Kitabı oku: «Final Justice», sayfa 3

FOUR

“Thanks so much, but I couldn’t possibly eat another bite.” Jennifer shook her head at the slice of moist, rich applesauce cake Kate held out temptingly. “I just wanted to talk. You didn’t really have to feed me, but it’s delicious.”

Kate put the slice of cake back on the platter, smiling. “Brandon will eat it. That boy will eat anything. And I have to confess—I didn’t make the cake. Parker did.”

“You and Parker are getting to be quite an item, aren’t you?” She hadn’t come to talk about Kate’s romance, but she just couldn’t resist. The love between the two of them when they were together would make anyone’s heart warm.

Even at the mention of his name, Kate’s eyes grew soft. “You could say that. You know where he is tonight? Taking Brandon to a scout meeting. Can you imagine how rare it is to find a man who cares that much for my son?”

“You’re lucky.” Her voice softened. Was she ever going to be that fortunate?

“Funny.” Kate picked up her coffee cup and held it between her hands, her blue eyes seeming to look off into the distance. “How much we’ve changed since college. I have, anyway. I want completely different things now than I did then.”

“No big career in music now?” She remembered Kate’s dream of making it in Nashville. And really, she’d seemed to have every chance at success, with her beauty, talent and drive.

“I wouldn’t have it on a silver platter.” The answer was emphatic. “I just want my family and my nursing, and I’ll be happy.”

“I’m glad for you, Kate. And for Parker. You’re going to be great together.”

“We are.” Kate took a sip of the coffee, and her expression turned brisk. “But come on, now. You didn’t come out in the rain tonight just to eat Parker’s applesauce cake and hear me being sappy about my love. What’s on your mind?”

Jennifer smiled. She could just see Kate, running a hospital ward with brisk efficiency. The most popular girl on campus had found her place in life.

“You caught me. I wondered if you’d found out any more about what’s happening with Penny. And that poor little girl. Have they proven yet if she’s really Josie’s daughter?”

“I’m not exactly in the police’s confidence.” Kate made a face. “In fact, I think they’d like it if we’d all butt out of official business. But I think they are trying to locate her and get a warrant for DNA testing.”

“But don’t you think it’s odd that none of us guessed Josie was pregnant that spring semester? We were all in Edith Sutton Hall together.”

“Good old Edith Sutton. Long on Southern charm, short on amenities. I’m certainly glad I’m not living there any longer.” Kate glanced with satisfaction around her spotless kitchen, done in subtle earth tones. “But really, is it so surprising? Senior year we had private rooms, so it’s not as if anyone was with her twenty-four hours a day.”

“Even so, you’d think we would have noticed something. All those nights when we sat around the lounge and talked until one in the morning, all those warm evenings when we went up on the roof.” It came back so vividly—the scent of jasmine in the air, the soft sounds of the women’s voices confiding secrets in the dark. “You’d think she’d have said something.”

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I was totally preoccupied that semester with what I was going to do after graduation. I was probably too self-centered to notice anyone else’s trouble.” Kate sounded almost amused at the girl she’d been.

“Not self-centered,” Jennifer protested. “Just busy.”

“Well, you were, too. As I recall, you went home every weekend to help take care of your mother. I was sorry to hear about her death, by the way. I don’t know that I ever told you that.”

Jennifer nodded, her throat tight. Her mother had made a gallant effort to live a normal life despite her multiple sclerosis. “She insisted I live on campus that semester. She didn’t want to deprive me of that experience, even though they could have used me at home.”

“Mothers have a habit of wanting the best for their children,” Kate said. “I don’t think I really understood that until I was a mother myself.”

“I suppose it’s possible Josie thought she was doing what was best for her child. Maybe she intended to give the baby up for adoption.” She thought about what Mason had said—that Josie hadn’t wanted them to know, hadn’t wanted their help. “Do you think she’d have come to one of us if she’d needed anything?”

Kate tilted her head to one side, considering. “Josie was always a bit of a mouse.”

“She was quiet. So was I.”

“That’s different. You were warmhearted but shy, just like you are now. Josie—I don’t know. She was quiet, as you say, but she could be as stubborn as a mule laying back its ears.”

That startled Jennifer into a laugh. “I guess so. Remember when she was determined to challenge you for the solo at the Christmas choral concert? Everyone knew you were the better singer, but she wouldn’t leave it alone.”

