50
Aubri Lane’s Restaurant
1:50 p.m.
Jo didn’t want to stop to eat but Tony insisted.
Bobbie picked at the food on her plate.
“Morning sickness?” Jo had read a post by her sister-in-law that said her morning sickness came every afternoon rather than in the mornings.
Seemed silly to call it morning sickness if it occurred at different times of the day. Jo figured she would never know how it felt to carry a child. You had to be able to connect with other humans on a deeper level to form that kind of bond and she couldn’t quite accomplish the feat. Her gaze shifted to Tony and she cursed herself for being an idiot. They didn’t have a bond; they shared a mutual need. Not the same thing.
“Every day, several times a day.” Bobbie laughed softly. “But it’ll pass.”
Jo remembered that Bobbie had been pregnant before. Something else she couldn’t imagine—the pain of losing a child. Losing her family had been hard enough. She wondered if her brother had given her message to her mom. Probably. Ray always stood by his word.
She’d made a promise to go home for a visit when this was over. Could she really do that? Go back and pretend to be that person again? She could try, couldn’t she? There was much in this life that Jo was no longer capable of, but she could at least be as good as her word. When you had nothing else, you had that.
“How far along are you?” Since Tony and Nick were in deep conversation over a map, Jo figured she could at least be sociable. A totally novel concept for her. Bobbie and Nick had come a long way to help. They were nice. Tony was nice. She glanced at him again. He should stop beating up on himself.
If all the cops and these guys right here couldn’t find those missing girls, no one could. For the first time in eighteen years, Jo felt some sense of hope that this might actually be over soon. She could close her eyes at night and know that the people who stole her life and the lives of so many others wouldn’t be taking anyone else’s.
“Three months,” Bobbie said in answer to her question. “I only just started sharing the news. My uncle is over the moon. He’s looking forward to playing the part of grandfather...again.”
She lapsed into silence.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t ask so many questions.”
Bobbie smiled. She had the bluest eyes. So pale and bright. “It’s okay. I’m getting used to touching the past without it hurting so much. I don’t want to pretend my little boy never existed. Or his father. I love and miss them every day. I just realized that loving them didn’t mean I couldn’t love and be happy with Nick and the children we have together. Nick doesn’t take the place of James any more than this baby will take Jamie’s place. I never thought I’d reach this stage, but I’m glad I did.”
Jo wondered if she would ever find that place. “I’m glad for you.”
Bobbie reached across the table and put her hand on Jo’s. “You can find it, too. You just have to open your eyes and your heart to the possibility.”
Jo nodded. It was the best she could do without the risk of blurting out the emotions whirling inside her right now. The past few days had challenged her ability to stay indifferent.
Her cell vibrated.
She removed it from her pocket, expecting to see her boss’s name on the screen. A frown furrowed her brow. She didn’t recognize the number so she hit decline and shoved the phone back into her pocket.
“Excuse me.” She scooted back her chair. “Gotta hit the ladies’ room.”
Tony glanced at her as she turned toward the far end of the café.
Once she was in the ladies’ room, she pulled out her cell and stared at the number of the missed caller. The phone started to vibrate again with a call from the same number. She jumped. Almost dropped it.
“Hello.”
“Joanna Guthrie?”
Female.
“Yes.” The only woman who had this number was Ellen. Wait... She’d written the number on the back of the card Tony had given Madelyn Houser.
“I have a proposal for you.”
“Dr. Blume?” Had to be. Madelyn was dead. Who else could it be? Sounded way too mature to be Ellen’s daughter.
“Where are you at this moment?” Blume, presumably, asked.
Jo laughed. “What do you want?”
“You tell me where you are and I’ll tell you how to get here before I kill your new friend’s niece.”
Jo’s heart slammed into her sternum. She didn’t hesitate. “Aubri Lane’s restaurant on Wayne Street.”
“All right. You leave your friends right now,” the voice instructed. “Go out the back of the restaurant, slip through the alley and loop to your right which will take you to a street just beyond where you are now. Two blocks to your left is Franklin. Take the next left and a car will be waiting in front of Memory Hill Cemetery. If you don’t show up or you tell anyone else, they’ll all die. Including Ellen’s poor damaged daughter.”
The call ended.
Jo’s heart pounded faster and faster. She was familiar with the cemetery. Another of those haunted places new freshmen explored. First, she should tell Tony. No. She couldn’t go back out there. She couldn’t tell him and he would recognize something was wrong. Blume was right—had to be Blume—Jo had to go out the back. She had to do this.
But she couldn’t leave without giving Tony something to go on. Ending up dead without leaving some idea of where to start searching for the others would be plain dumb.
Jo ducked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. She glanced around until she saw what she needed. She grabbed the pen from the counter and hurried back to the bathroom. Inside the first stall she considered carefully what to say before she wrote the message on the wall. If she told anyone or was too straightforward with her message he might catch up with her before she reached the car Blume was sending. Couldn’t risk it.
Going to save Tif and the others. Sylvia is there, too. Lunch was too close to the dead. Look up and you’ll see.
She shoved the pen into her back pocket and went to the door.
Deep breath.
She opened the door slowly and moved into the narrow hall. Bobbie, Tony and Nick were still at the table, hovering over the map.
Jo moved toward the back of the restaurant that had once been a historic home. This time when she reached the kitchen she moved on through as if she belonged there and out the door she went. She hurried along the alley until she found a narrow side alley leading back out to Wayne Street.
She moved fast from there. Not quite running, but close. She took the left at Franklin and spotted the cemetery immediately. Memory Hill was one of the oldest in the city. Students sneaked around the cemetery at night to see if the rumors that it was haunted were true.
A black car waited in front of the gate. Jo walked to the car. A man sat behind the wheel. He powered the window down. “Ms. Guthrie?”
She nodded.
“I’m here to take you to your meeting.”
Jo looked around, spotted what she was looking for immediately so she climbed into the back seat.
As soon as the door closed he rolled away from the curb.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m sorry,” he said, “I have orders not to discuss the destination with you. It’s supposed to be a surprise.” He smiled at her in the rearview mirror. “I pick you up. I drop you off.”
“I get it. My friend likes surprises.” She managed a smile back at him. “It’s my birthday. I’m turning eighteen again.” She prayed he would remember that when the police interviewed him.
The driver flashed her another smile before turning his attention back to the street.
Jo dug the pen from her back pocket. “You know,” she said to the driver as she leaned forward pretending to peer out the front windshield, “this is my first visit to Milledgeville. I had no idea there was so much history here.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised.”
As he talked on and on about the city that had once been Georgia’s capital, Jo kept her eyes on him in the rearview mirror while she wrote a message on the back of his leather seat.
Maybe she’d get lucky and the driver would see it when he cleaned the car this evening.
Or the next fare he picked up would take the message seriously and call the police.
Then she recognized the road they were taking and the pen slipped from her fingers.
She had known this was the place.