9911 Conroy Road, 10:00 p.m.

Jess sat in the middle of her living room floor and stared at the faces lining her wall. At least seventeen little girls were unaccounted for.

“The burying tree”—that was what Cagle had called the place he kept his treasures. There were thousands of trees between the ones on his property and the ones at Bullock’s cabin. Not to mention that whole damned park around Bullock’s cabin. How the hell were they supposed to know which one was Cagle’s burying tree?

Budgets were already stretched too thin. No one was going to waste resources looking for remains when there was no comprehension whatsoever of where to start. With Cagle dead there was very little chance they would ever find those children.

That made Jess sad.

We have to go outside where he can see.

Who was he? Why had Cagle needed anyone to see? There was no indication whatsoever that he had worked with an accomplice. To the contrary, he had a reputation as a loner. Even people he had worked with for decades didn’t know his daughter’s name or where she lived.

Jess had put together many of the pieces of the puzzle. Cagle’s wife had left him when their daughter was just a child—the daughter she had given him on a harvest moon. What had he done that prompted his wife to fear him? They would probably never know. Whatever she had seen was the beginning. The evil had been there, waiting patiently until something triggered the first act.

Once he’d crossed that line, the urges he obviously attempted to resist became too great to conquer. The torture belt he wore cinched around his waist was loaded with nails that had dug deep into his skin. The marks of vigorous self-punishment were all over his body—any place that would be covered by clothing bore the telltale signs of his struggle. Scars of varying sizes and ages told the tale of how long he had fought his heinous desires. Until his daughter showed up in his life again. She and her children had given him the strength to fight those cravings.

“Why start digging up bones then?” It just didn’t make sense.

Thirteen years. His family was happy. He was only a couple years from retirement. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose.

And why use Jess as an excuse to launch back into that abyss of darkness? Or insist that someone had to see? That part nagged at her.

Her cell did its thing and she checked the screen. Sylvia Baron.

If Jess were smart she would just let it go to voice mail. Sometimes she wasn’t so smart. “Sylvia, what’s up?” It was pretty late for a social call, but with Sylvia she never knew.

“Congratulations, Harris. You pulled it off again. Got the bad guy and made the news as Birmingham’s most beloved hero.”

“Thanks.” She didn’t feel like a hero. She hadn’t found all those little girls.

“Listen, I hope it’s okay, but I invited Gina to your party tomorrow.”

“I’m not having a party.” The woman had obviously had too much wine. Something Jess wished she were doing. Whine, whine.

“Your detective’s birthday party,” she explained with her usual indignant impatience. “That won’t be a problem, will it? She’s still a bit down, and I wanted to make sure she felt included.”

“I’m not hosting the party, but I’m sure that’s fine.” She’d have to try and remember to text Lori in the morning.

“Great. I’ll see you then. Why don’t you wear that red suit of yours? It’s very flattering. Very slimming.”

Jess hugged her belly with her free arm. Did she look fat? Already? Maybe she was bloated since her period was late. How nice of Sylvia to point that out.

“See you tomorrow,” Jess said in hopes of ending the call.

“Really, Harris,” Sylvia said before Jess could hang up, “you did well.”

Jess wasn’t sure how to take what sounded like a real compliment. “Thanks.”

Sylvia said good night and ended the call.

Jess had no idea if the woman could really be counted as a friend, but she was leaning in that direction. Tomorrow she’d probably say or do something to have her leaning in the other direction.

The alarm sounded, warning her that she had company coming up the stairs.

She got up and checked the monitor. Dan. He had promised to come straight here as soon as his chief-of-police duties were done. She had been far too exhausted to hang around for the press conference.

She unlocked and opened the door. He smiled, and she felt better already.

She angled her head and tried to see where he had his hands. “What’ve you got behind your back there?”

He grinned and held out both hands. Flowers and chocolates!

“The flowers are gorgeous.” She went for the box of chocolate. “There’s a vase under the sink.”

While he filled the vase with water and then arranged the summer mix of blooms, she climbed onto her bed and opened the chocolates. She checked the diagram on the inside of the cover to locate the ones with caramel centers, her favorites.

Dan placed the flowers on the table and she smiled. “They’re really gorgeous, Dan.” She popped another candy in her mouth, closed her eyes, and flat out moaned.

