“I have to say that I’m intrigue. How were you spoiled?”
“Easy. I never had to wear hand-me-downs. All my toys were new. And my sisters doted on me, practically never leaving me alone. They’d cook for me, and cheer from the stands when I played sports. Later I realized that to them I was some sort of exotic pet who liked to get muddy in the backyard, but it was all fine. I adore them and I know they feel the same about me. They’re all married now and they’ve made it their life’s work to find me a woman.”
As good-looking as Jackson was, Charlie had a feeling that he didn’t need much help in that department. With his dark hair, blue eyes, and wide shoulders he looked a little like Clark Kent. As it was, the ladies in the restaurant were checking him out. He appeared to be oblivious. He’d probably grown used to it over the years and automatically tuned it out.
“I take it they haven’t been successful yet.”
“They haven’t but they’re not giving up. I think it’s sweet. They’re happily in love and they want the same for me.”
“You’re looking for love?”
He shrugged. “Not actively. But I would like to be married and have kids one day. My parents are happily married and they’ve set a good example for all of us. In the meantime, I’ll be the doting uncle. Funny how things change, though. It took five tries for my mom and dad to have a boy. So far, all of my sisters have had boys. Not one girl.”
“The universe likes to play tricks.” Charlie pushed away her water glass and leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table between them. “May I ask you a question? And please answer it honestly.”
Jackson’s expression immediately turned serious. “Go ahead. I’ll try to answer as honestly as I can.”
“You’ve reviewed the files and the evidence. You know where we are in this investigation. What are the chances that we’ll be able to solve it? The for-real chance. Not the optimistic one.”
For a moment, Charlie didn’t think he was going to answer, but to her surprise he nodded.
“That’s an excellent question. Technically, the chance isn’t high. Maybe ten or twenty percent. The number can go up though if you find a viable suspect. They have a DNA sample on file. If you can find someone to match it against. Of course, you either have to have probable cause to test them or get them to agree to it. Guilty people in general don’t like to take DNA tests so you’d need some sort of evidence to back up your claims. Enough that a judge would sign a warrant. It isn’t out of the realm of possibilities.”
“But it’s a long shot?”
“Yes, it’s a long shot.” He pointed to where Eli was walking back into the restaurant after his call. “But he’s not going to give up, Charlie. I can tell. He’s going to do whatever it takes to find out who killed your friend.”
She didn’t get a chance to reply as Eli sat down at the table.
“That was Jared. He dug up some very interesting background on the parents, and another detail about Kendra. Seems like Bernard and Evelyn had money problems back then. Actually, they still do. Basically, they spend more than they earn. They spend every cent of their money and then some. A cash injection from their daughter would have helped them.”
“I never saw them worried about money,” Charlie said. “They always seemed to have plenty.”
“Rich people broke and poor people broke are two different things,” Jackson replied cynically.
If there was one thing Charlie had learned during her modeling days is that rich people really were different. Not in a bad way. She’d met some wonderful, kind, and giving people. And some rotten ones, too. But they were different. They looked at life in vastly different ways.
“You said there was something about Kendra?” Charlie prompted.
“There was. It seemed that she had put a therapist on retainer a few years before her death. Did you know about that?”
“No,” Charlie said with a shake of her head. “No, not at all. She never mentioned it. Not once. Even when some of our other friends would talk about going to their own therapist.”
Eli reached across the table and placed his hand over hers. “I think I may know why she never said anything. According to Jared, this therapist’s specialty was childhood sexual trauma.”
It took a few seconds for Charlie’s muddled brain to make sense of Eli’s words.
Childhood sexual trauma.
“She was…assaulted as a child?”
Even saying the words didn’t sound right. Not Kendra. So bright and bubbly. So alive.
“I can’t say that for sure but she hired someone that specialized in it.”
“Maybe she didn’t know. Maybe they were simply recommended by someone.”
“That’s possible.”
But was it probable? Charlie didn’t have that answer. In fact, there were a whole bunch of questions that didn’t have answers.
“Jared also said that they enhanced the video from the hotel.”
“Please tell me you have some good news there.”
She could use it right about now.
“I don’t know if it’s particularly good, but it’s not bad.” He held out his phone so she could see the screen. A picture of the Gucci loafers had been enlarged and enhanced. “He puts the height and weight at five-ten and about a hundred and eighty pounds. And yes, those are Gucci loafers. He was able to isolate them and sharpen the picture. We have a lot more detail now.”
“So we just go around looking at people’s shoes?”
“We probably don’t want to do that,” Jackson replied with a chuckle. “But that can be some of that probable cause that we talked about earlier. If we find a suspect, and he has those shoes, we might be able to get a judge to sign a warrant for DNA.”
Eli gave Jackson a sharp look. “You were talking about probable cause?”
“Just in general,” Jackson said. “Nothing specific.”
Eli pressed a few buttons on his phone. “I just sent each of you a copy of the enhanced photos. Now I think we should go have another chat with the Taylors. I have a few new questions that I want to ask them.”
Charlie wanted to know if Bernard - or Cagney - had Gucci loafers.
