Sally glowered at him. "I ain"t answering no questions for you. I don"t see why you"re here. You ain"t got nothing to do with this."
"Mr. Powell is staying," Jazzy said. "You know he"s a private investigator who is working for Reve."
"He"s working for me and for Jazzy," Reve told Sally. "She and I are sisters. The DNA results prove conclusively that we are twins."
Sally breathed heavily and nodded. "I never had no idea that there was another baby." She looked right at Reve. "There was no way I could"ve known."
"We believe you, Aunt Sally," Jazzy said. "Please, tell us what you do know. And start at the beginning, with my mother... that is, with your sister, Corrine."
"It"s just like I always told you-Corrine came home to have her baby. I knew she weren"t married and might not have even known who her baby"s daddy was. But she was my sister and I loved her. We was all the family each other had after our folks died."
"I"m not Corrine"s baby, am I?" Jazzy asked.
"I know that Ludie"s done told y"all Corrine"s little baby girl was born dead. Pitiful little thing. And Corrine was mighty sick afterward and half out of her mind. I didn"t have nothing to give her but some bootleg whiskey, so I kept her full of it so she"d rest. I-I was all broke up about the baby myself. I felt like it was my fault because I"d delivered the child and-" Sally swallowed down her unshed tears.
"You wasn"t to blame,"" Ludie said. "Them things happen. Weren"t n.o.body"s fault."
"I took me a walk in the woods to clear my head and to find me a place where I could cry without waking up Corrine." Sally ran her gaze over Jazzy. "That"s when I found you. Out there in the woods. When I heard you squalling, I couldn"t believe it. But there you was, this fat, pink, healthy baby girl with all that red fuzz on your head."
"You found me in the woods, up here in the mountains?" Jazzy asked.
"Yep. Somebody had stripped you down to your diaper and stuffed you in the hollow of an old tree stump. They"d sure enough put you there to die. That"s what they"d done."
"Oh, G.o.d!" Jazzy gasped. Reve reached over and clasped her sister"s hand.
"I took one look at you and knew you was a gift from G.o.d. He took Corrine"s baby, but he gave us you. Whoever your mama was, she didn"t want you. She left you out there in the woods to die. But I wanted you. I wanted you from the minute I laid eyes on you." Sally balled her hand into a fist and flopped her fist over her heart. "I knew in here that you were meant to replace Corrine"s dead baby.
"So I brought you home with me and I gave you a bath and dressed you in the clothes Corrine had bought for her baby. I wrapped you up in that fancy white blanket she"d bought in Knoxville and I laid you in her arms."
"How did you explain me to your sister?" Jazzy asked.
"I told her that you was her baby girl, that she"d just dreamed her baby died. And with you lying there in her arms, why wouldn"t she believe me? That night I slipped back out in the Woods and buried Corrine"s baby. I buried her deep and put a big stone on top of her grave so the animals couldn"t get to her."
"And when Doc Webster came up the mountain to check Corrine and the baby, I was the baby he saw, the baby he examined," Jazzy said. "That"s how I have a birth certificate proving Corrine Talbot was my mother."
"Do you hate me, gal? I swear I thought I was doing the right thing for you and for Corrine." Sally looked pleadingly at Jazzy. "I ain"t never loved nothing or n.o.body as much as I love you." Tears glistened in Sally"s bright blue eyes.
Jazzy released Reve"s hand, stood and walked over to the sofa. She knelt in front of Sally, reached out and hugged her aunt. "I love you, you crazy old woman, you." She lifted her head and the two women gazed at each other through teary eyes. "You could have told me years ago and I would have understood."
Reve turned to Griffin Powell and asked, "Will this information help you at all in the investigation?"
He nodded. "Yes, it"ll help. You two do realize that the person who separated the two infants did it for a specific reason. He-or she-not only wanted both babies to die, but he wanted to make sure that if both bodies were ever found, no one would figure out that the two abandoned infants were connected in any way. Twins could be more easily traced back to the birth mother."
"We were dumped and left for dead in two different counties," Reve said. "Jazzy in a tree stump in the woods up in the mountains here in Cherokee County and me in a Dumpster in Sevierville."
Jazzy rose to her feet and went to Reve. "That report Mr. Powell gave us says that an eyewitness claims he saw a man toss something into the Dumpster that might have been a baby. Do you think that man might have been our father?"
"Our father?" Reve had never considered that possibility. "I suppose it could have been. I"ve a.s.sumed it was my mother who threw me away, but it could just as easily have been my father-our father."
"I suggest that we don"t jump to any conclusions," Griffin Powell said. "That eyewitness is no longer living. And even if he was, he couldn"t ID the man. He said so at the time. Medium height, build, clothing. He never got a look at the guy"s face. Besides, that guy might not have been the one who threw you in the Dumpster."
