Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
It’s her number again.
“Emma?”
“Hey, sorry, I wanted to see if you’d be okay with me taking Winter to the zoo today.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know, but I love the zoo and hardly get to go, because I don’t want to look like a weirdo walking around all alone.”
“Winter would love that,” I mutter with a smile.
“Okay, cool. See you soon. I’ll text when I’m a few minutes away.”
“See you when you get here.” I hang up, then look toward Winter’s bedroom when I hear her door open and watch her stumble out of her room, rubbing her eyes. Tucking my cell away in my pocket, I walk to where she’s standing half-asleep and pick her up.
“Morning,” she whispers, her head falling to my shoulder, her arms going around my neck.
“Morning.” I kiss the top of her head, carry her to the couch, and take a seat.
She settles against me with her face against my chest and her eyes closed. When she’s like this, she still looks like she did when she was a baby, but every day, it becomes more and more clear she’s not one anymore. Sleepy morning cuddles don’t happen as often as they used to, and I know we’re getting closer and closer to the time she’ll tell me that she wants to go live with her mom. That reality always causes my chest to cave in, so I try to soak up these moments with her when they are given to me.
“Did you sleep okay?” I ask, smoothing her hair back from her face as I look down at her.
“Yeah.” She opens her eyes and reaches her hand up to my jaw, rubbing the scruff on my cheek. “Do you have to work today?”
“Unfortunately,” I say softly, and her bottom lip pops out, making me smile while my chest aches. “But guess who’s coming to hang out with you?”
“Miss Karen?”
“Nope.”
“Uncle Clay?”
“Nope.” I smile when she frowns.
“Miranda and Kingston?” Her eyes light up.
“No, they’re on their trip, remember?”
“Oh yeah.” The light in her eyes dims in an instant. Then again, she and Kingston have become best friends since Tucker and Miranda got together and started staying next door.
“Miranda’s friend Emma is coming over, and I think she’s going to take you to the zoo.”
“Really?” She sits up.
“Really.” I smile.
“This is going to be the best day ever!” She falls forward, giving me a hug, and I rub her back.
“But you have to promise to be on your best behavior, and you have to listen to whatever Emma says.”
“I’m always on my best behavior.” She leans back to look me in the eye, and I raise a brow. “Okay, I’m mostly on my best behavior.”
Mostly is right. She’s a really good kid, but every time I start thinking she’s pretty mature for her age, she’ll do something to remind me just how young she still is. Like a couple of days ago, when she had a complete meltdown after school, because the ice-cream place she likes going to wasn’t open. As if I had the power to change that and only didn’t because I wanted to ruin her day.
“How about you go brush your teeth, and when you’re done, you can help me make some pancakes for breakfast?”
“Okay.” She hops off my lap and skips to her bedroom, and I wait until she is out of sight to call Martinez and let him know I’ll meet him by nine at the station, and we can go from there.
After hanging up with him, I quickly scroll through the list of tips and leads that started coming in last evening after the girls’ story aired on the news. There’s quite a few, which gives me a little hope, since yesterday we were unable to make much headway in Anna and Grace’s case.
The medical examiner called us late last night after he completed the autopsies. He didn’t believe that either girl had been raped, but he did find semen on the sleeve of Anna’s sweater that he sent off for testing along with two hairs found on her jacket. He also informed us that Grace was shot once in the back hitting her heart, and another bullet grazed the side of her head. Anna was shot three times in the back, and once in the back of the head. He was also able to remove the bullets and found they came from a 9mm pistol.
We went over the video from Waffle House, the tapes crystal-clear, but we didn’t see anything more than the girls arriving, then leaving after saying goodbye to their friends in the parking lot. We’re still waiting for the footage from the other businesses around that area and hoping one of them will give us something.
The girls’ family and friends, for their part, didn’t offer any clues about who could’ve wanted to harm either of them. The only thing Anna’s parents were able to tell us that we didn’t find out from her friends was Anna told them she recently began dating a guy in Nashville who’s a musician. Hopefully, phone records will give us more on him, because without his name and only his profession in this city that information isn’t going to be very helpful in tracking him down.