Jared had told Eli that the Taylors were staying in a local hotel which only served to ratchet up his suspicions even more. They’d been in town when the rental house had burned down, and they’d had opportunity to drive to Chicago. They’d also had motive to want Kendra dead, assuming they thought that they’d inherit any of her money.
Still, he wasn’t a big fan of the theory. In his experience, it wasn’t the norm for parents to kill a fully grown child. It wasn’t completely unheard of either, but domestic partners were far more dangerous for a young woman.
As for whether or not Kendra had experienced any sort of sexual trauma when she was young, Eli couldn’t say one way or another for sure. However, acting hypersexual was one of the signs of sexual abuse. All alone it didn’t mean much and it could be a complete coincidence. It also didn’t explain why a perfectly happy woman went to a mall one day and disappeared. It might not have one damn thing to do with Kendra’s death. It was simply another secret detail about her life that her friends hadn’t known, a red herring that had him running in the wrong direction. Either way, he needed to talk to the Taylors about it, and he wasn’t under any delusions that this was going to be pleasant. If their daughter had been sexually assaulted, they wouldn’t take any joy in discussing it.
And if she had been abused by one of them…
It wasn’t a happy man that opened the hotel room door when Eli knocked. Bernard Taylor’s expression was a mixture of surprise and anger, his entire body going stiff when he caught sight of who was on the other side of the threshold.
“What are you doing here?”
“I have a few questions that I need to ask you.”
“Unless you’re here to tell us that you’ve ended your investigation, we don’t have anything to say.”
Bernard began to push the door closed
but Eli easily caught it with his hand. “I want to talk to you about Kendra seeing a therapist before she was murdered.”
Stepping back, Bernard’s expression was one of confusion. It was clear that he’d had no idea.
“A therapist? Why would she need a therapist?”
“Apparently, the one she chose specialized in childhood sexual trauma.”
Eli now had the other man’s complete attention. “Trauma? No, Kendra didn’t have any trauma. She had a wonderful childhood. She had everything a little girl could want.”
There were many things Eli could have said in response.
He didn’t say any of them. Instead, he kept to the script in his head. They needed to stay on track.
“Bernard? Who is it?”
Evelyn stepped in to view and the minute she saw Eli, she went from happy to mad in about three-point-two seconds.
“What’s he doing here?”
“He says that Kendra was seeing a shrink.”
Evelyn, on the other hand, didn’t look shocked at all. She’d known. Eli could tell from her expression.
“So? Models and actors all have therapists. It’s not a big deal.”
“Her therapist specialized in childhood sexual trauma,” Eli said. “Did she ever say anything to you about that?”
“She mentioned once that she thought an adult at the boarding school had done something inappropriate. I told her that we’d spent a small fortune to send her there and that they wouldn’t employ anyone who would do that. She must have misinterpreted things.”
This was all clearly brand spanking new information to Bernard. His mouth was hanging open and his face was red.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” he sputtered, throwing up his hands. “Why didn’t I know about this?”
His wife appeared genuinely puzzled by his reaction. “Because it wasn’t a big deal. Kendra was just being dramatic. She acted like that all the time. She was blowing something small out of proportion.”
With parents like these, Eli also would have sought psychiatric assistance.
“How do you know? Did you even call the school?” Bernard challenged. “Why didn’t she mention it to me?”
“Because I told her to stop talking about it,” Evelyn replied, her voice rising with anger and frustration. “I told her to stop lying. She was only saying those things so she didn’t have to go back to the school.”
There it was. The real truth. Kendra hadn’t wanted to go back, and Evelyn couldn’t have that. So she’d dismissed her daughter’s complaints.
Bernard wasn’t even paying attention to Eli anymore. “What if what she said was true?”
“Of course, it wasn’t true. That school was expensive.”
Eli didn’t have a clue what price had to do with Kendra’s claims.
As if finally remembering that they had an audience, Bernard turned back to Eli. “I think you need to leave. Evie and I need to talk.”
There were other questions that Eli had planned to ask, but it was clear that he wouldn’t be getting any answers from these two. Not today. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card, shoving it into Bernard’s hand.
“I really do need to talk to you. Please call me.”
Turning on his heel, he headed back down the hallway, pressing the button for the elevator. He was standing there waiting when Bernard jogged up next to him.
“Listen,” the older man said, his tone urgent. “I know what you’re thinking right about now. I know what you think of us. But I need you to know that I loved my daughter very much. I wasn’t the perfect father. Far from it. I’ve made some bad decisions, and I have to live with those. But I loved Kendra and I wouldn’t have hurt her for anything. Never in a million years. She was my baby girl.”
Eli didn’t know how to reply to Bernard. The man was clearly distraught, but he didn’t have any words that were going to make everything all better. He and his wife needed to hash this out between them.
Luckily, Bernard didn’t appear to need Eli to say anything. The older man turned around and jogged back down the hall, disappearing into his hotel room just as the elevator dinged its arrival.
Eli still had unanswered questions, but this visit had done one thing he’d thought it wouldn’t do.
He was wavering about keeping Bernard Taylor on the suspect list.
But Evelyn? She was still there. Right along with Cagney.