“I remember that I got obsessed about it, too,” Kate said dryly. “Not very becoming for the Christian I professed to be.”

“I guess we were all baby Christians then, for all we thought we knew.” She reached out impulsively to touch Kate’s hand. “I’m sure you’ve thought about it. Do you have any idea who the father could have been?”

Kate shook her head slowly. “I’ve been over it and over it, especially when the police were so sure it was Parker. I just don’t remember Josie even dating anyone that winter. She was friends with Penny, of course, but Penny was never really involved with the rest of us. For the most part, the gang of us from CCF just hung out together instead of pairing off.”

“I wish—” She stopped and shook her head. “It’s foolish to wish to change the past. But I’d like to think I’d been kind to Josie when she was going through all that.”

Kate nodded. “I know what you mean. It gets to me to know that all these years she’s been lying there alone.”

“Same here. But she wasn’t really there. And not really alone.” She blinked back tears. “Would it be awkward if I asked you to pray for her with me?”

“It would be very right.” Kate’s hand clasped hers, and she bowed her head.

Jennifer took a breath, and the words seemed to form in her heart. “Dear Father, we hold up to You our sister, Josie. We know she’s safe in Your hands now, and we ask You to bring her peace.”

“And forgive us, Father, for any chance we missed to show her love and kindness.” Kate’s voice was husky. “Amen.”

Jennifer squeezed her hand before releasing it. “I don’t know that we solved anything tonight, but I have to say I feel better.”

“I do, too.” Kate wiped away an errant tear. “Goodness, I haven’t cried in I don’t know how long. Maybe I’d better eat another piece of cake.”

Jennifer laughed, shoving her chair back. “You do that. Cake is definitely comfort food. I’d better get going or Dad will be worried. He hates it when I drive at night in the rain in that old clunker of mine.”

“Come back anytime.” Kate gave her a quick hug. “I can’t promise it will be this quiet, but I’d love to have you here.”

She nodded, opening the door. A gust of wind blew a spray of rain into her face, and she fought to get her umbrella up. “I’m going to run for it. Good night.”

She raced toward her car, getting soaked but unable to do anything about it, and then fought to get the umbrella down. She’d probably have been better off without it.

Thankfully she slammed the door on the rain and reached for the ignition. A hot shower and a change of clothes would feel good when she got home. Kate’s charming cottage was near the campus, so it was a good five miles to the house in the country Dad had insisted was his perfect retirement place. Her things would be clammy by then.

It didn’t take long to get out of Magnolia Falls, no matter where you were. She was clear of town in a few minutes and onto the narrow county road that led home. Unfortunately the rain showed no sign of lessening. It beat on the windshield relentlessly, with her wipers struggling unsuccessfully to keep up.

She slowed, mindful of the swamp that bordered the road on the right, and squinted. The rain reflected her headlight beams back at her from the black macadam, and she could barely see the edge of the road.

Not much farther, in any event. She’d be home soon, and that hot shower was waiting. She shivered as the damp fabric of her slacks clung to her legs, and she turned the heater on. The windshield fogged up instantly, and she switched it back off again. She’d rather see than be warm. Only a couple more miles—

The engine sputtered, coughed once and died. She glided slowly to a stop, steering to the edge of the road, but not daring to pull off when she couldn’t see what the surface was like.

She pounded her fist lightly on the steering wheel. Dad kept offering to buy her a newer car, but she’d stubbornly stuck to her decision to wait until she could afford it herself.

She’d had a decent savings account once, before the cost of defending herself wiped it out. No one ever mentioned that even the innocent had to pay.

She tried the ignition key again. The electrical system was okay, so what—then she saw the gas gauge, sitting uncompromisingly on empty.

How could she be out of gas? The only thing her little car had going for it was it got good gas mileage. It couldn’t have used a half a tank going from church to home to Kate’s.

A chill crept along the back of her neck. Not unless someone tampered with it.

Shaking off the thought, she grabbed her bag and pulled out the cell phone. She’d worry about how later. Right now she’d call Dad—

A car rounded the bend, coming toward her, and pulled up directly in front of her, its headlights blinding her eyes so that she couldn’t see anything else.

Her heart thudded, deafening her. Think, don’t panic. Check the door locks. Call for help.

