9911 Conroy Road, 7:15 p.m.

Jess stared at the interior of her fridge hoping something ready to eat and delicious would appear. There was nothing edible except a hunk of cheese and leftover pizza that needed to go in the trash. Somehow she just didn’t have the wherewithal to shut the door and admit she had no food in the house.

Hadn’t she just gone shopping and filled her shelves the other day? Relenting, she closed the fridge door and moved on to the cupboards. Yeah, there was food but all of it required some prep time and she just wasn’t up for it.

Any other time she wouldn’t even think about food unless someone waved it in front of her. Maybe it was the fact she was getting nowhere on this case that had her wanting to break open a box of Hamburger Helper and eat the uncooked noodles.

She grabbed her cell and shuffled over to the sofa. The suit she’d worn today was in the dry cleaner’s pile. After a quick shower she’d dragged on jeans and a tee. Eventually she was having that hot bath just to relax her muscles and then heading straight to bed.

But she needed to eat first. Her belly wouldn’t stop rumbling. Maybe that middle-age spread she’d always heard about had taken root and needed fuel for the necessary expansion. Other than chocolate, she’d never been a stress eater.

The third possible explanation bobbed to the surface of her other worries.

“Not going there.” The concept was still only a theory. With this case and the whole Spears thing, who’d had time to pick up a test, anyway? No need to worry until she was at least a week late. That was reasonable, wasn’t it?

Let it go for now.

“Who around here delivers?” She prompted a Google search. “Definitely not pizza.” She bypassed all the pizza joints. “Steak-Out?” She shrugged. “Maybe.”

The security system warned that she had company. Maybe it was Dan. Guilt gave her a nudge. She hoped it was Dan. Most of his points were valid. It wasn’t fair for her to ignore him. She owed him an apology. If there was ever a time in her life she needed to stop being so damned hardheaded and independent, this was it. She and Dan were… a couple. Didn’t matter that this particular status wasn’t official. Work conflicts and ethics had to be considered. He was her boss, and everyone in the department was going to be gauging whether or not she gained extra privileges because of their personal relationship.

A firm rap on the door reminded her to check the security monitor.

She frowned. Not Dan. Gina Coleman and Sylvia Baron. What were those two doing here together?

Too curious to care that she’d already washed the makeup off her face and discarded her bra, she opened the door to greet her visitors. Maybe the world was coming to an end.

“Ladies.” She refused to feel inadequate with the two standing at her doorstep looking as if they’d just stepped off the runway in their formfitting designer dresses and spiked heels. “Did I forget to mark my calendar?”

As if her own body were on a mission to undermine her confidence, her gut rumbled loud enough for all to hear.

Sylvia held up a take-out bag. “Sounds like we’re just in time.”

Mortified, Jess shrugged. “I was busy. I forgot to stop for takeout.” And too lazy to cook. The grandiose plans she’d had when she went grocery shopping of creating culinary masterpieces in her little kitchen had fallen flat this week.

Maybe she needed those cooking classes Gina used for finding her zen. Haha.

Gina waved a bottle of sparkling water and another bag, this one pink. “I brought the drinks and dessert.”

Jess frowned, confused and then worried. Why sparkling water? These two couldn’t know…

“Don’t be rude, Harris,” Sylvia chastised. “Invite us in. This is our first official girls’ night.”

Jess backed up, opening the door wider in invitation. “Sounds fun.” What it really sounded like was an evening of listening to complaints about work and men. She stifled a groan. She hated those kinds of “bash the bastards you sleep with” sessions. A total waste of energy and she had none to spare.

That was another thing… she was just exhausted every night lately. Maybe it was time to get on a good multivitamin.

One thing she knew for certain. As soon as these ladies were out of here she intended to Google the symptoms of early pregnancy. Oh God. She wanted to scream, and she couldn’t even scream in her own house. She had company. The last two people on earth she would want to suspect she was…

Wait. Other than the mental confusion and achiness, she had several of her sister’s symptoms. What if they were suffering from the same unidentified illness? Her mind went immediately to her bag, where the notes about any health problems Jess’s and Lil’s parents might have had waited. Their aunt Wanda had prepared them after claiming she couldn’t remember anything.

