Wyatt nodded. “I don’t have anything conclusive, just a hunch.”
Which meant he thought one or more of the friends was holding out on him.
The deputies poring over the material stacked along the conference room table glanced up as she and Wyatt entered the room. Adeline recognized Deputy Rex Womack from before. The female at his side, she didn’t.
“Womack,” Wyatt announced, “you remember Detective Cooper?”
Womack nodded. “Looks like you went and grew up, little girl.” Womack had been on the force since Jesus crossed over from Louisiana and hailed the plot of ground between it and Alabama as Mississippi ... or so the story went.
“And you look exactly the same, Rex,” she offered with a genuine smile. Rex Womack was one of the few who hadn’t completely turned on her nine years ago. He’d been a wary sort of mentor to her despite the fact she was a woman when it wasn’t cool to be a woman in uniform in the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department. Womack was as thin and wiry as ever. His thick head of hair had surrendered to age, gray claiming what male-pattern baldness hadn’t.
“Deputy Charlene Sullenger,” Wyatt said as he indicated the female deputy next to Womack, “is new to the department but damned indispensable.”
Charlene fluttered her long lashes. “Thank you, Sheriff.” Her goofy smile told Adeline that she had a major crush on her boss—which could be part of why she was so indispensable.
Retract the cat claws, Adeline. It’s unbecoming.
“You Tom’s little sister?” Adeline asked Sullenger. The girl looked a whole hell of a lot like her brother and that wasn’t exactly a bad thing, but it wasn’t a compliment, either. The Sullenger nose was her most prominent feature, but the big-ass boobs likely kept any one male from noticing much else. Strawberry-blond hair and green eyes. Couldn’t be over twenty-two or -three.
Just stating the facts.
Charlene cocked her head and eyed Adeline. “I sure am. Tom told me all about you,Detective.”
Adeline would just bet that he had. Tom Sullenger belonged to Cyrus Cooper. If he was still in this department, then little had changed in Jackson County, Mississippi.
“Let’s see what we’ve got here,” Wyatt said, dragging Adeline’s attention back to him. He deposited the padded envelope on the conference table and pulled on a pair of latex gloves.
While he got a look at the evidence and the analysis reports she’d delivered, Adeline studied the timeline that had been created on a long whiteboard. Prescott’s vehicle had been discovered at 5:17 p.m. on Tuesday. Her husband had been contacted two hours later. No purse, no cell phone found in the car.
The next item on the board stopped Adeline cold. The cut-and-paste letter. Why the hell hadn’t Wyatt mentioned this?
She was born a princess for all to see. Her light was so bright that they could no longer see me.
“Did she receive this letter by mail or anonymous delivery?” Adeline tapped the letter, which was safely encased in a plastic evidence bag and mounted with double-stick tape to the whiteboard. According to the date and time annotated, Prescott had received her letter three days before Adeline’s had been left in her mailbox.
“Anonymously delivered about a week ago, her husband believes.” Wyatt joined Adeline at the whiteboard. He posted the evidence, including the Polaroid she’d brought, and logged the appropriate information. “When did you get yours?”
“The first one, about four days ago. The rest came today, as the chief explained on the phone.” She opted not to make a fuss that he hadn’t told her this before. This was already difficult enough.
Wyatt studied the Polaroid. “Damn.” He shook his head. “This makes it hard to hold out hope.”
“Definitely lessens the likelihood of finding her alive,” Adeline said, giving voice to what she knew he was thinking—what she herself was convinced of. “He wants us to know there’s a strong chance she’s dead and that there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“I briefed the family after our conference call.”
The desolation in his tone tugged at long-buried emotions Adeline was determined not to feel. Relaying that kind of news was the hardest part of being a cop. “It never gets easier, does it?”
Wyatt shook his head, then looked from the Polaroid to her. “You know of any connection whatsoever between you and Prescott?”
“Nope.” Adeline studied the family photo that had been posted amid the other evidence. Prescott, her husband, and two kids. Wyatt wanted to keep the idea that the victim was a wife and mother, a daughter, in front of all the cops working the case. “But that’s why I’m here. I intend to find out.”
“You aren’t honestly considering staying for the duration?”
Adeline turned to face him. “Of course I’m staying.” When he would have interrupted, she held up both hands and plowed on. “I’m not going any-damned-where until this is finished. You can exclude me from the investigation, but that won’t send me away. I’ll work my own investigation. With or without your blessing.”
Wyatt glanced at the other deputies, who had stopped their work to listen to her rant. “I think we should have this discussion in my office.”
“Doesn’t matter where we have it, the result will be the same.”