“She hasn’t seen it in the paper?”
“They only get the weekend edition, and it never aired on TV—a carjacking and kidnapping had priority.”
“Poor Lacey.” Laura cast her gaze toward the floor and shook her head. “I feel so bad that I let her down. I keep asking myself what I could have done to prevent this.”
“Honey, you begged her to get help,” Spencer said. “What else could you do?”
“Why do you think Lacey’s death is a suicide?” Andi asked.
“What else could it be?” Spencer said. “She was in her car with the motor running.”
“Did you know she’d written Jimmy Shelton a letter?”
Laura glanced at her husband, then back to Andi. “Will Kincade mentioned it, but any letter from Lacey Wilson will not be helpful to Shelton. She was unstable.”
Andi had wandered into territory she hadn’t intended to. “Did you let Jillian know about Lacey?”
Laura’s eyes widened. “I forgot all about her.”
“Mom has her address, but if you have it or her phone number, I’d like to get it now. To let her know.”
“You’re still in touch with Jillian?” Laura asked.
“Mom occasionally receives Christmas cards from her.”
“Really? Why would she stay in touch with your mom?”
And not me, Laura’s tone implied. “Jillian went to high school with Steph. She was in our house all the time as a teenager.”
“Just ask your mom for Jillian’s address,” Spencer said.
She shrugged. “I hate to bother her.”
Her mother would want to know why Andi wanted the information, and then she’d have to tell her Brad and Will were investigating Stephanie’s death before Andi was prepared to tell her.
Laura walked to her desk and picked up the telephone. “Jace, would you check my contacts for a Jillian Bennett?”
“Knight,” Andi said. “That’s her married name.”
“She’s married?” Spencer asked.
“Apparently so. The University of Memphis gave me that information.”
While they waited, Andi said, “I don’t remember what happened to Jillian after everyone moved out. You and Maggie and Lacey moved into an apartment together, but Jillian seemed to just disappear.”
“She wanted to go to college, but I didn’t know she went to the U of M.” Laura exchanged glances with her husband. “Do you remember?”
“She dropped out of sight. I haven’t thought about her in years,” he replied.
A few minutes later, the secretary brought the information to Laura, and she glanced at it before handing it to Andi. “I don’t have a phone number for her.”
The address was one that she’d already found. Jillian hadn’t lived there in years.
Laura flashed her politician smile. “When do you want to get started on this documentary? I assume you’ll be hanging around the office and that you’ll be at any political rallies I’m scheduled for.”
“That’s my plan. If you’ll make a schedule, it will help.” Andi took a video camera from the bag she’d brought. She would bring a cameraman for the actual interviews. “I’d like to film you working in your office today.”
“If you two ladies will excuse me, I have work to do,” Spencer said.
“You don’t want to get in on the filming?” Andi said.
He waved. “Oh no. Laura is the photogenic one. The camera doesn’t like me.”
She wanted to laugh. With his chiseled jaw and muscled arms, Spencer Delaney would look good digging ditches. An image of him straining those biceps with a shovel popped into her mind.
Biceps strong enough to put an unconscious woman behind the wheel of a car.
When Will arrived early at the truck stop just outside Jackson, Tennessee, Madeline Starr was already there.
“The petition for a reprieve is filed,” she said as she fastened her seat belt.
“Do you think we have any chance of getting it?” He didn’t want to get his hopes up.
“There’s always a chance, though harder without Laura Delaney’s help. If it weren’t for her upcoming election, I believe she would have helped us,” Maggie said. “But she has a strong segment of voters in her district who are very high on law and order and low on coddling prisoners. A few of them are big contributors to her campaign.”
“And if she supported the stay and whatever evidence we uncover is thrown out, it would hurt her at the polls,” Will said.
“You got it. We should hear something from the petition today or tomorrow. And a few prayers would certainly help.”
If quantity of prayers counted, they should get the reprieve. “Thank you, ma’am.”
“I told you, it’s Maggie.”
An hour and a half later he forgot and called her ma’am at least three times. The last time, she called him on it.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But my aunt was a stickler about Jimmy and me calling anyone in authority ma’am or sir.”
“But I’m probably not even five years older than you.”
Will’s neck burned. “If it’s any consolation, I’m having the same problem with David.”
She laughed. “Yesterday was the first time I’ve really had a conversation with David other than cross-examining him in the courtroom. Tell me a little about him.”
Will reviewed what he knew about his boss and how much of it he could relay. He liked Maggie, but the lieutenant was . . . “He’s very private,” he finally said. “Widowed, with a daughter around ten, plus he’s a great boss.”
“I didn’t know he was widowed. What happened to his wife? Or is that part of the privacy?”
“No, it’s public knowledge, but he never talks about it. She was murdered, and the killer hasn’t been caught.”
“Is that why he lobbied for a Cold Case Unit?”
He glanced at her and then just as quickly returned his eyes to the interstate. “So you do know something about him?”
“I always research the background of witnesses in my cases but somehow blocked the part about his wife. Now that you mention it, I remember my information indicated she went by her maiden name.”