"So we have nothing to go on, no real evidence of any kind," Jazzy said.
"Once we have a list of all the twins born in northeast Tennessee around the time you two were born, we"ll be able to start narrowing down the info," Griffin explained. "Until then, keep one thing in mind-whoever wanted you two dead thirty years ago might still want you dead. If he ever finds out you"re both alive now and looking for answers about your past, he could try to kill both of you."
"Holy s.h.i.t! That thought never crossed my mind." Jazzy snorted. "There"s some nut out there somewhere killing redheaded wh.o.r.es, and I"m probably at the top of his list. And now I find out that there"s another person out there who, if he finds out he didn"t kill Reve and me when we were babies, might try to do the job right this time."
"Why would anybody want to kill two innocent little babies?" Sally asked. "What sort of monster would harm a baby?"
"Someone with something to lose if he-or she-allowed the babies to live," Caleb said.
"Exactly." Griffin Powell stood and walked over to Reve. "Ms. Sorrell, if you decide that you want to pursue this investigation any further, I"ll need your permission to use any and all medical information about you, including the DNA test results."
"Yes, of course. Whatever you need, I"ll see to it that you get it." She glanced at Jazzy. "My sister and I definitely want to continue this investigation, don"t we?"
"d.a.m.n right about that. We want to know who tried to ^1 us and why."
"Even if it turns out to be either your mother or your father? Or possibly both of them?" Griffin asked.
"Yes," Reve and Jazzy replied simultaneously.
"Very well. I"ll head back to Knoxville and we"ll proceed with the investigation."
Reve walked him to the door. They shook hands.
"I"ll be in touch again as soon as I have any information," he told her.
When Reve turned around, she saw Caleb and Sally and Ludie hovering over Jazzy, each taking a turn hugging her and rea.s.suring her. Suddenly Reve felt unwanted and un-needed. Jazzy had people who loved her, people who would die to protect her. And who did Reve have? n.o.body. Not one single solitary soul. She had never felt so totally alone in her life.
"I forgot something I need to tell Mr. Powell," Reve lied. "If I go now, I can probably catch up with him." She grabbed her coat and purse, then opened the door.
"Do you want me to go with you?" Jazzy called to her.
"No. I"ll-I"ll phone you later."
Reve just barely made it outside, onto the open stairway, before tears welled up in her eyes. d.a.m.n it, don"t do this to yourself. What good will it do to cry? You "re Reve Sorrell. You "re rich and powerful and people envy you. What the h.e.l.l do you have to cry about anyway?
Clutching the handrail, Reve made her way down the stairs. She hung her shoulder bag around her neck as she struggled to put on her coat. Out of nowhere a big hand reached out to help her into her coat. She yelped in fright and jumped away from the man standing beside her. After blinking several times, her vision cleared just enough for her to see who he was. d.a.m.n, she should have known. At a moment like this when the last thing she needed was somebody to kick her while she was down, who else would cross her path?
"Sheriff Butler." She sucked back her tears.
"Are you all right?" he asked and sounded sincere.
"I"m fine, thank you. And how are you?"
He reached out and lifted the purse straps from around her neck, then handed her the leather bag. "You"ve been crying."
"How astute of you."
"Usually when a person cries, there"s a reason."
"Don"t you have anything better to do than interrogate me? Don"t you have a murder to solve?" She hooked the straps of her leather bag over her shoulder.
He grabbed her arm. Her eyes widened in alarm. "My truck is parked across the street. Why don"t you ride over to the Burger Box with me and I"ll buy you a late lunch. Greasy burgers and fries. And a chocolate milkshake."
"Are you trying to be nice to me?"
"Yeah, I guess I am." He seemed as surprised at the thought as she was.
"Under normal circ.u.mstances, I wouldn"t accept your invitation, but..." But she was feeling lonely and vulnerable and was thankful for a few crumbs of kindness, even from Jacob Butler. Why him, dear G.o.d, why him? she asked and had the oddest sensation that Fate was laughing at her.
Reve glanced at Jacob"s hand securely surrounding her arm. His fingers were thick and long and dark, his hand large and slightly rough. "If you"ll make that a burger and onion rings, I"ll accept your invitation."
"Onion rings, huh?" Jacob grinned.
The bottom dropped out of her stomach. Mercy, what a smile!
She nodded. "I love onion rings."
"Onion rings it is." He tugged on her arm. "Ordinarily my dates don"t eat onions of any kind since they"re looking forward to ending the date with a kiss, but since we won"t be doing any kissing, you can eat all the onion rings you want."
Date? Kiss? Was he crazy? This wasn"t a date. This was lunch. Nothing more.
