Chapter 12
“You’re sure she was always alone,” Adeline pressed. The librarian on duty was a little reluctant to talk about Cherry Prescott at first, but eventually opened up.
“Yes, ma’am,” the young woman said with a pointed look. “She came during her lunch hour several times. Never checked out any books, just used the computers.” She nodded toward the rear of the library. “Right over there. Station one. She always used station one.”
“Do you recall the last time she was here?”
“The same day she,” the woman glanced around, “disappeared,” she whispered. “I remember because I couldn’t believe it. I’d just seen her at lunchtime. When I watched the news the next morning, I was shocked.”
The answer to the next question was essential. “Do you know how often your servers are updated?”
“Every Thursday night.”
Damn it. “Thank you, Ms. Vincent.” Adeline pulled a business card from her pocket. “I’d like you to call me if you remember anything else. Anything at all.”
Vincent nodded.
Adeline headed for the front entrance. Damn it. Damn it. That would make finding what Cherry Prescott had been researching a hell of a lot more difficult.
Wyatt caught up with her on the front steps. “I can check with the state lab. They have a cyber division. It would take a warrant, but I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”
That could take days. They didn’t have days.
Adeline climbed into the passenger seat. “You should do another press conference.” She had watched footage of his previous two press conferences. He hadn’t mentioned the princess letters in either.
He started the engine and looked over his shoulder before backing out of the parking slot. “We don’t have anything new to report to the public. What would be the point?”
Adeline grabbed hold of her patience with both hands. Why wasn’t he on the same page with her about this? “There’s another victim out there, Wyatt.” She turned to stare at his profile. As she did his jaw hardened, a sharply defined muscle starting to tic. “Two to go, remember?”
He apparently took a moment to get a grip on his patience, as well.
“I agree that there is possibly another victim. However, we have no known relevant connections between you and Prescott. What am I supposed to say? If you have blond hair and you’re in your thirties call us if you’ve gotten a cut-and-paste letter about a princess? ”
“What’s wrong with that?” Adeline didn’t see the problem. That was what they had. Why not make it public knowledge and see what kind of reaction they got?
She turned her attention to the street, inventoried the numerous Christmas displays, and marveled at the idea that it was Christmas Eve and she hadn’t thought about that fact once today. “Besides, there is a connection between me and Prescott.”
He glanced at her. Didn’t say the words, but he knew. She hadn’t missed the look he’d shot her when Huff admitted that Prescott was having water nightmares. As much as she hated to say the words, she reminded him, “The nightmares she started having related to her daughter is a definite connection.”
“So you’re saying,” he said, while making the turn that would put them on 1-98, “that you believe there’s some sort of past traumatic event involving water that connects you to Prescott?”
“That’s what I’m saying.” It was bizarre, no question. Maybe even a little irrational. But it was the only significant lead they had.
“Prescott grew up in Hattiesburg,” he said like she didn’t know. “She spent six years at Ole Miss. You said yourself you’d never, to your knowledge, met her. Are we talking about a psychic connection? Because that’s sure as hell what it sounds like.”
Now he was just trying to piss her off. “You know damned well I’m not talking that shit.
” Jesus Christ. “I could talk to my mom. Maybe we knew the family somehow when I was a kid.” Frustration caught up with her.
“How the hell should I know? There’s a connection, Wyatt.
We just have to find it. Meanwhile someone else out there has or is about to get a letter.
If we don’t do something she’s going to disappear the same way Prescott did. ”
“You didn’t.”
Adeline took a deep breath and counted to ten. He was right. Damn it. “Yet,” she reminded, “the piece of shit who took Prescott could be watching me at this very moment.”
“I have a more realistic scenario.”
Adeline rolled her eyes. “Spell it out for me, Sheriff.”
He sent her a fierce glare. She didn’t have to look to know that it wasn’t pleasant.
“You were a cop here for more than a year. Maybe this has something to do with someone you pissed off during that time, someone who Prescott just happened to piss off as well in her capacity as an aspiring attorney. This could be about revenge for some perceived wrong from the past.”
“Clearly.” Of course revenge was what it amounted to.
“I can go along with the part about me pissing someone off. Take your pick of the residents in Jackson County, particularly if their last name happens to be Cooper. But Prescott would have been a student at Ole Miss at the time. Seems a stretch that we both pissed off the same guy.”
“But not impossible. Womack is working on that theory. He’s cross-checking anyone you arrested or hassled against the students registered at Ole Miss at the time.
If he comes up with a list of names related to your work, and he will, we can then check to see if anyone on that list had a class with Prescott or might have known her. ”
Adeline had to admit that she hadn’t even considered that line of thinking. “I’m impressed, Wyatt. I guess you are taking this connection seriously.”
His jaw turned to stone once more. She’d hit a nerve.
“Cherry Prescott may very well be dead. That would make this case a homicide.” Fury simmered in his tone. “But whether she’s dead or just missing, I take every case seriously. I don’t appreciate the implication, Cooper.”
Cooper. Yeah, he was pissed. “Seriously enough to go to the press and let them get the word out?”
The silence thickened for ten full seconds before he responded. “Let’s give it twenty-four more hours. If my people can’t come up with a tie that connects you and Prescott to a possible suspect, then we’ll go to the press.”
Before she agreed to his offer, Adeline needed to know one thing. “Why the reluctance? The media can be your friend.” Occasionally, she didn’t add.
Another of those long silences. “I promised the family that I wouldn’t let this investigation turn into a circus.
Prescott is a public figure. The family has received dozens of crank calls since her disappearance made the news.
It’s painful, Addy. It makes an already bad situation almost unbearable. ”
He would know. Nine years ago, when he’d let her down, the press had had a field day with it.
Fraternization on the Force Leads to Incompetence
Internal Affairs Investigation Reveals Grudge
Wyatt Henderson hadn’t had any trouble talking back then.
She didn’t have any trouble doing it now.
“When we get back to Pascagoula,” she said, keeping her attention on the passing landscape, “just drop me at the motel. My Bronco should be there by now.”
“It’s Christmas Eve, Addy.”
What the hell did that have to do with anything? “So it is.” She would call her mom. Maybe join her for dinner somewhere in town. No big deal. Holidays weren’t really her thing. Maybe that made her a bad daughter, but a cop’s work didn’t revolve around the federally recognized dates on a calendar.
“My family always has dinner together on Christmas Eve. I thought you might want to join us.”
He had to be kidding. “I don’t think your family would appreciate an unexpected last-minute guest, particularly one named Adeline Cooper.”
“You know better than that.” He glanced at her. She refused to meet his eyes. “My family adores you.”
“Your family adored me nearly a decade ago, Wyatt.” She did turn to him then. “Before the shit hit the fan. Lines were drawn, in case you’ve forgotten. Sides were taken. There weren’t too many folks who took mine.”
The hollow roar of the tires on asphalt filled the lapse in conversation for a minute or more. What she had said was the truth. He couldn’t deny it. Couldn’t change it.
And she did not want to talk about it.
Now or ever.
“I’m not taking no for an answer on this, Addy. I’ll pick you up at ten before eight,” he announced. “If your mother would like to join us, we’ll pick her up, too.” When she started to argue, he cut her off. “You’re in my jurisdiction now, Detective, and that’s an order.”
The chief had made her promise to show respect. She wasn’t so sure that included family dinners. But what the hell? It was Christmas.