tam"s big brown eyes. "Actually, I"ve gone over the list of close relatives for each boy, and I"ve narrowed the list down to the most likely."
"How did you narrow the list down? What criteria did you use?"
"Personal histories. I looked closely at members of each immediate family. A few people stood out, people with personal issues that tagged them as mentally or emotionally unstable."
J.D. noted the slight tremble in Tam"s hand as she lifted the c.o.ke to her mouth, and he didn"t miss the way her jaw tensed after she swallowed.
When she didn"t speak, J.D. said, "Jeremy Arden heads the list, of course. Devin Kelly"s father, Steve Kelly, hasn"t been able to hold down a steady job since his son disappeared. He has a drinking problem. He"s been arrested numerous times for disorderly conduct. He"s been married and divorced-"
"None of those personal problems make Mr. Kelly a serial killer," Tam said in the man"s defense.
"I agree. No more than the fact that Sergeant Garth Hudson has a reputation as a hard-drinking womanizer who has been married and divorced four times and-"
"Stop right there. That sounds too much like an accusation against my partner."
"I"m not accusing anyone of anything," J.D. told her. "I"m just naming relatives who, for one reason or another, have lived problematic lives. Jeremy Arden, Steve Kelly, Garth Hudson, and his nephew, Hart Roberts." When J.D. noticed Tam"s eyes widen and her mouth form a shocked oval, he quickly added, "Arden heads my list, but Hart Roberts runs a close second."
"You don"t know what you"re talking about." Tam jumped to her feet, her angry gaze d.a.m.ning J.D. for his opinion. "Hart is one of the gentlest souls you"ll ever meet. The very idea that he might be a killer is the most idiotic thing I"ve ever heard. And whatever you do, don"t you dare mention this to Garth."
"I realize Hart Roberts is Garth"s nephew and Audrey Sherrod"s stepbrother, but neither fact rules him out as a possible suspect."
"I refuse to listen to another word."
"I"m sorry." J.D. rose to his feet. "I thought it was our job to go over every possibility. If you can"t simply look at the facts and accept that-"
"d.a.m.n it, you might as well accuse Wayne or even Audrey. You"re talking about people I know, people who are no more capable of cold-blooded murder than I am."
"Look, I really am sorry. I should have taken your personal relationship with the family into consideration before shooting off my mouth. Besides, that scenario is just one of several. Take your pick from the others and let"s pursue these one at a time. How does that sound?"
Tam drew in and then released a deep breath. "Okay." She nodded. "When Garth comes in, we"ll talk to him, but you will not mention Hart"s name. Understand? We"ll start with Jeremy Arden and Corey Bennett and see where that investigation leads us." She glared at J.D. "Agreed?"
"Agreed."
Breaking a nail was no big deal. But when Audrey pried open an uncooperative file drawer and jammed her index finger in the process, it was the final straw. From the time she awoke that morning-after another of those nightmarish dreams about the day Blake disappeared-one thing after another had gone wrong. She had burned her toast, accidentally dropped her toothbrush into the toilet, spent fifteen wasted minutes looking for her misplaced keychain, and had, in her rush to leave the house, b.u.mped her hip against the antique mahogany commode in the entrance hall.
The French-manicured acrylic nail on her right index finger broke off to the quick. Cursing as pain radiated from her severed nail up her finger and into her hand, Audrey grabbed a Kleenex from the box on her desk and managed to stop the bleeding quickly. She rushed into the bathroom, ran cool water over her entire hand, and with her left hand reached in the cabinet above the sink and removed a bottle of peroxide and a box of Band-Aids. Once she had cleaned the wound and stuck a Band-Aid over the end of her finger, she returned to her office.
Since she had strong-armed Hart into meeting her for lunch today, she would have to wait until after work to get her nail repaired.
d.a.m.n! She couldn"t go after work because she was picking up Zoe for dinner at her house so that they could begin work on her science project. She had an hour and a half between appointments today. If her manicurist could see her immediately, she could still have lunch with Hart, but only if they changed restaurants and ate somewhere near the spa.
She phoned Jessica Smith and explained the situation. "Of course, Dr. Sherrod," Jessica said. "No problem. It won"t take long to put on a new nail."
She dialed Hart"s cell number and got his voice mail. "Hart, it"s Audrey. Change of plans. Meet me at the Beauty and Rest Day Spa. I have a fingernail emergency." She laughed. "We can grab a bite at the Sandwich Shoppe next door to the spa."