Even as she fumbled for the cell phone buttons, it rang. Shaken, she answered.

“Get out of the car.” A woman’s voice commanded in a Southern accent.

“No. What do you want? Who are you?” Please, Lord, protect me. She squinted, trying to make out the color of the car, the shape behind the windshield.

“Why, Jennifer, don’t you recognize your old college friend?” The voice was taunting. “It’s Penny. I just want to talk. Get out of the car, and we’ll reminisce about old times.”

“No.” Penny might be crazy, but she wasn’t. “Leave me alone.”

“Not willing to get out? But I want to be able to see your face. Still, I guess I can manage that.” Another light came on, this one shining full in her face, so bright she put up her hand to shield her eyes. A deer-spotting light, she realized. And she was the deer.

She wasn’t helpless. She might not be able to move, but she could cut the connection, dial 9-1-1—

“Now, don’t be stubborn, Jennifer. You can help my daughter, Alexis. That’s what you’re all about, isn’t it? Helping kids?”

How did she know that? How did Penny know anything about her? She hesitated, pressing the phone close to her ear. “Don’t you mean Josie’s daughter?”

“Now, you don’t want to irritate me.” Penny’s voice went soft with venom. “I just might be tempted to push your little car right off the road and into the swamp if you do.”

Jennifer clenched her teeth. Could she? Would she? She really didn’t want to find out. “Tell me what you want and leave me alone.”

“I suppose I must if you won’t walk down memory lane with me. It’s very simple, really.” Penny sounded satisfied that she was going to get what she wanted. “I want you to carry a message to Alexis’s father. Tell him that for a hundred thousand, I’ll keep quiet about him. No one else needs to know he’s the father. I’ll get in touch with you to tell him how to deliver it.”

She shook her head, trying to make sense of this. “Who? Who are you talking about? I don’t know who the child’s father is.”

For a moment the cell phone was silent. Then Penny laughed softly, and dread pooled in Jennifer’s heart.

“You know, don’t you? You’ve figured it out. Alexis’s father is your good friend. Mason Grant.”

FIVE

Mason had always considered his home a sanctuary, and he’d never needed it as much as he did right now. He sank down in the leather armchair, propping his feet on the hassock, and leaned back. Little about the house was traditional, and that was the way he liked it. The great room combined kitchen, dining area, media room and library into one flowing, harmonious whole.

He’d started a fire in the stone fireplace when he got home—not that it was that chilly, but the blaze seemed to take away some of the dampness from the teeming rain. The storm was a real frog-choker, as the old-timers liked to say, turning the red clay soil into a quagmire.

Now he stared into the flames, willing himself to think of anything but the events of the past few days. From the rough-hewn timber that formed his mantel a picture faced him—one of the few things he’d brought from the overdecorated antebellum mansion that his parents had called home.

Two young faces smiled out of the frame. A fishing trip, far up the reaches of the Ogeechee. Twelve years old, he’d been, and proud beyond measure that his eighteen-year-old big brother had agreed to take him. He held up the striped bass he’d caught, grinning from ear to ear in the classic fisherman’s pose.

Gerry had probably been bored to tears, but he hadn’t shown it. He’d always been kind to his kid brother, maybe aware of the obvious favoritism their parents, especially Dad, showed to him.

Well, why wouldn’t Gerry be the favorite? He’d been the original All-American kid, good at everything, a son to make his parents proud.

At eighteen, he’d had the world by the tail—graduating first in his class, voted most popular boy, riding the wave of a state championship basketball team and a full scholarship to Duke.

A month later he’d been dead. All that promise gone in a moment’s miscalculation, a single bad decision. And life had never been the same for those he left behind.

The buzz of the doorbell jerked his mind away from old grief, jolting his nerves with the possibility of trouble to come. The police? It wouldn’t surprise him.

He went to the door and opened it. It wasn’t the cops. It was Jennifer, standing on his porch, soaking wet, her eyes huge, her strained face white.

“Jennifer.” He seized her arm, pulled her inside when she seemed incapable of moving. “You’re soaked to the skin. What are you doing out on a night like this?”

“I had to see you.” She shivered, the movement quaking her slender frame to her toes. “We have to talk.”

“Whatever it is, it can wait until we get you dry.” He’d never seen calm, self-possessed Jennifer look this way, and it shook him. “Let me get a towel—”

He started to turn away, but she grabbed his arm, her fingers wet and cold when they touched his skin. “I don’t want a towel. I want to talk.”