Jess rolled her eyes. The woman’s notes were as worthless as everything else she’d ever done for Lil and Jess. Ellen, their mother, had never been sick a day in her life—according to Wanda. She’d had perfect pregnancies and deliveries. Lee, their father, on the other hand, had issues, Wanda had suddenly recalled. But she couldn’t say what. She hadn’t even named symptoms. How totally useless was that load of crap?

While Jess was caught up in her own worries, Sylvia had taken over her kitchen, arranging the take-out containers of Chinese entrees.

Giving herself a mental kick for standing here like she was in a coma, Jess went to the cabinet and grabbed three plates. She loved Chinese. Between the rice and the four—no five—entrees, this was going to be a feast. No cooking time required.

So maybe this unexpected visit wasn’t such a bad thing. It certainly smelled good.

Thankfully Wesley, her ex, had given her a set of lovely stemmed glasses that Gina was currently filling with sparkling water.

Jess had a good reason—that she absolutely would not share—for avoiding alcohol. But why were Sylvia and Gina opting out? She’d learn the reason soon enough, she supposed.

They settled around the table and not too much conversation was made while they savored the sweet and spicy meal. Jess could deal with the occasional girls’ night if the food was this good. No one had time to complain if they were stuffing their faces.

Sylvia stopped eating and held up her glass. “Let’s have a toast to us, ladies.” She shot Gina a look. “Even if it is only water.”

“After what happened with my sister,” Gina replied, “I drank myself to sleep three nights in a row. I realized this morning that I’ve always used alcohol for a sleep aid and I decided I had to do something about it before I woke up at fifty and discovered I was an alcoholic. Life is too short to spend it under the influence of mind-numbing drugs.” She glared at Sylvia. “You satisfied?”

Sylvia harrumphed as the three of them clinked glasses. “Suit yourself, but next time I’m bringing wine.”

Jess sipped the sparkling water and toyed with the idea of keeping her mouth shut for the rest of the night. She wasn’t sharing secrets with anyone until she was ready, and then it would be only with Dan. And maybe her sister.

After a few more bites of scrumptious chicken, Jess couldn’t take it anymore. “When did we decide we were going to start having these little get-togethers?” No amount of mind-numbing drugs would have erased a decision like that from her memory banks.

Sylvia pointed her chopsticks at Jess. “I made the decision this afternoon. I called Gina, and we agreed on tonight at your place. Do you have a problem with that? I didn’t have to include you, you know.”

Well, there was that. “I didn’t—”

“Yes, you did,” Gina challenged Sylvia. “How can we figure out this case without her?” She gave Jess a look that warned this wasn’t about friendship. “Besides, she owes me.”

Jess opted not to mention that she had repaid the woman already for using her to accomplish a certain mission her second week in Birmingham. Good grief. Gina needed to learn to let go of a grudge.

“The chief mentioned you had offered to help out,” Jess admitted. “I intended to call but I’ve been crazy busy.” She looked from one to the other. “I think it’s a great idea.” Fresh perspectives could add the unexpected slant to a case.

“Thank God.” Sylvia looked heavenward. “If you’d turned her down I was going to be stuck playing Isles to her Rizzoli. You’re not a cop.” She pointed her chopsticks first at Gina then at Jess. “She is.”

Both women stared at her. Jess cleared her throat as she twirled her chopsticks in the lo mein. “I didn’t know you two…” Jess suffered the heat of their glares “… socialized.”

“We both went to Brighton,” Gina explained. “You don’t just graduate and never look back. There’s the social commitments and the reunions. Besides, we’ve known each other forever. It’s a small school.”

“Excuse me,” Sylvia argued. “Forever is a long time. I am not that old.”

Gina waved her off and dove back into her veggies.

“What she’s trying to say,” Sylvia elaborated, “is that Brighton graduates support one another. She’s going through a hard time and I’m trying to be there for her.” She lifted a skeptical eyebrow. “We take care of our fellow alumni. It’s ingrained from kindergarten. Dan knows the deal.”

