Ellie cocked her head and stared at Sissy. “But what do you do when they don’t want to be with you?”
“What makes you think that?”
“He said he wished it’d never happened. And, he never called back.”
“He’s here now.”
“But I don’t know how much of that is me—or how much is the case.”
“No, I mean he’s here. In the driveway.”
Ellie glanced outside, and sure enough, the car was in the driveway. “Oh.” She grinned sheepishly then gave Sissy a peck on the cheek.
“Go find out what message that little boy came back to deliver.”
Ellie grinned. “We might have better luck with a séance.”
“Ellie Saunders! Don’t even joke about such things.”
Outside, Ellie tromped through knee-high snow to get to the car. She tapped her shoes against the doorframe to loosen the snow before getting in. Jesse had the car quite warm and cozy. “Morning, gorgeous,” he said, smiling that smile of his that could melt every inch of the snow.
He was wearing an Appalachian State sweatshirt and faded jeans. “Jeans?” Ellie asked. “Obviously you haven’t seen the department’s dress code, partner.”
“Obviously you haven’t seen the inclement weather policy, partner.”
She laughed. Jack didn’t believe in inclement weather. She couldn’t wait until they got to the office and Jack sent him home to change clothes. And she would remind Jack about the dress code.
Jesse backed out of the driveway easy enough and took his time maneuvering along the short road. “The main roads aren’t bad. The plows have them pretty clear.”
“Good. I don’t know where Kenton’s at today, but it’ll make it a lot easier if I can actually reach him.” She was getting excited at just the idea of talking to him.
“What about this national media thing?” Jesse asked. “Is that still in the plans?”
Ellie had forgotten all about Sara Jeffries and scheduling an interview. “Let’s see what kind of feedback we get with the registry. Now that we have an age and at least a first name, we may not need to go national.”
“We’ll get a hit. I can feel it in my bones.”
Ellie smiled. “Probably just the cold.”
Jesse had been right about the roads. They weren’t near as bad as she had thought they would be. Traffic was moving at a slow but steady pace through town. She’d be fine driving. As long as she didn’t have to track Kenton down deep in the mountains or anything.
Jesse pulled into the parking lot and parked beside his Camaro. Snow was piled at least a foot deep on the hood. He swept off a portion of it with his arm then raced to join Ellie.
“What are we going to do about the desk thing?” he asked as they climbed the first flight of stairs, no indication of any struggle.
“What do you mean?”
“Where are you going to work?”
Ellie stopped mid-step and stared at him. “I’m going to work at my desk. Where are you going to work?”
He snickered. “Ah…I see how it’s going to be. I’m just the chauffeur.”
Ellie wanted to knock him down the stairs. Partly because he wasn’t even breathing heavy and she could feel the sweat beading on her forehead. She blew a stray piece of hair out of her eyes. “Fine. You take the desk today so you can get everything loaded in the registry. Hopefully, I’m going to be interviewing Jerome Kenton anyway.”
“Whoa—wait a minute. You’re going to do that without me?”
“We can get a lot more accomplished in a shorter amount of time if we split up what needs to be done. Right?” Ellie stopped and opened the door to the third floor, fully intending to take the elevator the last two flights but Jesse jerked the door from her hand and closed it. “Excuse me?” she said, forcing much needed air from her lungs.
“Two more flights. You can do it. We’ll take it slow.” He started up the fourth set of stairs. “Come on. You can do it.”
She glared at him hard but followed along. Her legs were on fire. She wasn’t so sure she appreciated his encouragement. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. Was he telling her she needed to work out more? Lose a few pounds? Was that why he never called back? The nerve! She sucked air in through her nose and pushed him aside as she climbed the stairs.
On the fifth floor, she jerked the door open and wanted to crawl to her desk, but she didn’t. She fought through the searing burn in her legs and marched to her desk, collapsing in her chair.
