All J.D. wanted to do was pick up his daughter and take her home. He’d considered calling and telling her he was sending a taxi to pick her up, but if he had, she would have asked him half a dozen questions. Questions he couldn’t have answered over the phone. Once the initial shock had worn off, Garth Hudson had recovered quickly and explained that until Keith Lawson’s and Chase Wilcox’s families had been notified, the information was to be kept under wraps.

“Willie…the chief has given me”—he had looked at Tam—“us permission to tell Hart and Audrey. He’ll speak to Wayne himself.”

“I’ll tell Audrey,” Tam had volunteered.

Garth had nodded agreement. “First, we need to track down the Lawson and Wilcox families. If any of them still live in the area, we’ll go see them personally. If not, well…” Garth had huffed. “It’s not the kind of news you want to deliver over the phone.”’

J.D. had stayed at police headquarters long enough that his departure didn’t look like a hasty getaway. But the sooner he picked up Zoe, the better. It was only a matter of time before Tam showed up to tell Audrey that the toddler skeletons had been positively identified.

Wanting to get in and out quickly and be gone before Tam arrived, J.D. tapped his foot nervously after he rang the doorbell. He hadn’t expected Zoe to open the door.

“Hi.” She smiled at him, something she seldom did. “Come on in.”

“Where’s Dr. Sherrod?” he asked as he stepped over the threshold.

“In the kitchen. The peach cobbler we made is ready to come out of the oven, so she asked me to see who was at the door.”

“Peach cobbler? I thought you were making cookies.”

“We made sugar cookies,” Zoe said. “And some of your favorite, too—chocolate chip. But Audrey said I can take those home with me.”

“That’s nice. And speaking of going home, are you about ready? We don’t want you overstaying your welcome, do we?”

Zoe stared at him as if he were speaking a foreign language that she didn’t understand. But before Zoe could respond, Audrey came out of the kitchen—a floral apron tied around her waist—and had apparently heard what he’d just said.

“Zoe certainly hasn’t overstayed her welcome.” There was a hard glint in Audrey’s eyes, telling him plainly that she didn’t approve of his comment. “We’ve had fun today. I enjoyed her company a great deal.”

The expression on Zoe’s face when she looked at Audrey Sherrod bordered on hero worship.

When Zoe turned to him, she smiled tentatively. “See, you were wrong. We don’t have to rush off. Come on in, J.D. We—Audrey and I—cooked supper and everything’s ready. We were just waiting for you.”

J.D. forced a smile, not wanting Zoe to realize how badly he wanted them to leave. “You cooked, huh?”

Audrey walked over and draped her arm around Zoe’s shoulders. “Your daughter seems to have a natural talent for it. She made the peach cobbler all by herself.”

Zoe beamed with pride. “I did, but Audrey talked me through the whole process. And it was pretty easy.”

“That’s great. I’m glad you’ve had such a good time with Dr. Sherrod, and I appreciate—”

“Zoe, why don’t you check on the potatoes,” Audrey said. “They should be just about ready.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Zoe whirled around and headed into the kitchen. The minute she was out of earshot, Audrey attacked.

“So help me, if you hurt that child’s feelings by refusing to stay and eat dinner—the dinner she worked so hard this afternoon to prepare for you—I won’t be held responsible for what I’ll do to you.”

J.D. didn’t know whether to laugh or feel insulted. He tried not to grin. Audrey Sherrod had retaliated like a mama bear defending her cub.

“I’m sorry.” J.D. huffed in frustration. “I don’t want to hurt Zoe’s feelings, and unfortunately, I seem to do just that quite often. I had no idea you two prepared a meal together and—”

“A meal your daughter prepared for you.” Audrey glared at him. “Are you such an insensitive moron that you don’t understand the significance?”

Had she just called him an insensitive moron? The cool, dignified Dr. Sherrod? He chuckled. She didn’t. When their gazes met and locked, he realized that she was furious. Furious with him.

“You’re right,” J.D. admitted. “I can be an insensitive moron and I have been with Zoe on numerous occasions, but in my defense, I had a good reason this evening for wanting to get her out of here as soon as possible.”

When he noted the puzzled look on Audrey’s face, he groaned. Now, she’d want him to explain.