On the short drive from her office to the spa, Audrey noticed a silver Lotus similar to Porter"s in the heavy traffic behind her. But it probably wasn"t Porter. He usually ate lunch downtown. Dismissing him from her thoughts, she fixated on her less-than-stellar morning. Adding to the other minor catastrophes, Donna had taken the day off for a root ca.n.a.l, one patient had canceled at the last minute, and Mrs. Fredericks had gone into one of her hysterical crying jags and thrown up on the floor, barely missing Audrey"s black-and-white Manolo Blahnik slingback pumps.
G.o.d in heaven, Audrey! Emergency nail appointments to fix a broken acrylic nail. Concern about a pair of shoes, albeit an expensive pair that just happened to be one of her favorites. She certainly sounded like a pampered piece of fluff, didn"t she? Emergency nail appointments to fix a broken acrylic nail. Concern about a pair of shoes, albeit an expensive pair that just happened to be one of her favorites. She certainly sounded like a pampered piece of fluff, didn"t she?
Okay, so sue me, I"m a woman who likes to look good and appreciates fine things.
She needed to concentrate on what she was going to say to Hart. Since she"d learned the ident.i.ty of the toddler skeletons found with the two murder victims, Audrey had seen her uncle Garth and they had discussed the situation. She had also spoken to her father on the phone, a succinct conversation that had been difficult for both of them. But Hart had not returned her phone calls, and Garth had told her that he was spending most of his time in his room.
"I"ve tried to talk to him, but he"s dealing with this by pulling back and keeping to himself," Garth had said.
And then, like a minor miracle, Hart had phoned her yesterday. "I"m sorry I"ve been avoiding you. I just wasn"t ready to talk to you or anybody else, not even Uncle Garth. But I know you won"t believe I"m okay unless you see me in person, so, how about lunch tomorrow?"
Audrey pulled into the strip mall parking lot, three s.p.a.ces down from the spa and directly in front of the sandwich shop. When she entered Beauty and Rest Day Spa, the receptionist welcomed her warmly.
Within minutes, she was seated in front of Jessica, who carefully removed the Band-Aid and frowned when she saw the ripped nail. "You know putting on a new nail will make it look good, but the pain won"t go away completely until the skin heals."
"I know, but I"m vain enough to want the nail to look great and I"ll just suffer the pain." Audrey smiled. "I really appreciate your working me in so quickly. Are you missing your lunch break because of this?"
"I"ll grab a bite later," Jessica a.s.sured her. "Besides, you"re going to give me a big tip, one that will cover the price of my lunch."
They looked at each other and smiled.
Jessica was a pretty young woman with brown eyes and a thick mane of long, dark hair that she kept confined to a ponytail while she worked. Audrey had never seen her wearing anything except jeans and a Beauty and Rest Day Spa T-shirt, the jeans revealing slender legs and hips and the T-shirt accentuating her high, full b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
Working quickly, Jessica put on the new nail and had just begun the paint job when Audrey glanced at the open doorway as a man entered the room.
"Hart?"
"Hi, sis."
"What are you doing here?"
"I thought I"d take a look at where you women get beautified," he said as his gaze settled on Jessica. "Hi there. I"m Hart Roberts, Audrey"s brother."
He flashed his million-dollar smile and Jessica melted right before their eyes. "Oh. Hi, Hart." Jessica"s cheeks flushed.
Merciful Lord! Jessica was smitten. Audrey had seen it happen too many times. Her stepbrother could be lethally charming, and few women could resist his blond good looks.
Please, don"t hit on her, Audrey wanted to shout. Audrey wanted to shout. Leave her alone. She"s young and sweet and innocent and you"re no good for her. Leave her alone. She"s young and sweet and innocent and you"re no good for her.
As if sensing Audrey"s disapproval, Hart glanced away from Jessica and said, "Want me to go on over to the Sandwich Shoppe and order for us?"
"That would be great, thanks."
"What do you want?"
"Half a club sandwich and a cup of whatever their soup of the day is. And iced tea." When he hesitated, giving Jessica a complete once-over, Audrey cleared her throat. "I"ll be there in five minutes, tops."
Hart grinned, winked at Jessica, and sauntered casually toward the door.
When he was out of earshot, Jessica said, "Your brother is gorgeous. He"s not married, is he?"
For half a second, Audrey considered lying. "No, he"s not married, but..."
"But?"