“Now, what were you saying about we could accomplish more if we split up? Sounds like a good idea, but honestly, I’m not real confident in your interview skills yet. That may be something we need to work on.” He sat in the guest chair, unwinded.
Ellie caught her breath before tearing into him. “You haven’t even seen my interview skills! Every interview we’ve done together has been the Jesse show. My interview skills are fine, thank you.”
And to think just a short while ago she had thought she might be, possibly could be, in love with him.
She was seething with anger and barely noticed Jack standing at the corner of her desk. “Detective Brady Mitchell from Avery County wants you to call him. He said he lost your extension number.” Jack handed her the pink message slip with the number scrawled on it.
Brady Mitchell? “Did he say what he wanted?”
Jack raised an eyebrow. “I’m not your personal secretary. And no, he didn’t say what he wanted. I assume it’s about the kid.”
Mitchell didn’t have anything to do with her missing kid, and Dusty Chambers was safe at home. Or at least he was at home, safe she wouldn’t swear by.
Ellie picked up the phone and dialed Mitchell’s number. He answered on the second ring.
“Detective Mitchell, it’s Detective Ellie Saunders. I had a message you called.”
“Yeah, hey, Ellie. Got something you might be interested in. Remember that delivery driver for Bekley’s you were looking for?”
“Jerome Kenton.”
“Yeah, Kenton. His sister-in-law came by this morning and filed a missing person report on his wife, Becky Kenton.”
Ellie sat up straight in her chair then leaned into her desk. “How long has she been missing?”
“The sister couldn’t say for sure. Said last time she talked to her was earlier in the week—”
“Kenton was saying something about her going back to New Orleans for a while. I think she was supposed to be staying with an aunt.”
“Well, that’s where it gets interesting. The sister says Becky would have never gone back to New Orleans. And this aunt down there, she didn’t know anything about it.”
“Why’d the sister file the report and not Kenton?”
Mitchell chuckled. “My point exactly.”
Ellie glanced at her watch. “Can you do me a favor and bring the sister back in. Say around, maybe ten?”
“Will do. I’ll call if there’s a problem.”
Ellie hung up and looked at Jesse. “Kenton’s wife was reported missing by her sister.”
He smiled. “Road trip! I’m beginning to really like this job.”
Ellie shook her head. “We’re splitting up what needs to be done, remember? You’re checking the registry. I’m heading to Avery County.”
“And you’re going to be there by ten? Hope they plowed the viaduct.”
****
You can do this. You can do this. You can do this, Ellie told herself. You climbed five flights of stairs this morning. This will be a breeze. She gripped the wheel, set her mind to the task and steeled her nerves.
With only one slight skid, she pulled into the parking lot of the Avery County Sheriff’s Department at 9:45. She sat in the car for a moment and collected herself, rolling her shoulders to release the tension. Her arms and hands were locked in position, frozen stiff from fear. She flexed her hands to bring color back to her knuckles, took a deep breath, and went in to hear what Kenton’s sister-in-law had to say about her miss
ing sister.
She registered as a visitor and waited patiently while the receptionist paged Brady Mitchell. Although smaller than the Burkesboro police department, the building housing the sheriff’s department was beautiful with high-end décor and framed poster-sized pictures of the various tourist attractions gracing the county. If it hadn’t been for the receptionist’s uniform and the picture of the solemn-looking sheriff, Ellie would have sworn she was standing in the chamber of commerce.
“Ellie. Good to see you again,” Mitchell said as he walked toward her, his hand outstretched.
Ellie shook his hand and smiled. “Good to see you again, too. I hear Richie and Tina Chambers found their missing son, Dusty.”
Mitchell grinned. “Yeah. We won’t even discuss that case. Come on back here to the interview room. Her name’s Karen Moore. Mind if I sit in?”
“No, not at all.” Ellie followed him through a maze of hallways and through the squad room. The interview room was at the far end of the squad room with a mirror facing the rows of desks.