But Jess did not. Unlike Dan and all his fancy friends, Jess hadn’t attended Birmingham’s most swanky private school. “That’s nice.” She pushed a smile into place. “There’s nothing like good friends.” She thought of Corlew and almost laughed out loud. He was the kind of friend she’d made in high school. Didn’t matter, though, because she had Dan.

Would Dan want their child to go to Brighton?

Jess blinked to clear away the thought. “Do either of you have a new prospective or some ideas regarding the case?”

“I’ve asked a forensic anthropologist from the university to do an evaluation of the remains,” Sylvia announced. “I’m hopeful he might be able to provide a more in-depth analysis.”

Jess was still waiting for further analysis from the lab on the burlap and the newspapers. So far, what they had wasn’t much. The burlap wrapped around Dorie’s bones had been enveloped in plastic for protection. They’d gotten no trace evidence to indicate where the bundle had been kept before being delivered to Jess. So far, they had even less on Emma’s remains.

“I, on the other hand,” Gina announced, “have something more tangible right now.”

Jess washed down a bite of spicy chicken. “Don’t keep us in suspense.”

Gina jumped up and crossed to where she’d left her bag. She removed a manila file folder and hesitated. She pointed to Jess’s homemade case board. “I love this, by the way.”

“Thanks.” Most people thought it was morbid, but it helped Jess focus. It was generally at night, after the day was behind her and she’d relaxed, that her mind opened up, allowing the missing pieces hidden amid the info she’d digested all day to float to the surface.

Folder in hand, Gina rejoined them at the table. She pushed her plate aside and opened her folder. “I read everything I could find on the cases, all the way back to the first one thirty-three years ago.”

As a reporter Gina would want to capitalize on a case this big. Understandable. Besides, her television reporter nemesis, Gerard Stevens, had landed the interview with Corlew last week. Gina probably wanted to show him who really had the best reporter chops. Helping to find the truth for these parents was a far better story than bashing the BPD with an ex-cop bearing a grudge. If it helped Jess find the Man in the Moon that was all the better.

“Sixteen years ago,” Gina went on, “one of the residents in the area where victim number seventeen disappeared, insisted the Man in the Moon was someone in the construction crew building a new subdivision in the neighborhood. But nothing panned out.”

Jess scooted her chair around the table to sit beside Gina.

“Give us the condensed version,” Sylvia grumbled. “We don’t want to be here all night.”

Gina sent her a shut-up look. “In fifteen of the twenty cases there was major construction in the nearby vicinity. Most often new subdivisions.”

“You think our man is related to a construction crew.” That was possible, but none of the families had mentioned any construction activities nearby. Looking at Gina’s list, that was probably because the activities weren’t actually that close to the victims’ homes. But, hey, it was something to consider. At this point, Jess wasn’t ruling anything out without due consideration. “Did any particular crews come up every time?”

“Just one.” Gina grinned. “A four-man crew.”

“Do tell.” She had Jess’s full attention now.

“Atkins Electric. A family-owned business started thirty-five years ago.” Gina tapped the home page from the company’s website she’d printed out. “The business started out with four brothers, three of whom have died over the years. But their sons stepped into their shoes. The one remaining founding brother, Benny Atkins, is still going strong. He was in the general area of where the victim lived in fifteen of the twenty cases.”

Jess wanted to be excited. She really did. “But not in the actual neighborhood where the child lived?” That was the rub. Nearby but not up close.

“That’s true,” Gina allowed. “But they were around. At the convenience stores. Driving past the homes where the kids lived. The kids had been on summer break for months running around to neighborhood pools, yard-hopping to play with friends. There was opportunity.”

Jess couldn’t deny that assessment. “I’ll set up an interview for tomorrow.”

She’d have to work Atkins in around the crazy day she already had scheduled. Or maybe she’d just show up at their shop before they opened. Tomorrow was going to be a long one. Dan was holding another press conference at six thirty tomorrow evening. Trent Ward, the department’s PR rep, had issued a limited statement at noon today about Emma James. But the community wanted to hear from their chief of police. This time Jess was supposed to be there. Last she’d heard, Dan didn’t want her in the limelight. Apparently he’d changed his mind.

