She stared straight ahead, her face vacant, her voice toneless when she said, "I don't remember."
This was the face Shauna Anthony probably saw when she'd questioned JoLynn. And I was certain she'd repeated those three words many times from age nine until today.
I reached into my bag and took out the picture of the necklace and held it up in front of her so she couldn't avoid looking at it. Working hard to be as patient as Kate managed to be, I said, "Do you remember this?"
I saw her eyes widen a little; then the blank stare returned. "Never saw it before."
Now she was outright lying. "Funny thing, because you wore this necklace in every picture they took of you while you were in the CPS system. You had it with you the night Officer Shauna Anthony picked you up, the night you were soggy and scared and alone in the bus station."
"Okay, it was mine. So what?" JoLynn's less-thansweet side was coming out. But there was more than anger. The fear in her eyes was back.
"We want to help you," I said. "Your grandfather wants to protect you. We can't do that unless we know the truth."
"He's not my grandfather. He was a mark. I conned him and he can press charges if he wants." She pulled free of Kate and crossed her arms over her chest, raising her chin in defiance.
Cooper said, "Nice act, JoLynn. But you're not fooling anyone. You're scared shitless."
She blinked rapidly, fighting to maintain her composure, fighting the hurt and the anger. "What more do you need to know? I was a worthless bag of dirt and my parents dumped me."
I thought Kate might cry the tears JoLynn seemed incapable of shedding. But she didn't. "Who were your parents, JoLynn?" she said. "What's your real name?"
"I don't remember," came the robotic reply.
I took out the sketch-artist copy and laid it on her lap. "Do you know this man?"
She cocked her head one way and then the other as she stared down at the face. "I—I . . . no," she said, finally making eye contact with me again. "But that's a police sketch. Did he kill Kent?"
This time, she wasn't acting. Unlike when she first saw the necklace photo, there wasn't even a hint of recognition in her expression now.
"We don't know if he's the killer," Cooper said.
I added the picture of the security guard. "What about this guy?"
She blinked. Did I see a flicker of recognition before she closed her eyes?
But she said, "I don't know him, either."
I placed the jeweled-owl picture on top of the police sketch. "Let's get back to this, then. Who gave this to you?"
"I don't remember," she said.
I've been called stubborn as a two-headed mule all my life, but this girl had me beat. At least today.
Kate looked at me and said, "Abby, why don't we give JoLynn time to think about all this?"
But, no surprise, Cooper wasn't ready to give up. "We found pictures of you bringing flowers to the Richter plot at Glenwood Cemetery. You know anything about that?"
"What?" JoLynn seemed downright confused now.
"And guess where we found them? At your old boyfriend's place," Cooper said. "Did you know he had those?"
"Are you saying he was following me before he tried to kill me? And he followed me there?" Patches of color had appeared on her pale cheeks. She seemed embarrassed and upset that her private moments had been captured.
Now I was the one who was confused.
"We aren't sure he took those pictures," Cooper said. "But they were in a folder in his office. We need your help, JoLynn. Please?"
I only vaguely heard her say, "But I don't remember anything," because I was considering who, besides Kent Dugan, might have taken those pictures.
All I could think about was a girl with a camera—a camera she loved to use.
28
We left JoLynn with her doting surrogate grandfather a few minutes later. The less-than-doting family members bombarded us with questions outside JoLynn's room. They wanted to know what we learned and if we were ready to close the case. We didn't inform them JoLynn was not related to the Richters as per Elliott Richter's request. That left little for us to talk about to folks who would have been overjoyed to learn she was an even bigger liar than they thought. I hated to think of JoLynn that way, but it was true.
While I was left bursting to tell Cooper and Kate my idea that Simone might have taken those pictures, Cooper fielded their questions with expert efficiency. He managed to tell them absolutely nothing—a technique I vowed to get better at. This left Matthew and Piper sulking and Adele, Leopold and Ian wondering what the hell was going on. Then we beat a hasty retreat.
I mentioned Simone and my picture theory on the walk to Kate's car.
"You're saying this teenager took the pictures and then somehow Dugan got ahold of them?"
"It's possible," I said. "What we don't know is how he got them."
Cooper said, "We have nothing except her possession of a camera to support your theory. Pretty thin, Abby."
"Don't you think we should investigate the possibility?" I said. "Simone could have followed JoLynn around. I saw her in action and believe me, she's capable of doing that."
"Even followed JoLynn to that cemetery? Can the girl drive?" he said.
Kate laughed. "How old do you think Simone is? Twelve?"
"But why would Simone follow her there?" he said.
"Seems like the kind of thing she does," I said.
"Okay. I give. But I'll let you handle this one. I've got a pile of phone records to examine. That seems like a less-theoretical way to make a connection between family members and Dugan."
Bet the phone company loved his constant nagging, I thought. Plus now he had to wait on whatever HPD could recover from Dugan's soggy cell phone. Obviously Cooper wanted to rely on hard evidence, not my theory about a girl and a camera. But my bet was on Simone.
So when we got to my place and Cooper said he needed to head back to Pineview, I said I'd follow him. Besides talking to Simone, I wanted to search JoLynn's room once more—but now I knew what I was looking for. That necklace.
Cooper shrugged and said to come along. But after he came downstairs with his bag, and Kate and I met him in the foyer, he said, "You heading to Pineview with Abby, Kate? Or do you have plans for this hot Sunday afternoon?"
"No plans," she said.
"Want to ride with me?" he asked.
She gave him a warm smile. "I would love to, Cooper."
The drive took far longer than I anticipated thanks to lots of Sunday traffic heading to The Woodlands Mall and Lake Conroe. On the way, I called Richter and told him I wanted to search JoLynn's room again. He told me he was coming back to Pineview as well, but was probably behind us. Then he abruptly hung up.
Huh? And then I realized he wasn't alone in the car and didn't want whoever was with him to know I was calling. I turned my full attention to Cooper's truck up ahead.
When we reached the ranch and stopped on the curving drive in front of the house, Cooper got out while Kate stayed put.
I rolled down my window.
He said, "Kate asked to see the police station. I'll drop her off back here in, say, an hour? Is that long enough to talk to Simone?"
I smiled. "Sure. You might even take Kate out to dinner. I'm sure you know all the healthy places in Pineview."
He grinned back. "Great idea."
Then the two of them took off, the dust of our dry summer in their wake.
I got out of the Camry, went to the door and knocked. The younger housekeeper, Estelle, answered. She looked surprised.
"Hello, Ms. Rose. Mr. Richter isn't home at this time."