Hide & Seek - Nicole Edwards Page 0,58
was writing down the information she was rattling off.
There was a soft chuckle. “I’ll shoot it to you, Reese. You don’t have to write it down.”
Reese looked up, peered around the truck as though he expected to find a camera. It was enough to have Brantley grinning.
“Then you’ve got Maria Espinoza,” JJ continued, “twenty years old, student, no spouse, still lives at home with her parents and two younger siblings. Shelly Masters, forty-three years old, registered nurse, divorced single mom to two little boys. And last but certainly not least, Debbie Struthers, twenty-nine, junior partner at a prestigious law firm, lives with one female roommate.”
“What you’re sayin’ is they couldn’t be more different.”
“From that angle, no,” JJ said. “Different race, height, weight, shape, marital status. They’re a very diverse group of women.”
“What do they have in common besides their relatively close addresses and their jogging patterns?” Brantley asked.
“Children.”
Frowning, he glanced at Reese, then back out the window as he pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant.
Reese skimmed his finger down the notepad he was holding. “You just said two of them don’t have children.”
“They don’t. But they live with people who do. Maria Espinoza has two younger siblings, and Debbie Struthers’s roommate has a three-year-old daughter.”
“You think he’s somehow connected to these kids?”
“I think it’s possible,” JJ said. “But I haven’t had a chance to dig into everything yet.”
“Well, keep diggin’. We’re gonna stop for lunch, meet up with Trey and Baz, see what they found out from the husband.”
“Okay. Keep me in the loop.”
“Hey, JJ?” Reese said before she could disconnect.
“Yeah?”
“How’s Tesha?”
Brantley couldn’t stop his smile. He loved how much Reese loved that dog.
Her voice softened. “She’s doin’ great. She’s here with me right now. We went outside a little while ago. I’ll send over a pic.”
“Not necessary, but thanks.”
“Anytime. Talk to y’all in a bit.”
The picture came through a couple of minutes later and yes, it made Reese smile, which in turn made Brantley.
A good half hour later, Brantley was sitting at a table with Reese, Trey, and Baz, the four of them finishing up their second and third helpings of food.
How was it you could go to an all-you-can-eat and always attempt to eat until you puke? Well, everyone except for Reese. He was the one who mentioned the place and he never ventured anywhere except for the salad bar.
Reese was telling Trey and Baz about JJ’s theory that the missing women were somehow tied to this man through the kids.
“According to the husband,” Baz said, “that’s a good possibility. He said Jody spends a tremendous amount of time carting the kids around to various functions. Dance class, violin and piano lessons, painting, karate. You name it, I think their kids are doin’ it.”
“What about the social scene?” Reese asked. “Do they take the kids any one specific place?”
Trey spoke up. “Like those trampoline places or bounce house things?”
Brantley stared at his brother.
“What? I’ve taken Meghan, Ashley, and Eric a couple of times,” he admitted, referring to their nieces and nephews.
Reese was jotting the information down. “The only way we’ll find out is to talk to the families of the other victims.”
“I can tell you, Mr. Henderson won’t be much help,” Baz told him. “He seemed clueless as to where Jody took the kids. At least specifically. I got the feelin’ he spends a lot of time at work and she takes care of everything else.”
“Like the house,” Trey inserted. “Holy shit. If it weren’t for the fact she was into workin’ out, I would’ve thought she was a Stepford wife.”
“One thing that bothered me,” Baz noted, “was the fact Mr. Henderson said no one but an officer had been by to talk to him.”
Brantley frowned. “Not Collins?”
“He said he called the police and they sent an officer out, but they told him they’d be in touch. We were the first to make face-to-face since.”
Reese leaned back. “Maybe Collins is overloaded, had the uniform go out in his place.”
“Maybe.” Baz appeared disturbed ty the idea. “But his top priority should be the hot case. It’s true what they say about the first forty-eight hours. That’s critical time to piece together clues.”
“Well, that’s why we’re here. I say we split up the families of the other victims,” Brantley suggested, “go pay them a visit, see if they might be able to provide some puzzle pieces. Then we’ll split up Jody’s list of friends, reach out to them, see if they can shed any light.”
“Sounds like a plan,”