Cold Hearted (43 page)

After the minister read several verses from the Bible, the quartet sang “The Lord’s Prayer.” When the good reverend spoke about Robby Joe in a kind, sympathetic voice, a chorus of sniffling and soft weeping filled the chapel.

Thankfully, the service was short. Twenty minutes from beginning to end. While Devon and Jordan helped Darlene into the car, Jordan pulled Rick aside.

“We won’t be going on to the cemetery today,” she told him. “There was some sort of mix-up about the backhoe to cover the grave and it won’t be available until tomorrow. Darlene and I will drive back over to the cemetery in the morning.”

“You can’t go alone, just the two of you. I’ll drive y’all.”

“All right.” She looked at him, her eyes dry, her expression solemn. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being here. For staying inside the chapel for the service. I couldn’t see you, but I felt you were there with me.”

He wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her to cry and keep on crying. Instead, he cupped her elbow and helped her into the backseat of the sedan.

It hadn’t been difficult to cancel the backhoe and re-schedule it for tomorrow morning. All it took was one little phone call pretending to be a new funeral home employee. But getting Rick Carson out of the way might prove to be more difficult. She had to find a way to distract him, if she intended to get Jordan alone. Of course, killing him was one solution. But she couldn’t risk drawing attention to herself, so she’d have to find another way.

While waiting for the results of Robby Joe’s autopsy, she had formulated her plan. She should have known all along that there was only one way to secure Jordan’s happiness. All these years, she had done everything possible to keep Jordan safe, to protect her, to support her, love her, give her whatever she needed, and to share every sorrow with her. And yet she had only partially succeeded.

She knew she had a very brief window of opportunity to accomplish her goal and secure Jordan’s happiness.

It had to be tonight.

Dinner had been a somber threesome that evening. Rene had been a no-show, using the excuse of a headache in order to escape. Darlene had requested hot herbal tea be brought upstairs to her guestroom. Roselynne had phoned to say that she and Tammy were going to have dinner at home. And even Devon had excused himself before Vadonna served dessert.

Jordan had moved her food around on her plate for the past thirty minutes, but Rick noticed she hadn’t eaten more than a bite or two.

When Vadonna placed the bowls of blackberry cobbler à la mode in front of Rick and Jordan, she frowned as she stared at Jordan’s plate.

“If you don’t start eating, Miss Jordan, you’re going to dry up and blow away. I want to see you eat that cobbler. I picked those wild blackberries myself, off the bushes here on the estate.”

“The cobbler looks delicious,” Jordan said. “I promise I’ll eat as much as I can.”

Vadonna smiled as she cleared the table and returned to the kitchen.

“Is there any way I can persuade you not to go to the cemetery tomorrow?” Rick asked.

“I have to go. It’s important to Darlene.”

“Couldn’t you talk to her, maybe convince her to wait and you two visit his grave in a few weeks?”

“No. She needs to see this through tomorrow and so do I.”

He nodded. “Cam Hendrix called when you went upstairs to take Darlene her tea. He plans to meet with the district attorney and the sheriff tomorrow. With the proof that Robby Joe’s death was an accident and with J.C.’s written confession that Lt. McLain was involved in The Chatterbox exposé, Cam believes he can persuade the DA not to pursue you as a suspect in your husband’s murder.”

Jordan’s hand holding the dessert spoon shook so badly that she dropped the spoon against the glass bowl. She jerked her hand back, took a calming breath and pressed her open palm over her neck.

“I still find it difficult to believe that someone killed Dan,” Jordan said. “And it seems our little plan to force someone to attack you hasn’t worked, has it? Maybe your theory is wrong. Maybe no one—”

Tobias called, “Miss Jordan, you have to go over to Mrs. Harris’s right away.” He stood in the doorway, concern etched on his face. “She just called and said Miss Tammy has gone crazy or something. She’s screaming and crying and throwing things and Mrs. Harris can’t do a thing with her. Miss Tammy keeps saying your name.”

Jordan shoved her chair back and shot to her feet. Rick got up and followed her through the house and out the back door. When she broke into a run, he caught up with her halfway to the Harris’s cottage. Even from that distance, they could hear Tammy hollering.

