Missing and Endangered (Joanna Brady #19)(88)

Joanna was thunderstruck. Obviously Kendall could recall every chilling detail of what had happened that awful morning and do so in chronological order. That made this seven-year-old child the closest thing to an eyewitness there was to what had happened out in Whetstone. Now Joanna found herself wondering if Dave Newton had bothered to ask Kendall a single question. Had he even spoken to her? When Joanna glanced in Peter’s direction, however, she found him gaping at his sister in openmouthed amazement.

“You saw Daddy dead?” he demanded.

Kendall nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re just a little kid,” Kendall said fiercely. “That’s why.”

And that was the moment that broke Sheriff Joanna Brady’s heart.





Chapter 44





It wasn’t exactly the kind of celebratory homecoming Joanna had hoped to have as the beginning of Christmas break. For one thing, everyone—Joanna included—was tired beyond bearing. Beth Rankin was a stranger to all of them. She was shy and withdrawn, and Denny’s laserlike questioning didn’t help matters. Who was she? Where did she live? Was she Jenny’s best friend? What did she like to eat? How old was she? Did she have her own car? Did she know how to ride a horse?

It was a relief to all concerned when Butch banished Denny from the table to go take his bath. Minutes later Jenny grabbed Sage out of her high chair. “You guys visit, why don’t you,” she said. “I’ll put Sage down, too.”

“I’m really sorry to barge in on all of you like this,” Beth said at last, speaking as if hoping to find a way to fill the conversational void.

“We’re glad to have you,” Joanna said. “They might have caught the shooter, but with that other guy still on the loose, there’s no place I’d rather you and Jen to be than right here, locked inside our rolling shutters.”

“I saw those when Jenny was closing them earlier,” Beth offered. “They look pretty amazing.”

“According to the company’s sales brochure, even trained SWAT teams can’t penetrate them.”

“Good to know,” Beth said.

An uneasy silence settled over the table. Finally, after glancing back and forth between Butch and Joanna, Beth said quietly, “I guess you know everything that happened, and you must think I’m really stupid.”

“I don’t think you’re stupid at all,” Butch said. “And believe me, you’re definitely not alone. Have you ever watched a program called Web of Lies?”

Beth shook her head. “Never heard of it,” she said. “As you might have noticed, my mother’s a little weird. She doesn’t approve of TV sets any more than she approves of computers or cell phones, and since that’s how I grew up, I never got in the habit of watching.”

“It’s on a channel called Investigation Discovery,” Butch explained. “Each show focuses on a victim of some kind of cybercrime—identity theft, cyberbullying, sextortion. That’s what happened to you, by the way.”

“Sextortion?” Beth asked, frowning. “That’s what they call it?”

Joanna nodded. “That’s what this so-called Ron guy did to you. It’s when perpetrators blackmail their victims with threats of taking damaging photographs public. Only in your case he didn’t bother with threatening. He just sent out the photos. But Butch is right, you might consider watching a few of those programs sometime. At least you’ll see that you’re by no means alone.”

Beth nodded. Another short pause followed until she spoke again. “Before Jenny comes back, I have to say that I wouldn’t have made it through all this without her. Even though I left Jenny out and didn’t really tell her much about what was going on between Ron and me, when it started falling apart, she was right there for me. I’ve never had a real friend before—not ever. And to think she almost got killed because of me.” Beth shivered. “If she had died, I never would have forgiven myself.”

Reaching out, Joanna took Beth’s hand. “But Jenny didn’t die,” she said reassuringly, “and neither did you. You’re both here and safe, and no matter what, we’re all going to have a wonderful Christmas.”

Beth shot a glance in Butch’s direction. “Did he tell you about my parents?”

“Not really, no,” Joanna said.

The truth was, they had yet to have a moment of privacy when he could have.

“Ron sent my parents all those nude pictures,” Beth said in a voice that was barely more than a whisper. “When my mother saw them, she went bananas. She thinks it’s all my fault. She’ll probably never speak to me again.”

Joanna couldn’t help but remember the often strained relations she and her mother had shared. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” she said. “Here’s the weird thing about mothers. Yes, they get mad at their daughters from time to time, but eventually they come around. Maybe yours will, too.”

Beth shook her head. “I doubt it. My grandmother would have forgiven me, but not my mother. I wish Grandma Lockhart were still here.” Beth’s voice broke, and she burst into tears. “Until I met Jenny, Grandma Lockhart was the only person who ever understood me. She’s dead now, but she’s the one who’s making it possible for me to go to school.”