"You"re right," she told him. "We certainly won"t be doing any kissing."
CHAPTER 19.
The Burger Box was a remnant from the fifties, with curb service and waitresses on roller skates. The menu listed a lineup of artery-clogging, deep-fried delights and the best shakes and banana splits on earth.
Jacob parked his truck in one of the designated slots, then rolled down his window and ordered via a voice box.
"A couple of double cheeseburgers, one order of fries, one order of onion rings, a cup of coffee-" He looked at Reve and asked, "Want a chocolate shake?"
She shook her head. "I"ll take coffee, too."
"Make that two coffees."
Jacob rolled up the window and turned to Reve. For the life of him, he couldn"t figure out how he"d wound up in this situation. He"d been minding his own business, walking up Loden Street after dropping off some things at the cleaners. On his way back to his truck, he"d seen Ms. Sorrell scurrying downstairs from Jazzy"s apartment. He"d paused to watch her, wondering why she was in such a hurry. And then he"d seen her face-she was crying.
He"d reacted instinctively and gone over to her to help her on with her coat. That had been his first mistake. His second had been actually giving a d.a.m.n. To say that he and Reve disliked each other was an understatement. What had he been thinking when he"d asked her to join him for a late lunch? That was just it. He hadn"t been thinking. He"d been feeling, and when a man let his feelings get in the way of common sense, it always meant trouble. He"d felt sorry for Reve. Had hated to see her hurting. Something inexplicable inside him jumped at the chance to be her white knight. And G.o.d knew, he was n.o.body"s knight in shining armor.
"So." Jacob looked directly at Reve.
"So," she repeated.
"We"re going to have lunch together."
"So we are." Her lips curved into a closed-mouth smile. "Bet you"re trying to figure out how this happened, aren"t you?"
"Yeah, I am," he admitted, then realized she was probably wondering the same thing. "You, too, huh?"
"I guess we were both just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Want to tell me why you were crying?"
"Not really."
"Everything okay between you and Jazzy?"
She eyed him quizzically, as if asking why he"d care.
"I ask because Jazzy"s an old friend," he explained. "She"s had a pretty rough year, and I"d hate to see her get hurt again." He sure didn"t want this woman thinking he gave a d.a.m.n about her. Even if he did.
"Jazzy"s a very lucky lady to have so many people care about her. Caleb. Her Aunt Sally and Ludie. Genny and Dallas. And you."
He heard the sadness in her voice and noted a hint of tears in her eyes. h.e.l.l, she was on the verge of crying again. That wasn"t what he"d been expecting. He"d thought that if anything, she"d rant and rave at him about how all the men in town were Jazzy"s "friends."
So, what did he say to Reve now? His usual biting sarcasm wasn"t appropriate. Right at the moment, she wasn"t in top fighting form, and it was no fun to spar with an already wounded partner.
"Word"s all over town that the DNA test results prove Jazzy and you are sisters," Jacob said. "You weren"t crying about that, were you?"
Suddenly laughing, she blinked several times and released a long, slow breath. "Believe it or not, no. Jazzy and I already felt certain we were sisters. The tests results simply confirmed it."
"You might as well come clean about why you were crying. If you don"t, I"ll ask Jazzy and-"
"No, please, don"t do that. She doesn"t know... Just don"t say anything to her, okay?"
Before he could respond, their waitress skated over to the truck, a bright red tray in her hand. When Jacob rolled down the window, she handed him a large paper sack, which he gave to Reve, and two Styrofoam cups with lids, which he placed in the truck"s cup holders. He removed his wallet from inside his suede jacket and paid the waitress, giving her a generous tip.
"Gee, thanks, Sheriff," the girl said, then skated off.
When he turned to Reve, she offered him a handful of napkins. "She must have thought we"re very messy eaters."
"Honey, wait until you bite into your cheeseburger. You"ll need plenty of napkins. These things are juicy and loaded with everything."
When she held out his pack of fries and then his cheeseburger, she smiled warmly. d.a.m.n, he wished she wouldn"t do that. She looked a little too good to him when she smiled.
After she removed her burger and onion rings from the sack, she seemed to be at a loss as to what to do with them. She held the wrapped cheeseburger in one hand and the paper carton of rings in the other. He reached over and popped open the glove compartment creating a makeshift table for her, and his arm brushed her knees in the process. The minute he accidently touched her, she tensed, and he expected her to light into him. But instead, when he glanced at her, her smile was still in place and her cheeks were slightly flushed.
Well, I"ll be d.a.m.ned, he thought. She had reacted to him like a woman and not a stuck-up b.i.t.c.h. Don"t go there, Butler. Do not think of Reve Sorrell the way you think of other women. She"s off limits. She is persona non grata. Big time persona non grata.
"Thank you," she said.