Something was wrong—very wrong.

He snatched a woven coverlet from the nearest chair and tossed it around her shoulders, then propelled her physically toward the fire. “All right, we’ll talk.” He smoothed the coverlet down over her arms. “At least try to get warm while we do.”

She seemed oblivious of her physical surroundings, of everything except the need that flamed in her eyes. “Just tell me the truth. You had an affair with Josie, didn’t you?”

The words hit him like a blow. He couldn’t lie, not to Jennifer. But he didn’t want to let the word come out of his mouth. “What makes you say that? Did someone accuse me?”

Were people talking already? That phony ad had been a threat, of course—a hint that the sender wouldn’t hesitate to make his sins public.

“Just answer me!” Her fists clenched, her mouth twisted with the effort to hold back tears. “Tell me.”

“Jennifer—don’t. Don’t care so much.” He felt as if he were being wrung by a giant hand. “Yes, it’s true. Josie and I were intimate. Once. That’s all. Just once.”

But once was enough, obviously. Did God calculate your sins by the number?

“You kept silent.” That was disbelief in her eyes. “All this time, while everyone has been wondering who fathered Josie’s baby—”

“It could have been me. Yes.” A sudden burst of anger swept through him. Who was Jennifer to judge him in that way? “When they identified the body as Josie’s and said she’d had a child, of course I thought of the possibility, but it seemed so unlikely. We were together only once, we’d used protection—”

He stopped, the anger seeping away. “Excuses, that’s all those are. I never should have let it happen. It was my fault. But can’t you understand that I wasn’t eager to publish my sins to the world? Or set myself up to be suspect number one with the police?”

“The police.” There was something in her gaze—something hurt and wary and almost knowing—that confused him. “I guess I can understand that. You were trying to protect yourself.”

It sounded pretty selfish, put that way. Still, how else could it be put? Jennifer, even with her soft heart, wasn’t one to falsify the truth to make him feel better. She was far more likely to quietly insist that he face it, whatever it was.

The tension left her, so abruptly that he could see it happen, and she sank into the nearest chair. “That’s it, then. I knew you were hiding something.”

He pulled a chair up and sat down opposite her, close, so that they were knee to knee. “We all hide things, don’t we? Tell me what brought you here tonight. Did you just guess at the truth?”

She shook her head, looking suddenly drained. “She told me.”

“She—who?” All his senses went on alert. “Jennifer, tell me what’s going on.”

“Penny. Penny told me.”

Penny? Shock rippled through him. “How could you find out from Penny? She’s on the run—the police figure far away from here by now.”

“Well, they’re wrong,” she said flatly. She leaned her head on her palm, as if too weary to keep holding it up. “I saw her—Well, didn’t see, exactly. But she was there.”

This wasn’t making a whole lot of sense. He leaned forward and clasped both her hands in his. “Tell it from the beginning. Where were you tonight?”

She nodded like an obedient child, staring down at the Berber carpet. “I’d gone over to Kate’s this evening. To talk. You know where she lives—the cottage over near the campus?”

“Yes.”

“I started driving home, out the old county road toward Fisherdale. I didn’t get there. I ran out of gas.” She looked up then, eyes wide. “She’d siphoned the gas out of my tank. While Kate and I were in the kitchen, she was out in the dark, watching us. Afterwards she told me. She’d left it in a can in the trunk of my car. So I could get here, to tell you.”

It sounded totally improbable, but obviously there was more to come. “You were stuck out there on the road. Did you call for help?”

“I started to. But a car came. It pulled up nose-to-nose with mine. And then my cell phone rang. It was her. Penny. She wanted me to get out of the car and talk to her.” He felt her shiver through their clasped hands. “I wouldn’t get out.”

“Thank Heaven.” Penny was dangerous. She’d attacked Kate, stolen Josie’s baby, probably killed Josie. Fear clawed at his heart at the thought of Jennifer alone with her.

“She threatened to push my car into the swamp if I didn’t listen to her.”

“What did she want? Surely not just to spill the truth about me.”

“She wanted me to deliver a message.” Jennifer pulled back, drawing her hands free, looking at him steadily. “To you, because she said you’re Alexis’s father. She said if you pay her a hundred thousand dollars, she won’t tell anyone.”

