Vile Read Free Page B

self-control. She didn’t dare glance back. Apparently, she had a lot to learn when it came to children.
    If this was any indication of her nurturing side, she was doomed.
    “It doesn’t get any easier.”
    “Excuse me?” Jess turned to the officer who’d followed her. She hadn’t realized Rice was right on her heels.
    “Whenever a child is involved in something like this it’s hard.” She hugged herself as if she felt a sudden chill. “I’ve been a part of dozens of situations where kids are abandoned or left behind after a tragedy, and it doesn’t get any easier.”
    “I don’t usually work with children.” And I’m pregnant , Jess wanted to shout. Her emotions were untrustworthy. Everything felt personal and too difficult. She was used to analyzing the details of a killer’s work. Her job rarely involved children unless they were missing or deceased. She’d had a case a few weeks ago involving a young boy but not this young. This was uncharted territory on more than one level.
    “I’ve been watching you on the news,” Rice said. “Your story is very inspiring. It’s an honor to have the opportunity to work with you.”
    The smile Jess managed this time was genuine. “Thank you.”
    Maybe Gina Coleman was right when she said the world needed to know the whole story about the past few months. Jess had given that interview over the weekend. For the first time since returning to Birmingham, she’d told someone besides Dan the story of how her life had come to be entangled with a serial killer.
    Rice hitched her thumb toward the storeroom and the still wailing little girl. “I’ll just make sure everything’s okay in there.”
    Jess gave her a nod and shifted her attention to the clerk. Ellen Gentry sat on a stool behind the counter. She had wrung her hands until Jess was reasonably sure the skin was chapped.
    “Miss Gentry, I’m Deputy Chief Jess Harris.”
    Gentry nodded. “You’re that lady from the news.” Gentry jerked her head in what was probably a nod. “The one the serial killer is after.”
    Wasn’t being a celebrity fun? “That’s me. I’d like to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind.” The sobbing in the back room faded, signaling the little girl was gone, and somehow making Jess feel sad. Damned pregnancy hormones .
    “Like I told the other cop, I don’t really know anything. I noticed her out there and got worried.”
    Jess pulled her pad and pencil from her bag and flipped to a clean page. “Did you notice her more than once?”
    Gentry seemed to think about that question for a moment, then she nodded. “I had a bunch of orders to fill, but I remember glancing outside and noticing her there. A good while later, after I’d filled all those orders, I noticed her again. That’s when I got concerned.” She glanced outside. “I hope no one’s tried to come for their order yet. I can’t afford to have my business being turned away.”
    “We’ll be finished in a few minutes,” Jess assured her. “Would you say you went out to check on her a half hour or an hour after the first time you noticed her on the sidewalk?”
    “Close to an hour I think, but I can’t say for sure.”
    “What time do you open the shop?”
    “I get here about eight-thirty and I open the doors at nine.” She fidgeted with her nails, picking at a cuticle. “I would’ve checked on her sooner. I had no idea her parents had just dumped her out there.”
    “You couldn’t have known,” Jess offered. “Did you come in through the front or the back this morning?”
    “The back.” Gentry’s right foot started to pat the air. She was nervous or upset. Understandable. “Something like twenty minutes later when I unlocked the front door, I walked out onto the sidewalk to pick up a McDonald’s cup someone had tossed and she wasn’t there then.”
    “You unlocked the front door around nine?”
    Gentry nodded.
    “As you went about filling your orders, did you notice anyone passing by?