She wouldn’t know. Why the heck didn’t he call? That empty feeling just wouldn’t let go.

“I know one of the mothers,” Sylvia said, drawing their attention to her. “We were in premed together. When she got pregnant she dropped out. We ran into each other from time to time over the years. When I saw her after her little girl went missing, she was a mess. It was like the life had gone out of her. She was an empty shell of the woman I’d known before.”

“I can’t imagine,” Gina murmured.

“Personally,” Jess admitted, “I don’t see how anyone who’s aware of the evil in this world can bring a child into it.” Her stomach roiled, as if to remind her that she might not have any room to talk about this particular subject anymore.

“You look at all the good,” Sylvia countered, “not the bad. You believe good will prevail.” She laughed. “As foolish as that concept is, that’s what we do in most situations. Then we get slammed because we trusted the wrong person.”

Jess could understand why Sylvia felt that way. Her husband of ten years had cheated, ultimately leaving her for a younger woman.

“Kicked in the teeth because we tried,” Gina chimed in.

Jess knew nothing about Gina’s personal life, other than that she and Dan had gotten together occasionally, but she didn’t think that was what the woman meant. In any event, maybe Jess had more in common with these two than she realized. They were all jaded and tired and yet determined not to give up on their career goals and maybe on life in general. Possibly even on love.

Damn, she wished she could have a glass of wine… or two or three.

Gina stared at the water in her glass. “I’ve had to do a lot of soul searching lately. I’m right where I wanted to be careerwise, but my personal life is in shambles. It’s time to face reality and move on with who we really are and where we want to be.”

“Hear hear,” Sylvia agreed, as she started to lift her glass but then changed her mind. “To hell with it. It’s just not the same with water.”

“Don’t be a bitch,” Gina tossed back. “I’ve taken the first of many important steps to make my life better.”

“Good for you,” Jess offered. Seemed a neutral enough statement.

“When are you and Dan going to stop pretending you’re not still in love with each other?” Sylvia nailed Jess next. “Watching the two of you try to pretend you aren’t in a relationship is becoming tedious.”

“Oh”—Jess pursed her lips—“maybe around the same time you and your boss confess about whatever it is you have going on.”

Sylvia and Gina burst into laughter.

Jess hated when that happened. When everyone else seemed privy to some knowledge that only she was unaware of.

“Jess, sweetie, my boss is gay,” Sylvia pointed out. “He only loves me for my incredible skills with the dead.”

“See,” Gina piped up, “doesn’t she sound just like Maura Isles?”

“Dr. Leeds is gay?” Jess had no idea. “Doesn’t he have a wife and two or three kids?”

“He does,” Sylvia confirmed. “But he also has a lover. A surgeon, no less. A gorgeous man who prefers his privacy and is perfectly happy to share a secret life with Martin.”

Why did Jess always miss that stuff about her colleagues? She rarely missed a thing when it came to the bad guys, thankfully. Maybe the good guys were just too boring for her to pay attention.

“Well, what do you know?” Jess held her palms up in surprise. “I had no idea.”

“Besides,” Gina teased, “Sylvia likes younger men these days.”

“The ones my age are all asses,” Sylvia proclaimed, “like my ex.”

Jess knew Sylvia’s ex and he was a nice man, but that didn’t mean he’d been a good husband to her, so she gave Sylvia grace. You never really knew a person until you lived with them. Jess was a good person but she’d made a terrible wife.

Then again, maybe she’d just married the wrong man.

“Now you know all our secrets,” Gina announced, “what are yours?”

The varying sauces from the entrees did a little churning in her belly as both women stared at Jess.

Across the room, deep in her bag, Jess’s cell clanged.

Thank God.

“Excuse me, ladies.” She jumped out of her seat and hurried across the room.

Dan’s name and face flashed on her screen. Her heart performed a little skip and several hops.

“Hey.” She glanced at the two women at her table who seemed caught up in their own intense conversation.

“I wanted to apologize for being such a jerk today,” he said. “I was angry and I went a little overboard.”