He certainly hadn’t foreseen this. He struggled to process it all. “I suppose she needs the money to get out of the country before the police catch up to her. So Penny believes I’m the father. Or she pretends to believe it, because I’m the most likely candidate to have that kind of money and be willing to pay her off.”

“Aren’t you? Will you give her the money to keep quiet?” Anger flicked the words. “That’s what you want, isn’t it? To deny that you might be that little girl’s father?”

He leaned back, carefully not touching her. It hurt to see the scorn in Jennifer’s eyes.

“I won’t pay off Penny unless that’s what the police want me to do. I’ve already told them everything, Jennifer. I might be a jerk, but I’m not bad enough to continue to deny it once the child was found. They’re running a DNA test. We’ll know soon enough if I’m the father of Josie’s baby.”

Jennifer sank back in the chair, clutching the coverlet around her. The adrenaline that had kept her going since the encounter with Penny vanished, leaving her shaken and weak.

Mason and Josie. Josie’s baby. It hurt more than it should, to think of that.

She was vaguely aware of Mason, watching her with a worried expression. She had to get a hold of herself. She shouldn’t betray her feelings so readily to him.

He moved suddenly. “You need something to warm you up. I’ll get some coffee. Do you want me to call anyone? Kate? Your dad?”

“No, I’m all right.” She forced a smile. “Coffee would be good, though.” Maybe it would help her stop shaking inside.

Mason walked quickly across the spacious living area and around the breakfast bar into the kitchen, looking unexpectedly domestic as he busied himself with the coffeepot and cups.

If Josie had lived, would they be married now? Would this be Josie’s home, hers and Mason’s and their daughter’s? Somehow she couldn’t get her mind around that picture.

Mason had been her friend in college, nothing more. If she’d ever wished for another kind of relationship with him—well, she’d known he wasn’t for her, and she’d tried to be happy with friendship.

She’d always thought she knew him as well as she knew anyone, better maybe. But she’d never even dreamed of him with Josie. Didn’t want to imagine it even now, she realized.

She was being ridiculous. She hadn’t seen Mason in ten years, until the reunion brought them all back together again. Since then, their friendship had been a casual thing, with never a word or gesture from Mason to hint that he wanted anything more.

People changed in ten years. She had. How could she know the man he was now, when she obviously hadn’t really known the boy he was back in college?

He came back quickly, carrying a tray with two thick white mugs, creamer and sugar, a small plate containing a few biscotti. “Luckily I already had the coffee on. And they say sugar is good for shock.”

“I’m not hungry.” But it was easier to take biscotti with her coffee than to have him watching her with that worried look.

Only when she had begun to sip the hot brew did he serve himself, sitting down in the chair opposite her and holding the mug between his hands, as if he needed to warm up, too.

“The fire is nice.” An inane comment, but probably better than the hurt questions she wanted to shoot at him. “And I like your house.”

She glanced around the great room, warm and almost rustic with its exposed wood. The wide-planked floors were covered here and there with braided area rugs, and the couches and chairs were overstuffed leather.

At the side of the living area, glass doors led out onto a flagstone patio, where small lights showed a pot of tulips, a string hammock and a gas-powered grill. The scene invited one to what was clearly an outside living room.

“You mean, it’s considerably different from the house I grew up in, don’t you?”

She shrugged, remembering that chilly mansion where they’d had the Campus Christian Fellowship Christmas dinner once. “Well, I never really thought that place was decorated in your taste.”

The Grant mansion had certainly been a far cry from the comfortable middle-class houses her family had lived in whenever her dad’s job took them to a new town.

“This is a lot more comfortable. When my mother had to go into an assisted-living facility, selling that place seemed the best option.” His face tightened slightly. “I’m afraid she’s never become reconciled to that, although now she doesn’t remember.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.” Her mind flickered to her mother’s long battle with MS. Dad had been a pillar of strength throughout, never questioning that she belonged at home, with them. Of course, Mason’s father had died their senior year, so he wouldn’t have had him to rely on. “A lot happened our senior year.”

“Yes.” He didn’t seem to have any trouble following the progression of her thoughts. A muscle twitched in his jaw. “After my father died, I was thrown into trying to run the business and take care of my mother.”

“And Josie?” The question was out before she considered that she didn’t have the right to ask.