“The potatoes are ready…I think,” Zoe called out from the kitchen doorway. “What do I do next? I’ve never creamed potatoes before.”

J.D. inclined his head toward the kitchen. “You’d better go show her how.”

“Be right there,” Audrey told Zoe before she said to J.D., “After dinner, you and I are going to talk. Alone.”

Lucky for J.D., Tam showed up just as they were finishing dinner. He was complimenting the chefs on the delicious meal when the doorbell rang. Audrey lifted her napkin from her lap, folded it, and placed it on the table; then she got up and went to the door.

J.D. downed the last bite of scrumptious cobbler before saying to Zoe, “Why don’t you and I clear the table and then clean up in the kitchen?”

“Absolutely.” Zoe stood and began stacking the dirty dishes.

As soon as Tam walked into Audrey’s home, she saw that she had company. If she was surprised by seeing J.D. and Zoe clearing away the dining table, she hid it well.

“I didn’t know you’d have dinner guests,” Tam said.

“It’s all right. We’re finished,” Audrey told her. “Zoe wanted to surprise her father, so I helped her prepare dinner for him.”

Tam’s brows rose as she widened her eyes in a just-what’s-really-going-on-here appraisal of the situation. “Oh, I see.” But it was obvious that she didn’t.

“Where’s Marcus?” Audrey asked.

“This isn’t exactly a social call.” Tam grasped Audrey’s hands.

Audrey’s face paled.

“Come on, Zoe, let’s go in the kitchen and get started on cleanup,” J.D. said.

Zoe did as he requested and carried a handful of dirty dishes into the kitchen. Once J.D. closed the door, she turned and faced him.

“Want to tell me what’s going on?”

“Officer Lovelady needed to talk to Dr. Sherrod privately. They’re close friends and—”

“I heard her say that this wasn’t a social call,” Zoe told him.

Damn! “Look, honey, this is none of your business.”

When Zoe stared at him, her eyes filled with hurt, he cursed himself for not being more tactful. “Zoe…”

She spun around, carried the dishes across the room, and lowered them into the sink. He followed her, and when he placed his hand on her shoulder, she shrugged his hand off and refused to look at him.

“I should have put that more diplomatically,” he said. “It’s not any of your business because it’s a police matter, and the only reason I know what Officer Lovelady is telling Audrey—Dr. Sherrod—is because it concerns me as a TBI agent. Do you understand?”

She lifted her head and glanced over her shoulder, a fine mist of tears in her eyes. She nodded.

J.D. wanted to grab his little girl, wrap her in his arms, and banish the hurt he had inflicted. Audrey had been right. He was an insensitive moron.

“Dinner was delicious,” he said. “I enjoyed every bite, especially the peach cobbler. I appreciate all the hard work you did preparing the meal.”

“I had fun and so did Audrey. She’s great, J.D. And you know what? She likes me. She really likes me.”

“And you like her, too, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do. A lot.” She searched his face as she asked, “Is what Officer Lovelady has to tell Audrey bad news?”

“Sort of.”

“Then she’ll be sad.”

“Probably.”

“I wish I could help her,” Zoe said. “Maybe I could stay over again tonight and be here for her.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why? Because you think I’m not grown-up enough to understand what it’s like to be unhappy and need a friend who cares about me?”

“Tamara—Officer Lovelady—is Audrey’s friend,” J.D. tried to explain. “And Audrey also has a father and an uncle and a brother. If she needs somebody, she’s got family.”

Zoe snorted. “So she has family. Big whoop-de-do. Why aren’t any of them here? Where’s her father? Where are her brother and her uncle? I didn’t see anybody out there with her except her friend. And I’m her friend, too. She said so.”

“Zoe, honey, you don’t understand.”

She glared at him, anger turning her brown eyes black. “Don’t tell me that I don’t understand. The guy I thought was my father was never around. He left and never looked back. And my mother was too busy having a good time to be bothered with a little kid. Do you know how many different people she left me with while she went out and partied? I slept on sofas and pallets in washrooms and even in a cardboard box behind some friend of hers’s trailer.” She took a deep breath, got a second wind, and lit into him with a vengeance. “And then there’s you, J.D. My father. My real father, one of the many, many guys who screwed Carrie Davidson, and the poor sucker whose condom must have had a hole in it. God, I’ll bet you prayed real hard when we were waiting for those DNA results that I wasn’t your kid.”

