Bone Deep (16 page)

The realization of what that meant seemed to hit her then. Her expression turned bleak. “If they were sterile, that would mean...” She shook her head. “But we look so much like mother. How could that be?”

Paul couldn’t answer that question, but he offered a feasible option. “Maybe only your father was affected. Or maybe neither. The adverse side effects of drugs or chemicals don’t affect everyone precisely the same. You and I could take the same type and dose of a certain drug and have very different reactions.”

“Oh God.” She closed her eyes. “This is too... incredible to contemplate.”

This time he had to touch her. He reached for her and the door swung open, jerking their gazes to the intrusion.

Claire Ellington, her eyes red rimmed, looked startled. “Excuse me. I was... Jill, are you ready.”

It was obvious, Paul noted immediately, from Claire’s manner of dress, all black, that she planned to attend the service.

My mother is agoraphobic
.

“I have work to do.” Paul rose slowly, studying the nervous woman lingering at the door. He glanced over his shoulder at Jill. “I’ll see you downstairs.”

Wordlessly, Claire stepped aside for him to pass, she didn’t look at him.

She knew he knew
.

The feeling was overwhelming, undeniable. It penetrated straight into the center of his being. Hummed just beneath the surface, a sound inside a sound, more like a vibration. But it was, at the same time, crystal clear.

Claire Ellington was part of this mystery.

She was aware, at least to an extent, what was going on in the perfect little southern town of Paradise.

She had known from the start.

Ten minutes passed and Paul was pacing the entry and then the study waiting for Jill to come downstairs. The urge to accompany her to the service was powerful, but he needed to be here. He had every intention of executing an illegal search, and seizure if he came across anything pertinent to the case. Damn, he wanted a drink. Needed a cigarette. But he would not be distracted.

The framed photographs on the Judge’s credenza drew his attention. He had looked at them before, but he had a niggling urge to look again. He moved behind the desk and picked up the picture of Jill at age nine and wearing a tee-ball uniform. In the photograph she smiled widely while poised for swinging the bat. He smiled, touched the innocent face there and finally set it aside. He reached for the matching frame, Kate in the same pose, her smile every bit as mischievous as Jill’s. That’s when it struck him. He looked at each photograph again and the answer was there.

Footsteps on the staircase drew him into the entry hall. Closing the doors behind him, he turned to meet Jill and her mother. Claire managed a tight smile for him when she descended the final step.

“I’ll wait in the car, dear,” she said to her daughter.

Jill looked beautiful, even in black. The unembellished sheath fit to every sweet curve. “We’re going to see Kate after the service. The doctor didn’t want her to attend.”

If the doctor had allowed it, Paul would have had serious doubts about his credentials.

“If you need me to go...” The offer was out of his mouth before he could stop it. God, she looked good.

She smiled and something inside him shifted. “Thanks. But I think Mother and I need to do this alone. It’s the first time in a long time that we’ve bonded on any level.”

Paul didn’t mention the supposed agoraphobia. Let Jill have at least this time with her mother without analyzing it to death. As far as he could see, it was about all she’d gotten in the way of closeness with her mother since she’d arrived.

Unable to stop himself, he brushed a kiss across her cheek. He lingered for a moment, wanting more and unwilling to let go of the breath-stealing pull of desire, then he drew back.

“I’ll be back soon,” she murmured, her eyes not quite meeting his. “Thank you for being here.”

She started for the door but Paul stopped her with the question he’d almost forgotten to ask. “Is Kate left-handed or right?”

Jill faced him. “Right-handed, why?”

He nodded once, ignoring her question. “And so are you?” He already knew the answer to that one.

She laughed uncertainly. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

He shook his head. “No real reason. Go on. Your mother’s waiting.”

A frown still troubling her smooth brow, she did as he instructed. He watched her go, uneasiness ratcheting up inside him in slow, steady increments.

It would come to Jill later, as she sat on that hard, polished pew on the front row of the Paradise Methodist Church that true identical twins were most often mirror images. If she was right-handed, Kate should be left-handed.