Chapter Nineteen
While Eli was meeting with the Taylors, Charlie went to Thom’s restaurant to catch him up on all the news with the investigation. Jackson drove her there in his rental car, adamant that she wasn’t going anywhere alone. She didn’t think anyone would try anything in broad daylight with people around, but it was nice that he was so protective.
Thom had saved them a quiet booth in the back so they could talk. It wasn’t quite time for the dinner rush so the place wasn’t full, just a few people scattered around.
Jackson chose to sit a few tables away where he could watch over her, stating that he didn’t want to intrude between friends. She’d tried to persuade him otherwise, Thom lending his own voice to that, but Jackson insisted.
“Then order whatever you like,” Thom said. “On the house.”
“I wouldn’t turn down a cheeseburger,” Jackson replied with a grin. “And thanks.”
Charlie and Thom sat down in their own booth, the latter pointing to her phone.
“Should we call Dana, too? Have you already talked to her?”
“I tried to call her earlier but there was no answer.”
“Let’s try her again. Then you can update us both at the same time. It’s pretty quiet in here. We should be able to hear her without a problem.”
Charlie dialed up her friend in New York City, placing the phone on the table between herself and Thom. She filled them both in on what had happened in Chicago, the house burning down, and that Kendra had been in therapy, possibly for childhood sexual trauma.
“Eli’s firm is trying to get ahold of the therapist,” Charlie explained. “Hopefully, they can find out what she was actually going to therapy for.”
Thom frowned. “Can they say what it was? Patient confidentiality and all of that.”
“I think that doesn’t apply after death,” Dana said. “I saw it on a television program though, so take it with a grain of salt.”
“If I had a therapist, I guess I’d be careful as to what I say to them,” Thom replied, making a face. “I wouldn’t want any of my deep dark secrets to come out after my death.”
“What deep dark secrets?” Dana said with a laugh. “That you like pineapple on your pizza? That’s disgusting, by the way.”
“It’s delicious,” Thom chuckled. “I like barbecue chicken pizza. too. Sue me.”
“She never mentioned anything to either of you?” Charlie pressed. “Not a thing? Maybe a suggestion?”
“Nothing to me,” Dana declared. “At all. I’m shocked, honestly.”
“Nothing to me either,” Thom echoed. “Although I will say that Kendra had some kind of strange sex hang-ups.”
“I’m not sure I want to hear this,” Dana said, groaning audibly. “I don’t want the dirty details about your sex life with Kendra. It’s bad enough that we even know that you had sex with her. We’re all friends and it’s icky. It’s worse than pineapple pizza.”
“I’m not going to talk details. I was just going to say that I remember Kendra having a few freak-outs. I don’t know what triggered them and I didn’t ask, but she’d just get a weird look in her eye and leave for the night.”
“And you didn’t think to ask her about it?” Charlie asked.
“I didn’t think it was my place to question her because the next time I’d see her she’d be fine. I once sort of broached the subject and she brushed me off. I assumed it wasn’t a big deal. We weren’t the type of friends that talked about our feelings all of the time. Frankly, none of us were.”
He had a point. Looking back, Charli
e couldn’t remember a time that any of them truly revealed any innermost thoughts and fears. Maybe they hadn’t been that good of friends after all. Or maybe they just weren’t that type of friends, just like Thom had said. It didn’t mean it was bad, it was just what it was. No worse and no better. She’d been happy back then. so clearly she hadn’t thought anything was missing from their relationship.
“Your ex still hasn’t returned our calls,” Charlie said to Thom. “We really need to talk to her so we can confirm your alibi.”
“The detective already did that twelve years ago,” Thom replied. “Why do you have to do it again? That poor woman is probably just trying to live her life.”
“We’re not trying to interfere in anyone’s life. We’re just trying to eliminate suspects.”
Thom didn’t look any happier with that answer.
“I’m a suspect because I slept with her? That’s bullshit.”
“I know you didn’t do it,” Charlie tried to explain. “But it’s procedure. We need to mark you off the list, once and for all.”
Thom blew out a breath and shrugged. “Procedure? That’s a piss poor way to describe it all. I fucked Kendra so I could have killed her. Are you talking to every guy she slept with because—“
“Stop,” Charlie said, holding her hand up. “Don’t even go there.”
Dana had been uncharacteristically quiet during the exchange but she finally spoke up.
“Eli is just trying to do his job,” she said. “They need to talk to Val and confirm that she was with you. That’s it. This isn’t personal.”
“It feels fucking personal,” Thom muttered. “I would never have hurt her.”
“We know,” Charlie said in her most soothing tone. “I just want to make sure that we can prove that. Check it off the list.”
She didn’t go into who Eli truly suspected. They were innocent until proven guilty.
“What about Julian?” Thom pressed. “Have you put a checkmark next to his name? And what about Barbara and Sofie? They could have done it, too.”
“Julian was at work that day. Just like you. We’re trying to confirm everyone again. Julian, too. It takes time. As for Barbara and Sofie, we’re trying to get ahold of them as well. They haven’t returned any of our calls. I swear you’re not being singled out. We have to look at everyone. Even me.”
Cruel Grace: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 5) Page 17