Roselynne, in her red satin robe and matching slippers, met them in the yard, a look of absolute fear on her face. “I’ve never seen her like this. Not ever. This isn’t one of her usual temper tantrums. It’s as if she’s gone berserk. I can’t get her to calm down and she won’t tell me what’s wrong.” Roselynne grabbed Jordan’s hands. “She keeps saying that she wants you.”

“I’ll go in and talk to her,” Jordan said.

“She’s locked herself in her room and told me to get out of the house and stay out, that she doesn’t want to see anybody but you.”

Jordan looked at Rick. “Please, stay out here with Roselynne and let me go in alone.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Rick told her.

“Tammy won’t hurt Jordan, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Roselynne said. “If she hurts anybody, it’ll be herself.”

“Stay out here, both of you,” Jordan said. “If I need you, I’ll let you know.”

Rick didn’t like the idea of Jordan going into the house alone, but short of using physical force, he knew he couldn’t stop her.

He grabbed her arm. “Be careful.”

She pulled away from him and went into the house.

They could hear Tammy screeching, the sound slightly muffled through the closed doors. Then suddenly a door slammed and Tammy quieted.

“Maybe just seeing Jordan has calmed her down,” Roselynne said.

“You have no idea what caused Tammy to—”

“She was fine when I went into the bathroom to take my nightly bubble bath. I usually listen to some soothing music and relax for thirty minutes or so. I left Tammy in the kitchen, putting the supper dishes in the dishwasher. She’d been kind of quiet ever since the service for Robby Joe, but I didn’t think anything of it. It was a sad day for all of us. And even though Darlene’s not my favorite person, I felt so sorry for her. I guess it was kind of like losing her boy all over again.”

“Were you already in the bathtub when Tammy started screaming?” Rick asked.

“Sure was. I’d been soaking a good fifteen minutes when I heard her wailing like a banshee and tearing through the house, stomping like a horse. Lord, you should see the mess she made in the living room. She knocked over lamps and tossed throw pillows on the floor and broke two of my snow globes.”

“Exactly what did Tammy say?”

“Nothing that made any sense.”

“Stop and think and then tell me, word for word, if possible.”

Roselynne crossed her arms under her ample breasts and huffed. “Just a bunch of gibberish. Some nonsense about Jordan.”

“What sort of nonsense?” Rick wanted to shake Roselynne and he would if he thought it might help the situation.

“Oh, she kept saying that she loved Jordan. Her exact words were ‘I do so love Jordan. I do.’ She kept repeating that over and over again. Then she said something about our having to help Jordan be happy.”

“When Tammy gets upset, she doesn’t usually rant and rave and scream and tear the house apart, right?”

“Right.” Roselynne glanced at the closed front door. “She throws a hissy fit now and again, but nothing like tonight. I swear, if I didn’t know better, I’d think she was putting on an act.”

Rick grabbed Roselynne by the shoulders. “Why would she pretend to go berserk?”

“I — I don’t know. I didn’t say she did, but maybe she did it to get Jordan to come over here to the house and talk to her.”

Rick loosened his hold on Roselynne. “Wouldn’t Jordan have come if Tammy had just called her?”

“Of course she would have and Tammy knew she would. That’s why none of this makes any sense.”

Rick rushed past Roselynne, bounded up the front steps and onto the porch. As he opened the door, she called after him.

“What’s wrong? Why are you going in there? Jordan told us she wanted to go in alone and we should wait out here.”

Rick didn’t respond. He went down the hall. Two doors stood open. A bedroom, obviously Roselynne’s, and a bathroom. The third door was closed. Rick tried the knob. The door swung open and revealed a semi-dark room. The only illumination was a nightlight plugged into a wall outlet.

“Jordan?”

No response.

“Jordan?”

Roselynne came up behind him just as he felt along the wall and flipped on the light switch. Tammy sat in the middle of her bed, her legs folded as if she were sitting at a campfire. She looked at him and smiled.

“Where’s Jordan?”

“Jordan’s happy now,” Tammy said, then repeated the phrase over and over again in a singsong fashion. “Jordan’s happy now. Jordan’s happy now.”

Rick turned to Roselynne. “Talk to her. See if you can get her to tell you where Jordan is.”

Rick visually searched the small bedroom. Twin beds. He peered under one and then the other. A dresser on one wall, a chest of drawers between the two windows on the other outside wall. The windows were closed and locked. He yanked open the closet. Small, no more than three feet wide and three feet deep.

