the same reason she wanted your daughter buried here,” Jack said, putting down his glass as he got to his feet. “We really should be going. Thank you for your candor.”
Karen stood, wondering if the temperature in the room had dropped or if it was just her imagination.
“Anything to help you find Liz’s killer,” the doctor said, walking them to the door.
AS THEY DROVE AWAY, Jack looked over at Karen. “Good work,” he said. “Although you did make me a little nervous.” More than a little nervous. She’d upset Vandermullen. With one woman already dead, Jack didn’t like Karen upsetting the suspects.
Not that she wasn’t already in danger. He just couldn’t help feeling protective when it came to her.
Karen didn’t answer. She seemed deep in thought. Probably thinking the same thing he was. About Denny’s baby. How tragic for his friend. If only Liz had kept it to herself. What had she hoped to gain by telling him about Joanna now? It seemed so cruel. And it made Jack wonder if Liz had been in her right mind.
Not that he’d liked Vandermullen. Nor been sympathetic to the man’s plight. But maybe it did give them a little insight into Liz in the hours before her death.
Maybe Vandermullen had been right to worry about his ex-wife. Her behavior was definitely bizarre. Telling Denny about a baby that had been dead for sixteen years. Hooking up with a complete stranger through a personal ad. Having a “relationship” with a man she knew nothing about—not even his name.
“He’s lying,” Karen said as Jack turned on Greenough.
“What?” he asked, swiveling his gaze to her.
“He’s lying. Liz didn’t hate hospitals. She worked as a candy striper in high school and wanted to be a nurse. I remember because it seemed at odds with a girl who ran with bikers and didn’t show much interest in school. She used to borrow my notes in biology after skipping the class most mornings. I’d forgotten about that.” Karen looked over at him. “Does that sound like someone who was afraid of hospitals and wanted to take the chance of having her baby anywhere but in a hospital?”
He stared at her.
“If Vandermullen lied about that, then who says he didn’t lie about the baby being born dead?” she demanded.
“For what possible reason?”
“I know it’s been sixteen years, but he didn’t seem upset enough over losing the only child the two of them would ever have,” she said. “Maybe he knew the baby wasn’t his. He was a doctor, for crying out loud. He could probably count up to nine months. Maybe he talked Liz into giving the baby up for adoption but to save face, let everyone believe it had died. Couldn’t a man in his position fake a birth—and death—certificate?”
Her logic still scared him, but unfortunately often made a strange kind of warped sense. It fit Vandermullen. The kind of guy who’d only want his own kid with his own genes. Probably why they’d never adopted a child.
“You think Liz would go along with giving up her baby like that?” Jack asked.
Karen shrugged. “If she loved Vandermullen and knew he wouldn’t accept her daughter for his own, yes. But she was bound to regret it. Maybe that’s why she went to Denny with the truth. She wanted his help to find her daughter and make amends. She’d just divorced Vandermullen. It all ties together.”
Jack had to admit it did tie up pretty nicely. Maybe a little too nicely. “Why did she go to the cemetery, then, if she knew there was no baby buried there?”
Karen bit her lower lip in obvious contemplation. “Because, if I’m right, then the grave has been her only connection with her daughter for sixteen years.”
Like a blade of ice, her words pierced his heart. He couldn’t shake that image of Liz Jones beside her daughter’s grave.
“Even if you’re right, we have no way to prove it,” he said, always the cop. “Liz is dead and Vandermullen is sticking to a completely different story.”
“There has to be a way,” Karen said, her voice full of determination. “The answer is in that grave.”
He looked over at her. “Don’t even say it.”
“Jack, you know if I’m right, Vandermullen would never let us have the grave opened and any proof we might have been able to find probably died with Liz.”
He stared at her. She couldn’t seriously be considering— He swerved to keep the car on the road. Boy, had his first impression of this woman been