~*~

Jill stood on the steps of the church between her mother and the somber minister. The service had been relatively short, but agonizing. Now, as they shook the hands of all who had graciously attended, Jill wished it was over. It was impossible to miss the difference between the way she was addressed as each friend and neighbor passed and the way her mother was. Each outstretched hand barely grazed her palm and the owner allowed only the tightest of smiles.

What had she expected? She had come here prepared for this very reaction. After all, she’d moved away years ago and had hardly visited. Deep down, she understood the shunning had nothing to do with her leaving or her staying gone, it was about the investigation she’d chosen to conduct. The people here didn’t want their town or its officials scrutinized. It would serve only one purpose in their eyes, to tarnish the prestigious image of Paradise.

A tear slipped past her steel-like restraint and she quickly swiped it away. She didn’t care what these people thought. She wanted to know what had happened to her nephew and her sister. She would not rest until she had some answers. An innocent child was dead, so was his father, and her sister was trapped in a prison of her own making in the eyes of the powers that be. Jill would know the reason why before she was through, regardless of what any of these people thought.

The next hand to touch hers was cold and tense.

Jill’s gaze zeroed in on the nearest face in the long line. Connie. Her friend. Her confidant. A girl she’d loved at times more than her own sister.

Connie smiled as tightly as the blur of faces that came before her and would have moved on if Jill had not held her back, clutching her hand with all her might. “Thank you for coming, Connie. You’re a good friend.”

Eyes wide and brimming with her own tears, Connie rushed down the steps without even acknowledging Jill’s mother. Jill had been lying to herself. She did care what a few of these people thought, and Connie was one of them.

At least now she knew where she stood.

She had no friends left in Paradise.

When it was finally over, the trip to the hospital started out in grave, empty silence. Claire surveyed the changes in the town like a child confused and frustrated by the remodeling of her room.

“I didn’t realize how much things had changed.”

Jill forced a smile. “Paradise is even lovelier than ever.”

Oddly, her mother didn’t respond. The silence resumed.

Claire didn’t speak again until they were in Kate’s hospital room. “Jesus in Heaven, how can this be my sweet Kate?” She drew a sharp breath, then let it out slowly as she shook her head in painful resignation.

Jill realized then that her mother hadn’t expected it to be quite so bad. Kate lay there, the head of the bed elevated slightly, staring off into space. She didn’t acknowledge the presence of company or the sound of their voices. She just lay there, unaware that her son had been pronounced dead, that her husband was currently being dissected like a lab rat. And that most of the community had shown up for a memorial service to honor their passing.

Tears burned the backs of her lids and Jill promised herself she would not cry again. It was enough. She was too tired to expend the necessary energy.

Claire eased down on the side of the bed next to Kate and stroked her cheek. She hummed softly, a tune Jill recognized. Her mother had hummed or sang that sweet song to them whenever they were sick or hurt. She’d hold Jill or Kate, whichever needed her, and rock them gently in her arms, humming that unforgettable melody.

Hush little baby... now don’t say a word...

This time Jill didn’t bother fighting the tears. She didn’t have the strength.

The door cracked open and one of the nurses stuck her head inside. “There’s someone here who’d like to speak with you, Ms. Ellington.”

Jill knew the nurse was addressing her because she looked directly at her, but she couldn’t fathom who needed to speak with her. Everyone in town went out of their way to avoid her. Another stab of pain went through her at the thought of Connie’s slight.

“I’ll be back, Mother,” she said, but Claire didn’t look up or stop her soft crooning.

Jill knew it wouldn’t be Phillips waiting for her, he would have come into the room.

Before heading back to the desk the nurse offered, “I’ll just put this stop under the door so it won’t lock on you.” She pulled a small rubber stop from her pocket and tucked it under the door to Kate’s room, leaving it open a few inches.

“Thank you.” When the nurse was on her way, Jill turned to the man waiting in the corridor.

Senator Wade, looking elegant in his expensive suit, smiled sympathetically. He’d spoken to Jill at the service, but there had been so many people his words had been brief, rushed. She hadn’t expected to see him here.