“She did. Lia Morgan was a well-known photographer before they married, and most of the time she used that name rather than Raines.”
A text alerted, and Maggie checked her phone. “Laura reminding me that Lacey’s funeral is at five. Do you think we’ll be back in time to attend?”
“I plan to be. I told Brad I’d be back by three thirty to check over the studio where Stephanie was murdered, and the cemetery is only ten minutes away from the Hollister house.”
“You think you’ll find something the original investigator missed?”
“I hope so.”
“Is there a report on what the crime scene techs found eighteen years ago?”
“No report. I don’t know if crime scene techs even went over the room after Jimmy confessed. George Barnes was the investigating officer, and he didn’t even conduct a gunpowder residue test on Jimmy.”
“You’re kidding,” she said.
“No. Can you use that?”
“Yes. I’ve successfully defended three people he arrested. If the court in Jackson turns us down, I’ll definitely use that in my appeal.”
Will flipped on the turn signal and took the exit to 155 North. “We’re five minutes from the prison.”
Maggie became increasingly quieter as they entered Riverbend. He knew how she felt, especially when the doors clanged shut behind them. He didn’t know how Jimmy had stood being locked up here seventeen years.
As before, Jimmy was sitting at the table when they entered the small conference room. Walter Simmons had warned Will that Jillian’s visit had left his cousin shaken, but he hadn’t expected total defeat. Everything about Jimmy said he’d given up. He hadn’t shaved and his clothes looked as though he’d slept in them. “Are you all right?”
Jimmy raised his head and looked at him. “Sure. Fi
ne and dandy. I don’t suppose you have a reprieve or a stay order in that briefcase, Ms. Starr?”
“Afraid not, Jimmy. But we’re not finished. We have two days.”
He dropped his head again and stared at the table.
Will sat across from him. “Look at me.”
He continued to stare at the table.
“I said look at me.”
Jimmy lifted his gaze.
“I promise you, I’ll do everything in my power to get the evidence to set you free.”
“I know that, Will.” He turned to look out the tiny window. “When Jillian showed up, I thought she had come to help me get out of here. But when she walked through that door to leave, I knew it was over.” He pressed his fingers against his temples. “I’ll almost be glad when Sunday night gets here. I . . . I can’t take much more.”
“Don’t talk like that!” Will wanted to shake him. “Let’s go over everything again, starting with Jillian’s visit. What did she say?”
Jimmy slumped in the chair, then he shook himself and with a fortifying breath, sat up straighter. “She was scared. Said she shouldn’t have come. That ‘he’ had someone here at the prison watching me. That’s when she practically ran out the door.” He balled his hands. “The last thing she said was God forgive her, but she couldn’t help me.”
So Jillian did know something. Something that sent her into hiding. “Did you tell her Lacey was dead?” Will asked.
“Didn’t get a chance.”
“I talked with your mother yesterday,” Maggie said. “She thinks Stephanie was into something illegal. She had to get that impression from you. What do you think she was doing?”
“I don’t know.” He palmed his hands. “I can’t think anymore.”
“You have to!” Will almost shouted.
Maggie restrained Will with her hand and then turned to Jimmy. “Do you think she could have been smuggling drugs into the country?”
“No! Stephanie wouldn’t touch drugs.”
At least that got a rise out of him.
Maggie leaned toward Jimmy. “If she was involved in illegal activities, do you think she was the only one in her circle of friends involved?”
When he didn’t respond, Will said, “You have to help us here. We can’t do it by ourselves, but if she was involved in something, Jillian and Lacey and maybe Laura were in on it.” He turned to Maggie. “Were they ever secretive, maybe quit talking when you came into the room?”
“I wasn’t there long, and if that had happened, I probably would have brushed it off as being the new person. About the only thing I remember is that Stephanie was really worried about Andi’s operation.”
“She was,” Jimmy agreed. He ran his hand over his gray hair. “I just thought of something. I heard her and Jillian talking once, and Jillian told her not to mess everything up. When I asked about it, Stephanie said it was something about work. I never could get any more out of her.”
“Do you know anyone else who might have had a motive to kill her?”
“I have lain awake so many nights trying to come up with someone who might have had something against her. And I always come up blank. Everyone liked her.”
“None of the women in the house were jealous?” Maggie asked.
He looked toward the ceiling, then at her. “Maybe Laura. She envied Stephanie’s looks, and she always wanted Spencer, and I hear she got him. Steph and Spencer dated, you know.”
Maggie tilted her head. “Stephanie dated Spencer? But she told me there was nothing between them.” She frowned. “Stephanie was quite upset that Spencer had dumped Jillian. That happened before I went to live there, but she and I discussed it once.”
“Jillian never knew he broke up with her because of Stephanie. I’m the only one who did, and only because I happened to see them together when they thought no one was around. But it didn’t last long. I think Steph felt guilty about it. Didn’t bother Spencer—he moved on to someone else. But it wasn’t Laura. I think she was much later.”
“How about Adam Matthews?” Will asked. “Did you know him?”
Jimmy repeated the name. “Was he a pilot?”
Will nodded.
His cousin’s eyes widened. “Oh yeah. He hung around some. Seems like he was interested in Lacey.”