He shook his head. “I’m not proud of it. You must know that. But there was never anything between Josie and me but one night when we both had too much to drink and too many problems we wanted to forget. Afterward, she refused ever to talk about it. If the child is mine—Well, she never told me.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. I don’t have the right to question you.”

His tight expression eased a little. “Maybe you earned that right when Penny dragged you into the middle of this. I can’t believe she’s still hanging around Magnolia Falls with every cop in the state on the alert for her.”

“You could be right. She needs money to get away, and she thinks this is a way of getting it.” She wouldn’t ask the question that nagged at her.

“I wouldn’t pay her to keep it a secret.” Again, he seemed to know what she was thinking. “But the police may want me to play along with her. This could help them catch her.”

The police. She was hypersensitive, of course, after her past experience, but she could only be relieved that Mason was the one who had to deal with the police.

He set his coffee mug back on the tray. “I should probably call them now, if you feel well enough to talk with them.”

“Me?” It came out too high-pitched. He’d know something was wrong. “I mean, why do I have to talk to them? Surely you can tell them everything they need to know.”

His brows drew down in a frown. “Jennifer, you can’t be serious. You were accosted by a woman who’s wanted by the police—for assault, if not for murder. Of course they’ll want to talk with you.”

Of course they would. Her stomach churned, and she felt as if the coffee were burning a hole in it. Thanks to Penny, she was about to become involved with the police again.

Having two police detectives in his living room didn’t do a thing for the atmosphere, Mason decided. Still, it was undoubtedly better than trying to get Jennifer to go to the police station. She’d looked so panicked at the thought that he hadn’t had the heart to keep insisting.

Nikki Rivers, the detective he’d initially spoken with when he’d decided it was time to reveal his involvement with Josie, sat next to Jennifer, leading her gently through her story.

Fortunately Rivers seemed to recognize that this had been a shocking experience. After all, Jennifer had been threatened by the woman who’d recently tried to kill her best friend. Kate had been fortunate to escape with nothing worse than a gunshot wound to the arm. The thought of Penny turning a gun on Jennifer knotted his stomach.

Rivers and Paterson, who stood leaning against the mantelpiece and listening intently, hadn’t seen that panic in Jennifer’s face at the suggestion of going to the police. By the time they arrived, she’d been composed.

He was the only one who’d seen it, and it still bothered him. It made him want to protect her, if he were honest with himself, even as he wondered why the prospect of talking to the police upset her so much.

Jennifer had gotten to the point of telling the police about Penny siphoning the gas from her car while she was at Kate’s when she stopped, her brown eyes going wide. “Kate doesn’t know about this. I should have called her. We have to warn her.” She fumbled in her shoulder bag, probably for her cell phone.

Nikki Rivers put a restraining hand on hers. “It’s all right, Miss Pappas. We’ve already called her about it, and another unit is over there right now.”

Rivers looked as calm and composed as if they’d called her in the middle of a normal business day instead of late in the evening. Had she and Paterson been on duty, or had they been brought in because this connected up with Josie’s death?

“I don’t think the Brighton woman would go after her now, in any event,” Paterson said. “It wouldn’t do her any good.”

Jennifer moved restlessly. “I’m not sure she’s thinking that rationally.”

Rivers shrugged. “Well, she’s rational enough that she’s out for the money that she thinks would let her get away.”

“I wonder why—” Jennifer began, and then she stopped.

“What do you wonder, Miss Pappas?” Rivers’s voice was gentle, but her gaze coolly assessed Jennifer’s face.

“Well, everyone always thought Penny’s family was quite well-off. I’m surprised she has to go to such extremes to get money.”

Rivers exchanged glances with the other detective. Mason thought he saw a slight nod.

“We’ve been talking with the Brighton woman’s parents, up in Charleston. Elderly folks, not in very good health. Apparently they became fed up with their daughter’s actions some time ago. Cut her off, as we understand it, but continued to support the child, keeping her in an expensive boarding school on the outskirts of Atlanta and setting up a trust fund for her.”

“Except that now it seems the child isn’t Penny’s at all.” It took an effort for him to say the words without thinking about Josie lying in a makeshift grave.

Paterson nodded. “It’s a strange one, I grant you. Her parents are in a state of shock. Still, they love the girl. I don’t imagine they’ll stop doing that.”