“Tammy, honey, where did Jordan go?” Rick heard Roselynne ask as he ran through the house and searched, room by room. When he entered the kitchen he stopped dead still when he saw the back door standing wide open.

“Rick!” Roselynne screamed his name as she came running into the kitchen, all but dragging Tammy with her. “Somebody put Tammy up to that little wild girl performance.” Roselynne shoved Tammy in front of her. “Tell him. Tell Rick what you told me.”

“If I love Jordan and want her to be happy forever, then I should act crazy,” Tammy said, smiling and cheerful. “And I should get Jordan to come in the house alone to talk to me. Everything will be all right then because Jordan can go away and be happy forever.”

“Tell him where Jordan’s going?” Roselynne looked at Rick, terror in her eyes.

“She’s going to be with Robby Joe because she’s never been happy except when she was with him.”

Rick ran out the back door, all the while hoping and praying that Jordan was still nearby. But after a quick search, he realized that whoever had taken Jordan had planned well ahead. He couldn’t waste precious time trying to search alone. He flipped open his phone, brought up the number, and waited impatiently for the phone to ring.

“Elliott here.”

“Jordan’s missing,” Rick said. “She hasn’t been gone more than five minutes. Contact the front gate to alert them. Get in touch with Holt and tell him to get out here to Price Manor. In the meantime, do a search of the house to see who’s there and who isn’t, then get back to me.”

“Rick!” Roselynne yelled.

He looked back at the cottage. Waving her arms, Roselynne came running toward him.

He dialed Steve Corbett’s private number.

“I can’t get Tammy to tell me who took Jordan,” Roselynne said. “She says it’s a special secret and she can’t tell anybody because we would try to stop Jordan from being with Robby Joe. She said that Jordan is going to wear her wedding dress and become Robby Joe’s bride forever and ever, just like in a fairy tale.”

“Good God!”

“What?” The voice on the phone asked. “Carson, is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” Rick said. “Look, Corbett, we’ve got a bad situation here. Jordan’s missing. Someone put Tammy up to tricking us. Jordan went into the Harris cottage alone to talk to a hysterical Tammy, but she never came back out the front door. Someone’s taken her.”

“Damn! Any idea who?”

“Nix Elliott is checking the house as we speak and he’s alerting the front gate, but I’m pretty sure they left by the back entrance. I need you to get some men out here to do a search, but from what little we could get Tammy to tell us, I think whoever kidnapped Jordan is taking her to the funeral home in Jernigan Crossroads.”

“I’ll get some deputies out there to search the grounds at Price Manor and I’ll send a couple of guys to the funeral home.”

“How long will it take to get deputies to the funeral home?”

“I can’t say for sure. I don’t know if we’ve got anybody patrolling in the area tonight. If not, it’ll take a good forty-five minutes or longer,” Steve said.

“Put the word out that I’ll be driving a black Jeep Wrangler, Knox County tag.” He rattled off his license plate number. “I’ll be breaking every speed limit. I’m not stopping for anyone or anything.”

“Why are you doing this?” Jordan glanced in the rear-view mirror of her Navigator and caught a glimpse of the two figures in the dark backseat.

“Because I love you and I know now what I should have done years ago. I didn’t realize what I had to do until we brought Robby Joe back to us.”

“I don’t understand,” Jordan said. “Why do you want us to go to Jernigan Crossroads tonight? We could wait until tomorrow—”

“No! It has to be tonight.”

Jordan glanced into the rearview mirror again and saw the sheer terror in Rene’s eyes.

Dear God, she’d been such a fool. She should have listened to Rick and not rushed into the cottage to help Tammy. But then again, how could she or anyone else have suspected that the whole thing had been a setup, a trap to snare her. And poor Tammy had been a witless participant. By now, Rick had to know that she was missing. But he’d have no idea who was responsible.

“You don’t want to do this,” Jordan said. “You don’t want to hurt me or anyone else. I know you don’t.”

“Oh, Jordan, I’d never hurt you. I love you. All I’ve ever wanted is for you to be happy. But you haven’t been happy. Not since Robby Joe left us.”

“I’m not unhappy. Actually, I think I have a chance to be truly happy with Rick Carson.”