He sat down on the sofa and patted the spot next to him. “Come sit with me.”

Was he kidding? She patted the bed. “Come sit with me.”

He got up and started her way. She gathered the box of candy, put the lid on top, and set it on her bedside table. After a couple swipes of her tongue the caramel was no longer stuck to her front teeth.

The mattress moved as he climbed on and plopped next to her.

“Did you come to talk about something, or is this our usual Saturday night visit?” Her body was already heating up in anticipation of the latter.

“Wow, that was romantic.”

She laid down on her side facing him. “Is it not okay to be unromantic sometimes? I mean, we’ve known each other forever. Do we have to make everything a production?”

She wanted him. She wanted to have sex with him. As in now.

“You should take the pictures off your wall.”

She glanced at the makeshift case board she used for homework. “I don’t want to forget them. If I leave them right there, I can’t. No matter how many cases I investigate, I won’t forget those faces.”

“How about you make a separate case board at work for the ones you need to get back to when you can?”

That wasn’t a bad idea. “That could work.”

“I mentioned your landlord the hero in my press release.”

“I saw that.” Jess had thanked Mr. Louis at some point between washing Cagle’s blood off her face and his body being carted off by the coroner’s office. “But what he did was very dangerous, and I can’t help wondering if we could have taken Cagle alive if dear old George hadn’t made that bold move.”

“We had no way of knowing the gun wasn’t loaded, Jess. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. You can’t second-guess yourself or the SWAT commander’s decision. Every move today was the right one.”

She sighed. “Maybe.”

Except she didn’t have her period. That was wrong in so many, many ways.

“I think, when the forensics business is done—” Jess bit her lip, summoned her courage to say it “—that we should allow the parents to see Cagle’s basement if they want to.”

“I thought about that, too. Their children were there for who knows how long. Maybe it will help with closure, since we can’t tell them where this burying tree is.”

“I hate that part.”

He tugged at a strand of her hair, wrapped it in his fingers. “I know. I do, too.”

She reached up and caressed his jaw. “Make love to me, Dan.” She needed to feel alive… to feel him inside her.

“First you need to check out your other present.” Those blue eyes of his twinkled.

“What other present?”

“Look in the chocolate box.”

She grabbed the box, anticipation making her grin. “You didn’t need to get me presents.” She moved aside the top tray of candies, and beneath it, where more rows of chocolates should have been, was a slim velvet box. “Dan!”

“I got it at that charity auction my mother held a couple weeks ago. It made me think of you.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the mention of his mother. She opened the box and her breath trapped in her chest. “Oh… it’s beautiful.” It was a heart-shaped locket on a gold chain. Not a new one. Old, very old. A tiny diamond sat in the center of the locket. On the back the words you are my heart were engraved. She batted her eyelids frantically but the damned tears slid down her cheeks anyway. She slugged him on the shoulder. “Thank you.”

He brushed at her cheeks with his fingertips. “You had a locket like this when we first met.”

She nodded. “It wasn’t so fancy. Plain old gold colored, no diamond. Lil gave it to me. I don’t know what happened to it.”

“And it didn’t have this.” He took the locket from her and opened it.

Inside the locket was one of those silly pictures of them done in the old mall photo booths. The air fled her lungs and for a moment she couldn’t speak. “You kept that old picture all these years?” God, they were so young.

“Of course.”

“Help me put it on.”

The mattress shifted as he got onto his knees. He fastened the delicate chain and she pressed the cool metal of the locket against her skin. “I love it. This is the best present anyone ever gave me.”

He shoved the box of chocolates aside and pushed her down onto the bed. “You’re the only present I’ve ever wanted.”

She smiled, swearing silently at herself for crying some more. “I love you, Dan.”

The look of joy in his eyes had her trembling like a virgin. Tenderly, he opened her robe and kissed his way down her body. She responded instantly. When he lingered near her belly button a new rush of tears stung her eyes.

He dragged the robe off her and then she slowly helped him undress. Once they were both naked, she kissed him all over, paying special attention to the scar left by Eric Spears’s knife.

When their bodies were entwined fully she stopped thinking and let the wondrous sensations fill her up, making her whole again.