Mitchell knocked once on the door then opened it and ushered Ellie in. Karen Moore was sitting at a small table nervously twisting a tissue in her hands. She was a little on the plump side, with mousy brown hair that may at one time have been cut into a fashionable style. Her makeup was a little heavy-handed, but at least she tried, Ellie reasoned.
“Karen—hi, I’m Detective Ellie Saunders with the Burkesboro Police Department.” Ellie offered her hand and Karen gently shook it.
“Do you think Becky’s in Burkesboro? She doesn’t know anyone in Burkesboro,” she spoke in a soft voice in rapid bursts, the same Cajun accent as Kenton’s.
Ellie sat down in the chair closest to Karen while Mitchell sat across from them. “We don’t have any indication that she’s in Burkesboro,” Ellie said. “Detective Mitchell called me this morning because I’m working a case that may involve your brother-in-law.”
Karen jerked her head up and down like she completely understood. “No telling what he’s involved in. I told Becky he was bad news when she married him.”
“How long have they been married?”
She sniffled then dabbed the tissue at her nose. “About eight years.”
“And what do you mean when you say he was bad news?”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “He beat her up one time when they were dating. I told her not to go back to him, but she said he told her he was sorry, that he was drunk when it happened and it wouldn’t happen again. But I know it did. I seen the bruises. She was in the emergency room at Tulane so much they could have named a wing after her.” Her lips quivered as a stream of tears rolled down her cheeks.
“When’s the last time you saw your sister?”
Karen took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Four and a half years ago. We had lunch for my birthday. She had a black eye, said she’d run into the door.”
Ellie’s eyes widened. “You haven’t seen her in four and a half years?”
Karen shook her head. “After that day, she said it might be best if we just talked on the phone. So we talked every day. Until Tuesday. That’s the last time I talked to her.”
Tuesday. The day after the accident.
“Did she say anything about being involved in a car accident? Or about the little boy?”
Karen looked at Ellie with questioning eyes. “What little boy?”
Ellie swallowed hard. “Karen, did Becky and Jerome have a son?”
Karen nodded then wiped her eyes. Mitchell handed her a fresh tissue. “They had a little boy. Precious baby.” Tears started flowing harder. She covered her mouth with her hand as if that would stop the flow.
“What happened to the baby?”
After a moment, Karen composed herself and wiped her eyes. “He was lost in Katrina.”
Ellie leaned in closer and gently patted Karen’s hand. “Did he die in Katrina, or has he just…never been found?”
Karen took another deep breath. “He drowned. They found his little body still in his crib.”
“How old was he?”
“Little over a year.” She shook her head again then dabbed at her eyes. “Poor little baby.”
Ellie’s heart was throbbing in her throat. “Karen, what was the baby’s name?
Karen sniffed. “JJ.”
Ellie’s stomach twisted in deep, constricting knots. She felt the putrid taste of bile rise to her throat. “Karen, do you know if they had any other children living with them? Not in New Orleans, but here?”
She shook her head. “JJ was their only child. They were both devastated when he died. I mean, I don’t care at all for Jerome, but no parent should have to go through what they went through. That was one of the reasons they moved up here. To get away from the memories. That’s why I know Becky wouldn’t have gone back to New Orleans like Jerome said she did. She told me she’d never go back.”
“And you came with them when they moved?”
“No, I was already up here. My husband transferred a couple years before the hurricane. After the storm, and after losing little JJ like they did, they came up here for a while and Jerome was able to get on with that seafood company.”
“Becky didn’t work?”
She shook her head again. “No, I kept telling her she needed to get out and get a job, even if it was just part-time. It’d at least get her out of the house.”
“And during this time, you never actually saw her in person?”
“No, but like I said, we talked everyday on the phone.”
“And to your knowledge, there weren’t any other children in the house? Maybe a nephew?”
“I’m positive. Jerome doesn’t have any brothers or sisters, so there aren’t any nephews. And if they had adopted or something like that, Becky would have told me. Even if we didn’t see each other, we still shared everything. This accident you asked about, do you think Becky was hurt?”