She manufactured the expected smile. “Are you here to see Kate?”

He glanced through the window, the same one where Jill had watched her sister that first day back in Paradise as the chief had relayed the unbelievable chain of events that had landed Kate here.

“No, no,” Senator Wade said quickly. “I don’t want to intrude. I just wanted to tell you again how sorry I am that all this has happened.” He shook his head. “I can’t imagine the devastation that you and your mother are suffering right now. If the Judge were here, he’d be proud of you both for holding up so well under these tragic circumstances.”

Jill forced herself to be cordial considering the chief was doing little to solve the
circumstances
and the senator apparently hadn’t noticed. “Thank you. I appreciate your saying so. We’re doing the best we can.”

His posture changed and he sighed. He’d done his good deed for his grieving constituents. “Remember, Jill, if there is anything I can do, all you have to do is say the word.”

A renewed jolt of fury made her reckless. “There is something,” she said, assuming the picture of innocence. She had to have the answer to this. Maybe it wasn’t the time or place but the question weighed heavily on her mind.

“Anything,” he emphasized with a nod of that regal head.

“Why is the Benford Chemical incident a secret in Paradise?”

The flare of surprise in his expression was so subtle she almost missed it, his recovery was nothing short of masterful. “Why do you say it’s a secret?”

Ah, good one. Answer a question with a question. The hallmark strategic maneuver of a thoroughbred politician.

“Because I’d never heard of it and no one I knew growing up ever spoke of it. It just seems odd that no one talks about it or the fact that for years Benford seeped chemicals that posed the risk of sterility in humans.”

“I don’t know why you’ve never heard of that ugly time in Paradise’s history, but I can tell you that the EPA spent a great deal of money cleaning up the mess. I suppose,” he offered with seemingly genuine intentions, “that most folks consider something as painful as that is better left in the past. Too close to the bone to speak of in public.”

It was close to the bone all right. Jill fumed but she held her tongue until he finished.

“The town council voted to leave the old building standing as a reminder of how very fragile life is and how fiercely we must protect it.”

As with most answers given by politicians, she needed clarification. “So you’re saying that nothing came of it since the EPA cleaned up the mess.”

“That’s correct,” he said emphatically. “Why, you must have noticed that Paradise’s population has never dwindled.”

Yes, she had noticed that, but that didn’t answer her question. “Except for two years prior to the plant’s closing and another two years afterwards. There wasn’t a single birth in Paradise during those years. I checked.”

He folded one arm over his chest and braced his elbow there, then tapped his lips with his forefinger as he pretended to consider her words. “I can’t answer that one for you. But I would imagine that during any town’s history there will be a dry spell from time to time. As a matter of fact, I remember a number of us, your father and mother included, had put off starting families until we were more settled career wise.” He laughed at his own faux pas. “In fact, it appears that I’ve put it off indefinitely.”

The senator being in his late sixties, the same age as her father if he were still alive, she would have to agree with that particular conclusion. Strange, she decided, he showed not even the slightest uneasiness at her pursuit of the subject.

His smile beamed full force. “Of course I have dedicated myself to the state of Tennessee. I really haven’t had time for family commitments.”

Though she would never admit it to him, Jill saw herself taking that same route. Phillips’ image flickered briefly, as if offering an alternative. She pushed the idea, as unexpectedly tempting as it was, away. Then again, what if she was infertile like her sister? She couldn’t think about that either. She had to focus. Maybe she and the senator had more in common than she’d realized. At least he was cordial to her and seemed sincerely concerned.

“I should be on my way.” He squared his shoulders and gave her a nod. “You let me know if I can help in any way. I don’t mind being asked questions about anything that concerns you, Jill. Your father was my dearest friend and I won’t have you worrying about a thing.”

She thanked him and watched as he strode away. Maybe she and Paul should lay all their cards on the table for the senator, get his take. And his help. Maybe he wasn’t even aware the chief was performing negligently where the murder investigation was concerned.