J.D. wished he could deny her accusation, but he couldn’t, not without lying to her. “Zoe, I—I…I’m trying, you know.”

When he couldn’t bring himself to lie to Zoe, she knew she’d been right. “Yeah, sure. You’re trying to be a dad, trying to take care of me, trying to love me. But you don’t love me. You hate me. And I don’t blame you. Who could love a messed-up, unlovable girl like me?”

“Oh, God, Zoe.” When he reached out for her, she screamed at him.

“Don’t touch me! And don’t you dare feel sorry for me.”

The kitchen door swung open and Audrey rushed into the room, swept past J.D. without even a sideways glance, and went straight to Zoe.

“We could hear y’all arguing.” Standing in the doorway, Tamara Lovelady scowled at J.D.

Audrey put her arm around Zoe and walked her past J.D. and Tam, who closed the kitchen door and continued glaring at J.D.

“What the hell’s going on?” Tam asked.

“My daughter and I had an argument.”

“That’s not what I meant.” She marched over to J.D., got right up in his face, and asked, “What are you doing here? What’s your daughter doing here?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I’ve got plenty of time.”

J.D. gave her the condensed version, and when he finished explaining, he added, “I need to apologize to Aud—Dr. Sherrod—and take Zoe home.”

“You didn’t ask how Audrey took the news about the DNA results on the skeletons.”

“With her usual dignified composure, I’m sure.”

Tam’s mouth gaped. “You son of a bitch. You have no idea. You don’t know the first thing about Audrey, and yet you assume because she doesn’t go off the deep end, she’s unemotional. Nothing could be further from the truth. That woman in there”—she flung out her arm to indicate the other room—“is the most loving, caring, tenderhearted person I know. I would have thought you would realize that by the way she’s treated your daughter.”

Okay, he gave up. Every time he opened his mouth, he said the wrong thing. Tam Lovelady was the third female who had chewed his ass out this evening.

What does that tell you, buddy boy?

“It’s already been pointed out to me that I’m an insensitive moron.”

“Who am I to disagree,” Tam said. “Look, I’m heading out. Audrey insisted. Just as I was about to leave, we heard the explosion in here.”

“I am sorry about that.”

“Apologize to Audrey. Better yet, apologize to your daughter.”

“You accused me of judging Audrey when I really don’t know her, but aren’t you doing the same thing now, judging me without really knowing me or the situation with my daughter?”

Tam shrugged. “Why don’t you give them a few minutes so that Audrey can talk to her?” She glanced at the stack of dirty dishes and cooking utensils. “Looks like you’ve got plenty to do in here until they’re ready to talk to you.”

J.D. groaned. “Yeah, looks like I do.”

 

Wayne left Willie and Geraldine’s home and drove straight to the neat brick house on Meadowhill Lane. Grace stood in the doorway, love and concern etched on her pretty features. He got out of the Silverado and walked into the arms of the woman waiting for him.

She kissed his cheek and asked softly, “How bad is it?”

He hugged her close and then pulled back and took her hand in his. “The DNA results came in.” There was no easy way to say this, no way to cushion the blow. “The bodies belong to Keith Lawson and Chase Wilcox.”

Grace gasped inaudibly, an involuntary indrawn breath, as she squeezed Wayne’s hand. They both knew those names as well as they knew their own. The names of all the missing toddlers were forever branded on their hearts and minds.

“Then—then she did kill them, didn’t she? Regina Bennett murdered…” Grace swallowed the tears caught in her throat. “All these years…hoping, praying, trying to hold on to the possibility, no matter how faint, that Shane…” She reached up and cradled Wayne’s face with her open palms. “And Blake. They’re dead, too, aren’t they? That’s what this means, that your son and my son are both dead.”

Wayne pulled Grace back into his arms and held her as she cried.

Cry for me, honey. Cry until there are no tears left.