“They married, but it didn’t last long,” Will said.
“I never liked him. He was too slick, even more than Spencer.”
21
AFTER SPENCER LEFT, Andi videoed Laura at her desk, then on the phone. The last shot was a silhouette of her standing at the window looking at downtown Memphis. “Next time I’ll bring someone to video, and I’ll interview you.”
“Send me a copy of the questions you plan to ask,” Laura said.
“Sure thing.” Andi put the camera away. “Thanks for talking about Stephanie with me today. Do you mind if I ask you another question?”
“I won’t know until you ask.”
“You were closer to my sister than anyone, except maybe Jillian. Do—”
“Jillian was not your sister’s friend,” Laura said.
“But they were, had been since grade school.”
Laura shook her head. “Honey, Jillian is no one’s friend, and she was very jealous of your sister.”
That couldn’t be true.
“Ask around,” Laura said.
Andi took out a notepad. “I’d like to do that. Can you give me a list of people to ask?”
“Lacey would have been the first person I’d put on the list—oh, her funeral is at five today, if you want to come. Back side of the cemetery.”
Andi mentally ran through the rest of her day. She could take a change of clothes when she met Will and Brad at three thirty and get dressed there. “I’ll be there. That list?”
Laura looked toward the ceiling. “Talk to Gerald Caldwell, or Madeline Starr, or even Jared Donovan—he was absolutely smitten with Stephanie and asked her to marry him.”
“I know Maggie, but who are the other two? Oh, wait. Are you talking about Jared Donovan, the guy who owns Donovan Jewelers?”
“That’s the one, and Gerald is a private investigator. Both of them were part of the circle.”
“Circle?”
“Stephanie’s castoffs.” Laura’s lip twitched, then she smiled. “Not intentionally. Your sister didn’t know the effect she had on men. Every man she dated fell in love with her, and why not? She was beautiful and kind, but Stephanie was looking for the perfect man.”
“We both know that man doesn’t exist,” Andi said with a laugh.
“Absolutely. And when flaws showed up as they eventually do, Stephanie lost interest and moved on.”
Andi stared at the two names she’d written down. “Where can I find them?”
“Gerald’s office is a few blocks from here on Front Street, and you’ll find Jared at Donovan Jewelers on Union.”
Andi stood and shouldered her camera bag. “Thanks. I’ll give you a call tomorrow or the next day about filming an interview.”
“Thank you. And I’ll get my speaking schedule to you.”
In the elevator, she reached in her bag for the ibuprofen bottle and hesitated, trying to remember if she’d already taken some this morning. No, she was certain she hadn’t taken anything.
After she stepped off the elevator, she downed two with a swig of water, and then peered in the bottle. Only six tablets? There should be more. She distinctly remembered dropping sixteen Lortabs in the ibuprofen bottle yesterday morning. Enough to do until Monday morning. It was only Friday.
She’d taken ten tablets since then. That had to be wrong. Ten high-powered Lortabs, and she wouldn’t be able to walk.
“Stronger people than you have become addicted to pain pills. You start out taking only one and then you’re taking two and pretty soon two doesn’t do it . . . It happens before you realize it.”
Andi squeezed her eyes shut as if that would block out Treece’s voice in her head. She was not addicted to the
pills and only took them because of the pain. But could her body be building up a tolerance for them? Maybe it was time to think seriously about surgery.
Straightening her shoulders, she hurried out the door of the CJC into bright sunlight and decided to walk to the private investigator’s office. The sun was warm on her back, but nothing like July and August would be. When she reached Front Street, she walked south, enjoying a view of the river.
Maggie’s office was on Front Street. She could stop by after she talked with the PI. No—Maggie was with Will. Andi admired the office building as she entered. The man must be successful—offices at this location were not cheap.
After checking the directory in the lobby, Andi took the elevator to the third floor and found his office. A pleasant-looking older woman looked up when she approached her desk.
“May I help you?”
“I’d like to see Mr. Caldwell.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“Uh, no, but it’s really important.” She hadn’t considered she might need an appointment.
“That’s what everyone says. Give me your name and I’ll check with him for what day next week he can see you.”
Next week? “Andi Hollister, but I must see him today.”
Her eyes widened. “The news reporter? I love those documentaries you and Treece Rogers do.” Her brows lowered. “Well, not love—they’re so sad, but I’m glad someone is bringing attention to all those poor girls.”
“Thank you.” The words warmed Andi’s heart.
“I guess I can check with him to see if he can fit you in today.” She picked up her phone and spoke briefly with Mr. Caldwell. She gave Andi an odd look when she hung up. “He’ll see you now. Just go through that door, and his office is the second door on the right.”
Yes! Andi hurried through the door and into the hallway.
Gerald Caldwell’s door was open, and he looked up from his computer screen. “Come in, Ms. Hollister.”
Andi faltered as his almost-black eyes burned a hole in her. She didn’t know what she expected, but not this somber man with a sharp nose over his thin lips. A hawk—that’s what he reminded her of. She held out her hand. “Mr. Caldwell, thank you for seeing me.”
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