Ellie offered a gentle smile. “We don’t know yet. Jerome told me he and his wife were in an automobile accident, and they were a little banged up but they were OK. And apparently, there might have been a little boy with them.”
Karen lowered her brows and frowned. “I don’t know who he could have been. Becky never said anything about a little boy.”
****
Out in the parking lot, Brady Mitchell cleaned off the passenger’s seat of his Expedition by sweeping fast food bags and empty soda bottles into the floor board. Ellie slid into the newly cleaned seat and buckled up.
“You’re sure Kenton’s at home today?” Ellie asked.
“I know he’s not at work. Ain’t goin’ to hurt anything to ride out there and take a look around.”
“How do you know he’s not at work?”
Mitchell offered a slight smile. “I called. He’s out sick today.”
“So, what’s your take on the missing wife?”
He shrugged. “Could be something to it, especially if he has a history of slapping her around. Or it could be she got tired of getting slapped around and took off.”
Ellie’s heart hurt for little Landon, if in fact he was the same kid Richie and Tina Chambers saw at Bekley’s company picnic, and for whatever reason was living with Becky Kenton and her wife-beating husband. She remembered talking to him in the morgue about monsters. She wondered if Jerome Kenton was the monster she was beginning to think he was.
“And tell me again how they’re involved with your kid.” Mitchell said.
Ellie explained how she suspected they were connected. “We definitely know Landon’s not their son,” she continued. “What he was doing with them, I haven’t quite figured out yet.”
“And you’re sure the kid was with them when they had the wreck?”
Ellie sighed. There was no physical evidence or witnesses saying he was. And all she had to go on was the word and reactions of a traumatized six-year-old, but in her heart, she believed beyond a shadow of a doubt Landon was with the Kenton’s that night. “Without any ph
ysical evidence, I doubt it would hold up in court. But yeah, I believe he was with them.”
Mitchell grinned. “Mind a piece of advice from an ol’ timer?”
Ellie returned the smile. “Not at all.”
“Go with your gut. The physical evidence will fall in place.”
****
They had driven about three miles outside of town when Mitchell took a left then a right on an unpaved road. Tire tracks were cut deep enough into the snow. The glistening powder scraped the undercarriage as Mitchell slowed the Expedition to a crawl. He shifted the gears into four-wheel drive and soon picked up speed. The houses along the country road were scattered far and between with snow-covered fields separating them by several acres each.
Ellie tried to imagine Landon playing in the fields, chasing rabbits, or hopping over creeks and doing the things little boys do, the sunlight turning his blond hair to gold. But all she could see was Jerome Kenton, red-faced and angry, his menacing fists raised against a helpless victim. She breathed deeply to ward off her rising anger. She needed to be coolheaded and calm when she talked to him.
“Here we are,” Mitchell said as he turned into what was supposed to be the driveway. Apparently, Kenton hadn’t ventured out since the storm came in. A new extended-cab truck with temporary tags sat underneath a detached aluminum carport beside it, an old, rusted gas grill rested, half-exposed, with a pile of snow accumulating on its cover. There were no footprints leading to or away from the carport, and there were no tire tracks in what she could see of the driveway or the yard. A smaller truck, a single cab, was parked underneath a large oak tree about twenty yards from the carport. The front end was crumpled and the windshield spider-webbed but not busted. An old barn with a lean-to shed that housed an older-model tractor stood about fifty yards beyond the carport. A dilapidated swing set was next to the barn, snow piled high on the broken slide. A set of heavy footprints with wide drag marks leading from the back of the house to the edge of the woods marred the perfect snow-covered yard.
The house was small with an A-line roof and covered front porch. Sheets of plastic covered the windows to keep in the heat and ward off the chill. Ellie traipsed behind Mitchell as they made their way through the knee-high snow to the front porch.
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