 

Garth sat alone in his office, the lights out, the only illumination coming from the one-bulb lamp on his desk. Saturday night used to be his night to howl and occasionally still was, despite him being past fifty now. He’d never been handsome, never had the kind of looks that drew women to him like moths to a flame. But he’d done all right with the fair sex. Hell, he’d been married four times, hadn’t he? And he’d gotten his fair share of pussy. He sure as hell had never had to pay for it, although there had been a few times when he’d been in the mood for something special that he’d handed over some cold hard cash.

That’s what he needed tonight. A woman who’d give him what he wanted—a few hours to forget about the past. All he had to do was drag his sorry ass out of there and head over to his favorite bar. The owner, Peggy Ann, was a lady who had never turned him away, not in the fifteen years he’d known her. More than once, she had put him up at her place overnight and let him sleep it off after he’d gotten totally wasted. If he drowned his sorrows tonight, he’d pay for it tomorrow, of course, but better to face reality with a bitch of a hangover than to go slowly out of his mind tonight. And that’s what would happen if he stayed sober.

He had thought that it was long over, buried in the past so deep that it could never resurface. God damn it all, Blake and Enid had been gone for twenty-five years. Regina Bennett had been apprehended more than two decades ago and had spent the rest of her life in the nuthouse. They had all dealt with what had happened and moved on, he and Wayne and Hart and Audrey, each in their own way.

Why was this happening? Why, dear God, why?

Hadn’t enough lives been destroyed? Hadn’t everyone involved paid more than enough in pain and suffering and guilt? God, the guilt!

If any one of them had done something different in the past, would Blake still be alive? Would Enid? If he could go back to that day, the day Blake had gone missing, what could he change, what would he do differently?

Stop doing this to yourself!

Garth stood, slipped on his jacket, and turned off the lamp.

He’d have to tell Hart, but not tonight. Tomorrow would be soon enough. He had to find a way to help the boy, to prevent him from going off the deep end. He had spent years trying to keep his nephew clean and sober, but now he wondered if maybe…if getting drunk and staying drunk or getting high was the only way Hart could cope…

What about the other Baby Blue toddlers? How would their parents deal with the truth? Two families would soon learn the fate of their missing children. And once the information became public knowledge, what then?

If they didn’t find the Rocking Chair Killer and stop him, it was only a matter of time, wasn’t it, before the bodies of the other missing toddlers showed up?

Keith Lawson’s parents would have to be told. A quick search had revealed that the couple had divorced years ago; each had remarried and had children with their new mates. He still lived in the Chattanooga area. She lived in Knoxville.

Chase Wilcox’s mother had died three years ago. His father now lived with his daughter in Nashville. She had been born after Chase had disappeared. Chase’s brother, Blaine, five years older, was a detective with the Nashville PD.

As soon as Willie told Wayne about the DNA results, his former brother-in-law would go straight to Grace Douglas, was probably with her now. Wayne thought Garth didn’t know about Grace. And Garth had never said any different. He figured Wayne’s relationship with Shane Douglas’s mother was a private matter between the two of them. Hell, he didn’t give a rat’s ass who Wayne was screwing. It wasn’t as if he was being unfaithful to Enid.

Garth breathed in the night air as he left the station and walked across the road to the parking lot. The arthritis in his knees ached something awful tonight. Damn, getting old was the pits.

As he headed for his car, he thought about Audrey. Tam had told her by now. She knew about the DNA results. Knew the skeletons belonged to the first two Baby Blue toddlers. But Garth didn’t have to worry about Audrey. Wayne’s daughter was strong. She always had been, even as a little kid.

She’d be okay.

As long as she didn’t remember. As long as the old nightmares didn’t return.

 

Why was Enid screaming? Why was Hart crying? What was Uncle Garth doing here?

“Hart? Hart, what’s wrong?” Audrey asked her stepbrother.

He didn’t answer. His tear-filled eyes stared straight ahead as he continued sobbing softly.

“Where’s Daddy? I want my daddy.” Audrey ran out of the house and into the backyard.

Something was wrong. Horribly wrong.

Enid cried a lot, but not like that, not screaming her head off. And Hart. Why did he look so funny, his eyes all blank and spooky, as if he was scared to death?

Something had happened to Blake.

Something terrible.

Poor Daddy. He loved Blake so very, very much.