He sounded tired. Tired and defeated. Made her ache to hold him. The idea that the two women across the room were right nudged her. She and Dan needed to stop pretending.

As if she hadn’t just had that epiphany, she gave him what for. “You sure did.” If she cut him too much slack, he’d just use it against her by going even more overboard the next time. “But your apology is accepted.” Just do it, Jess. “And I’m sorry for ignoring you. It was thoughtless and it won’t happen again.” She made a face, hoped she could stick to that promise.

“You okay?”

“I’m good.” She hugged her arm around herself and wished she knew for certain what was going on with her body. Not true. She wasn’t ready to know. She needed to focus on this case. “You?”

“I’ll be okay.”

There was a lot he didn’t qualify that statement with, and Jess knew most of it. He wanted this over. He wanted Spears stopped. He wanted the monster who’d taken all those children to be caught and brought to justice. And he wanted Jess to be safe.

Then he’d be okay.

“We’ll both be okay, Dan,” she murmured.

“See you in the morning. Night, Jess.”

“Night.”

The urge to call him right back and tell him she loved him was almost more than she could set aside. She left her phone on the coffee table and padded back to the table where Sylvia and Gina were cleaning up.

“I can take care of that,” Jess offered. They both shooed her away and kept doing what they were doing.

“I need to get going,” Sylvia announced when the last plate was rinsed and stacked neatly in the sink. “I have to be up really early in the morning to meet the guy from the university.”

“He’s about twenty-five,” Gina interjected. “It takes a couple extra hours to prepare for that much staying power.”

“He’s thirty,” Sylvia argued, “and this is work.”

“That’s perfect,” Gina argued. “No strings, just great sex.”

Jess grabbed a couple of the stemmed glasses and headed for the sink. She wasn’t touching that one. She didn’t need any more reminders of Gina and Dan’s “no strings” relationship. The silence in the room warned that everyone knew what Jess was thinking.

“Well,” Gina rushed to add, “I’m out of here, ladies. See you at the press conference,” she said to Jess. “Let me know what you find out about Atkins Electric.”

Jess promised to keep her posted as she walked her to the door.

Sylvia joined Jess there but didn’t leave immediately. “She’s having a tough time getting past what happened with her sister.”

Seemed impossible that it had been just last week. It felt like a lifetime ago. “It was a lot to swallow.” Jess frowned. “She’s lucky to have such a good friend.”

Sylvia shrugged. “I can be good when I want to. Besides, I know what it’s like to have something like this happen.”

Sylvia’s sister Nina was schizophrenic. About eleven years ago Nina had been married to Dan. She’d gone over the edge, tried to kill him, for God’s sake. Nina had been in an institution since. It was a sad story. One that clearly weighed heavily on Syliva. Dan, too. He felt guilty to this day for failing to see what no one had told him about.

Jess smiled, trying to lighten the moment. “And all this time I thought you were too stuck up to do something so nice.”

“Don’t let tonight fool you, Harris. I am exceedingly stuck up and for good reason.”

With that Sylvia was gone with nothing more than a wave as she descended the stairs.

Jess closed the door, locked up, and set the alarm. That big old claw-foot tub was calling her name.

After turning the knobs to fill the tub, she dragged off her clothes and paused. She still looked the same. She smoothed a hand over her belly. But what if everything was different? How would she protect this child? The parents of all those missing little girls had done their best, and still evil had snatched their very hearts.

Jess was going to need Dan and Lil. Like Gina, she was also going to need to take a long, hard look at her life and consider changes.

“No more thinking.”

With her phone and her Glock on the floor next to the tub, Jess eased into the warm water and relaxed. She just wanted to close her eyes and forget the world for a few short minutes. Her muscles needed this reprieve.

Her cell clanged and vibrated on the floor.

“Damn it.” Couldn’t a woman have her bath without being disturbed? She looked over the rim of the tub and glared at her phone.

Lily.

Jess snatched up the phone. “Hey. You okay?”

“I’m okay,” her sister assured her. “I was just feeling lonely. Blake’s in bed already and I guess I got to thinking about the kids being gone… I just needed to hear your voice, Jess.”

