Beverly Barton 3 Book Bundle

As the tears seeped into the edges of her mouth, she sucked in a deep breath, then bit down on her bottom lip to keep from crying out loud.

Scotty Joe opened his lunch sack and pulled out a paper napkin, then held it out to her. “Here, dry your eyes. You don’t want somebody seeing you like this. It would be all over school by the end of the day.”

She grabbed the napkin and dried her eyes. “What—what would be all over school?” she asked as she looked right at him and saw pity and concern in his big blue eyes.

He shook his head. “Nothing. Don’t pay any attention to me.”

“It’s not what you think.” She patted her damp face, then crushed the napkin into her fist and searched Scotty Joe’s face again. “I’m not one of Brandon’s girls, one of his women.”

Scotty Joe grinned from ear to ear. “Good. I’m glad to hear it. You’re far too good for him, if you don’t mind my saying so.”

“You don’t like Brandon?”

“It’s not that I don’t like him.” Scotty Joe’s tanned cheeks flushed. “I guess it’s just that I think it’s downright wrong of him to take advantage of the girls he teaches and of women in general.” Scotty Joe hung his head shyly.

“If that offer to share our lunches is still open, I’d like to take you up on it.” Thomasina managed a weak smile.

“You bet it is,” Scotty Joe told her. “And the Cokes are on me.”

Charlie Patterson laid the preliminary reports down on Jim’s desk, then took a seat in one of the old vinyl and metal chairs in front of the desk. Looking like a man who hadn’t gotten much sleep last night, Charlie had arrived from Huntsville fifteen minutes ago, while Jim had been out for lunch. He’d gone with Ron Hensley and John Downs to Methel’s for the Monday special—meatloaf, creamed potatoes, green peas, and homemade rolls—topped off with banana pudding, which was almost as popular as the restaurant’s peach cobbler. When they arrived back at the office, he’d found Charlie sharing coffee and chocolate chip muffins from Cummings Bakery with Lieutenant Hoyt Moses.

“I called Bernie’s office and left a message for her to come on over,” Charlie said. “No point in going over everything now and then again with her.”

“Wish I could hang around,” Downs said. “But I’m due in court at one-thirty. I have to testify in the trial about that big marijuana bust we made back last fall.”

Jim nodded, then glanced at Hensley. “Bring in another chair. We’ll be one short when Bernie gets here.”

“She’s here,” Bernie said from the doorway.

Jim looked up from where he sat behind his desk and motioned for her to come into his office. Downs paused to say hello to Bernie on his way out and Hensley spoke to her as he headed off to commandeer another chair.

“What have I missed?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Jim told her. “We’re just getting started.”

She glanced at Charlie. “Rough night?”

“Does it show?” he replied.

She grinned at him. “Only around the edges.”

He grunted. “Our ten-year-old kept us up all night with a stomach virus. When I left this morning, she was finally resting and had been able to keep down some 7-Up and crackers.”

“How many children do you have?” Bernie asked.

“Three girls. Eight, ten, and thirteen.” Charlie chuckled as he got up and offered Bernie his chair by pointing to her and then to the chair. “Lucky for them, they all look more like their mother than they do me.”

“I guess your wife will be glad for you to wind things up here and come home to stay.” Bernie accepted the offered seat.

“I think I miss her and the girls more than they miss me.”

“I doubt that.” Bernie smiled. “Take it from somebody who was a daddy’s girl, at the ages your daughters are, there’s no other man in their lives as important as their father.”

Hensley brought in a folding chair, opened it and sat; then he reared back and placed his hands on his thighs. The guy swaggered when he walked, his every action proclaiming his cocky attitude, and there he was sitting back like he owned the world. Jim studied his deputy, but when the guy’s gaze met his, Jim focused on Bernie. She looked today as she looked every day. Neat and orderly. Brown slacks, white blouse, minimum of makeup, simple gold jewelry, her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail.