Audrey felt strong hands grip her shoulders. “Daddy?” But the hands that turned her around did not belong to her father.

“Uncle Garth?”

He smoothed the flyaway tendrils of her waist-length hair out of her face and wiped the tears from her cheeks with his fingertips. “It’s all right, Audrey. Don’t be afraid.”

“What happened to Blake?”

“Blake’s gone,” Uncle Garth said. “Do you hear me, Audrey, he’s gone. Somebody came into the house while you and Hart were playing outside and Enid was asleep, and that person stole him. Your brother has been kidnapped.”

“Kidnapped?”

“Yeah, sweetie, that’s what happened.”

“Daddy?”

“I’ve called your father. He’s on his way home now.” Uncle Garth squeezed her shoulders. “I need for you to be a big girl and not bother anybody. Your daddy doesn’t need you bothering him. I’ll look after you and Hart. I’m not going to let anybody ask you and Hart a lot of questions that will upset y’all. I’ll protect you, both of you. Just do what I tell you to do. Do you understand?”

She nodded. “Yes, Uncle Garth.”

“And if you need to talk to somebody about what happened today, you talk to me, okay?” He searched her eyes as if trying to decide whether or not she understood. “Losing Blake…it’s going to kill your daddy and Enid.” The last sentence he’d said almost as an afterthought.

Enid’s anguished screams and mournful weeping replayed itself over and over again in Audrey’s mind as she huddled near the fence in the backyard. The sirens wailed as police cars surrounded the house and an ambulance pulled into the driveway right behind Uncle Garth’s car. Curious neighbors lined the street and peered over the fence. Audrey squatted on her knees and curled up as small and tight as humanly possible, hoping no one could see her.

Blake was gone.

Uncle Garth said someone had stolen her baby brother.

 

Audrey woke with a start and realized she’d been dreaming.

She didn’t turn on a light, didn’t get out of bed, didn’t even glance at the bedside clock. For years after Blake’s disappearance, she had been plagued with terrifying nightmares that often made no sense whatsoever. Occasionally, she simply relived that day or part of it, remembering bits and pieces. But the feelings were always the same. A strange mixture of sadness and fear. Even now, she still wasn’t sure why memories of that day evoked a sense of fear deep inside her. The only reasonable explanation was that being a child herself, she had been afraid that she, too, might be abducted, that Blake’s fate might become her fate.

If only her father had allowed her and Hart to stay in therapy longer than a few weeks. If they could have received, at the very least, some type of ongoing grief counseling, perhaps their lives would be different now. Of course, hindsight was twenty/twenty.

But Daddy and Uncle Garth had done what they thought was best at the time. Big, strong He-Men types sucked it up and went on. They didn’t want or need some “headshrinker” asking them about their feelings. Neither of them made allowances for the fact that she and Hart were children who had been traumatized by the abduction of their baby brother. An abduction that took place while they were supposed to be taking care of their brother.

J.D. Cass was the same kind of man, cut from the same cloth as her father and uncle. He alternated between bulldozing over his daughter and neglecting her. He didn’t know the first thing about being a good parent.

She believed Zoe had been right when she’d said, “My father doesn’t love me and he sure doesn’t want me.”

Didn’t J.D. have any idea how lucky he was to have a beautiful, smart, amazing daughter like Zoe? How many parents who had lost a child would gladly swap places with J.D.? Charlie and Mary Nell Scott would. Debra Gregory’s mother would.

And what about Keith Lawson’s parents? And Chase Wilcox’s?

“And Daddy,” she said aloud. Her father would give up anything and everything if he could have Blake back. He’d swap her for his son in a heartbeat.

Damn, Audrey, let it go. What is, is.

She had to stop comparing J.D. to her father. It wasn’t fair to J.D. to make him pay for her father’s sins.

J.D. had apologized to Zoe. And he had apologized to her.

Her father had never apologized to her for anything he’d ever said or done. Not even when he had accused her of wishing Blake dead, all the while knowing it wasn’t true.

And J.D. had agreed to family counseling, hadn’t he? That alone should prove he was different.

Audrey groaned. Monday she would have to refer J.D. and Zoe to one of her colleagues for family counseling now that she was personally involved with Zoe. And heaven help her, she was involved with J.D., too.