Jess smiled and relaxed in the tub once more. “Well, I’m right here, Lil. We can talk all night if you want.”

Lily told her all about what the kids were up to at college, and Jess decided she was the one who’d needed to hear her sister’s voice. She really was glad to be home.

By the time the bath water had cooled, Lil was ready to go to bed. Jess said good night and set her phone back on the floor.

She reached to pull the drain plug and something tiny and white near the toilet caught her eye. She squinted and tried to make it out. It was the little ball of toilet paper she’d rolled up and stuffed in that hole.

She shuddered. If there was some sort of bug going in and out of that damned hole… she shuddered again. She’d just have to get some caulk or something more permanent to fill the damned thing.

Jess had no tolerance for bugs or spiders.

When she’d dried off and dragged on her robe, she crouched down next to the toilet and had a look. She made another ball of toilet paper and stuffed the hole once more. “Damned old houses.”

If she ever bought another house it would not be a historic one.

Too many creaks and cracks and critters.

She grabbed her phone and her Glock and went to bed.

She closed her eyes and wished for sleep… but that wasn’t going to happen for a while. All those little faces on her case board were looking at her, waiting for her to find them. Add to that the three women whose photos Spears had sent her… were waiting for someone to find them.

How could Jess dare sleep when those women were targets because of her? When those children needed her to find them… to find justice for them?

She felt as if she were running in circles. There was nothing but vague leads on the Man in the Moon case, and Spears’s followers were watching her, leaving her flowers and exchanging photos.

Jess admitted defeat and sat up. Whether it was the suggestion Gina had passed along about the construction crews in the vicinity of the victims or that one meter reader, Jerry Bullock, who been so nervous during his interview, she couldn’t shut her brain off yet and pretend she’d done all she could this day.

She threw the covers back and got up.

This was going to be a long night and she didn’t want to do this alone.

She made the call. When he answered she said the words before she lost her nerve. “Can you come over? I need a sounding board.”

For fifteen minutes Jess paced the floor. She studied those pictures and reviewed the reports she had read from all twenty abductions. Not the first clue or piece of evidence had been found, and the Man in the Moon had gotten off scot-free. What was he doing taking these kinds of risks now? Was he feeling remorseful, as she and Lori had discussed earlier? What life-changing event had occurred to trigger his need to reach out to Jess with these gifts?

Had her recent visibility on the news stirred an interest? Maybe he’d decided it was time and he wanted a high-profile cop to nail him.

“Doesn’t make sense.” He’d said in his last message that this was all for her. “Unless…”

The security system chimed, and she rushed to the door. She disarmed the system, unlocked the door, and yanked it open. It wasn’t until she opened her mouth to speak that she realized what she’d done. Ice curled around her, made her body quake.

“Shit.”

“What?” Dan ushered her back so he could come inside and close the door. When he’d locked it and reset the alarm, he surveyed her, worry etched across his face. “What happened?”

She blinked, felt like kicking herself for the stupid mistake. “I knew you were coming so I… I forgot to check the monitor.”

No matter that a cop waited outside… no matter that she had known Dan was coming, she’d made a mistake.

And that was how easy it was to become a victim.

Dan put his arms around her and pulled her close. “You’re tired. That’s all.”

She nodded against the warmth and strength of his chest. She knew this, but that didn’t change the fact that she’d made a mistake. Somehow she couldn’t get past that.

“Come on.” He guided her to the sofa. “You said you needed a sounding board. What do you want to talk about?”

She stalled at the sofa. “I changed my mind.” Her throat ached and she couldn’t trust herself to speak anymore.

He looked disappointed. “You want me to go back home?”

Was that what she wanted? She’d spent the last month and a half sending him home on work nights and beating herself up when she didn’t. She searched his face, knew every angle and line. Her body hummed with need just standing this close to him.

She shook her head. “I don’t want you to go.”

His fingers dived into her hair and he pulled her close. “I love you, Jess,” he whispered against her lips.

“Love you,” she murmured between fiery kisses.

He kissed her until she melted against him. All the fear and worries about what was coming next for them faded.

Dan was here and that was all that mattered.