As if sensing that he was staring at her, she turned and looked right at him. Their gazes connected and held. He smiled. She smiled. Jim figured they had the makings of a firm friendship. The more he got to know Bernie, the better he liked her.

Charlie tapped his fingers on the file folder lying on Jim’s desk. “I brought the preliminary report on Stephanie Preston. As we all know, her death was caused when the carotid arteries were severed when her attacker slit her throat, pretty much from ear to ear. Her throat was cut from left to right in a manner indicating the killer was behind her, probably on top of her, and that he jerked her neck backward and brought the knife down and across. There were no signs of defensive wounds, so it’s unlikely she tried to fight him. The knife had a smooth blade, which means no distinctive marks from the blade on the neck. And the knife was very sharp. The murderer probably made sure it was sharp because his intent was to end her life quickly and relatively painlessly.”

“I thought we had decided he had tortured her, so why would he care if her death was quick and painless?” Hensley asked.

“Good question.” Charlie glanced at Jim.

“He’d gotten whatever it was he had wanted from her, from raping her and torturing her,” Jim said. “When it came time to end things, he was through with her. All he wanted was to get rid of her quickly. I’d say he thought of the way he killed her as a reward to her for having given him what he’d needed from her.”

“What sort of sick mind would look at it that way, would believe that she’d given him anything?” Bernie frowned. “She didn’t give. He just took everything from her, even her life.”

“Our boy is not only one sick puppy, but he’s smart,” Charlie said. “He trimmed her fingernails and toenails and cleaned out from under the nails, leaving no trace evidence. And he washed her hair and her body before he dropped her off in the middle of nowhere.”

“Then he’s no run-of-the-mill nut case.” Bernie draped her right arm across her waist, then propped her left elbow atop her right fist and rested her chin atop her tilted left hand.

“You’re right—he is a nut case and definitely not run of the mill,” Charlie agreed. “Whoever he is, he likes rough sex, he likes to make his victim suffer and he’s smart enough to remove any evidence on the body.”

“What about any evidence from where her body was found?” Hensley asked.

Charlie shook his head. “Nada, at least so far.”

“And that’s about what we’ve got,” Jim said. “Nada. We’ve ruled out our three most likely suspects—the husband and two former lovers.”

“Yeah, their alibis checked out,” Hensley said. “So that leaves us back at square one.”

“If only someone had seen something the night Stephanie was kidnapped.” Bernie rubbed her thumb across her lips. “The last anyone saw of her, she had just exited the building and was heading toward her car. So what happened between the building and her car? There is no evidence she made it to her car, but then again there’s no evidence to indicate she didn’t.”

“Y’all didn’t find anything that belonged to her in the parking lot, did you? Not a notebook or scattered papers or her handbag or—”

“Nothing,” Bernie said. “And her purse and books weren’t inside her car either, which we figured meant she’d taken them with her.”

“Unless the guy who abducted her gathered up all her belongings after he nabbed her.” Jim tapped his fingers against the desktop as he mulled things over in his mind. “If she took the items with her, then I have one question. Why, if she was being abducted, would she have hung on to her purse and other items instead of trying to fight this guy off?”

“She didn’t fight him, did she?” Bernie tightened her left hand into a fist and huffed under her breath as she figured out Jim’s theory. “Damn it, she knew him. And for some reason, she went with him willingly.” Bernie looked straight at Jim. “Am I right? Is that what you’re thinking?”

Jim nodded. “Where is her car?”

“We had our wrecker pick it up and bring it in,” Hensley said. “We went over it with a fine-tooth comb and found nothing unusual, so we turned it over to Taylor’s Wrecker Service. Last I heard, no one in the family has come to pick it up yet.”

“Did y’all have a mechanic check the car?” Jim asked.

Hensley looked questioningly at Jim. “Why would we have had a mechanic check it? The car had nothing to do with Stephanie’s disappearance.”