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“I don’t have time for foreplay right now. I assume you just got here?”
“Two minutes ago, and it’s already been a long half hour since I picked her up. The sooner we can get her pre
sentation, the sooner we can get her out of town.” He ran a hand wearily through his hair, making the ends stand up like porcupine quills.
“Okay. We have a development.” There was a quiet whimper from Taylor’s chair, and she waved a hand at the girl. “This is Daphne Beauchamp. Her roommate, Jane Macias, has gone missing, and she fits our profile.”
Daphne had become a small, unkempt girl in the few moments that Taylor had known her. Sitting at Taylor’s desk, she exuded none of the edgy savoir faire she’d given off at the paper.
“Daphne, this is Dr. John Baldwin. He’s a profiler with the FBI. He’s working with us on the Snow White cases. I’d like him to hear a little about Jane. Could you share some of what you’ve already told me?”
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Daphne sat up a little straighter, visibly pulling herself together. “Sure, of course. I mean, I don’t know how much to tell. Jane’s a great girl. Really smart, going places, you know? She wants to be an investigative journalist, the oldschool, hard-nose type. Wants to bring down administra
tions and change the course of humanity.”
Taylor watched the girl speak. “Those are pretty tall orders. Does she have what it takes?”
“Yes, she does. She’s brilliant, can write like the wind. I’d…well, I admire her. She’s got what it takes to make something in this industry. Went to the J School at Columbia, that’s as good as it gets. Wrote for the paper there, had some freelance jobs for the Times…she’s a sharp cookie.” Daphne fiddled with a pencil she found on Taylor’s desk, tappity, tappity, tap.
“So why is she working here? If she was that talented, couldn’t she get hired onto one of the big papers?”
“No, no, that was her choice. She decided to take a year and get out of New York, see if it didn’t broaden her horizons. She chose Nashville because she’s got some god-awful crush on John Siegenthaler.” Tappity, tappity, tap.
“Siegenthaler Senior? Isn’t he a little old for her tastes?” Taylor reached over the desk and took the pencil. Daphne stared at her for a moment, then broke into the first smile Taylor had seen from the girl.
“No, no, not in a sexual way. His mind. She finds him intellectually stimulating, wanted to walk in his footsteps for a bit. Of course, the Te
Taylor shot Baldwin a look, put the pencil back in its holder. He took the hint, continued with the questions. 14
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“Jane is from New York?”
“Yes. She’s such a city girl, too. Really kind of fu
initely uptown. When she orders food she gets all kinds of looks.”
Ah, good, Taylor thought. Something like that would make her stand out, and someone might remember when they saw her last.
“Where would she have gone last night, Daphne? You said she wanted to get out of the house because your boy
friend was over. Did she usually leave when he stopped by?”
“Yeah. She thinks Zac is some kind of idiot because he plays football. He isn’t, but she just turns up her nose. She’s like that—has the literati attitude. Like just because she can manipulate words, she’s smarter than everyone. She was actually having kind of a difficult time here. She pissed off a few people at the paper with her attitude. I mean, yeah, she’s brilliant, but sometimes you don’t need everyone in the room to know just how brilliant you are.”
Taylor leaned back against the door and crossed her arms. “Who did she piss off?”
Daphne laughed softly.
“Who didn’t she piss off? She just grates some people the wrong way—it’s the Yankee in her. She doesn’t see the need for subtlety that often, and you know how it is here. People bristle when you put on airs. Not that she was so bad, but any time you get a young, pretty little thing mouthing off, it’s going to cause problems.”
“Any idea where she might have headed when she left the house last night?”
“No. I mean, she’d go to Starbucks sometimes, hang 132
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out there with her laptop. But she left it at home last night, just took some book and jammed, obviously pissed at me. I wasn’t really worried about it, that’s just how she gets sometimes. Likes to have a quiet environment, and Zac’s a little rowdy sometimes. Especially during the season, he can get temperamental. But since the Titans put him on injured reserve, he’s been kinda down. We were pla
“She a big drinker?”
“Naw, not too bad. She’ll have a few beers at a bar, or some wine, but she’s not into the hard stuff. She’s a little goody-goody like that. Total lightweight.”
“Does she talk to home often?”
Daphne shook her head. “Not that I know of. She isn’t close to her family, she did tell me that. I think her dad is dead. Jane has only ever talked about him in the past tense. She had a picture of him in her room a while ago, but I haven’t seen it lately. Her mom must have remarried—she left a message for Jane once and her last name was differ
ent. It’s not a topic she’s ever been open about, you know?
I don’t think we’ve ever gone in-depth about her back
ground.”
“That’s a little strange for roommates, isn’t it?”
“Naw. We met through Craig’s List. I needed a room
mate fast, so we didn’t know each other at all when she moved in. We’ve only been in that apartment since Sep
tember, and we can go days without seeing each other. We don’t hang out or anything. Just aren’t all that close.”
“Okay, Daphne. I’m going to have a uniform take you back to your apartment. After you gather some things for 14
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me, he can take you back to work if you’d like. I’d like you to give the officer her date book, if you can find it, and any pictures you might have. You said her laptop was still there? Give that to him, too.”
“It’s password protected. You’ll never get in.”
Taylor smiled at her. “We’re actually pretty good with that kind of stuff, Daphne.”
“Jane wouldn’t like that, though. She’s really proprie
tary about her stuff.”
“You let us deal with that, okay? We’ll take full respon
sibility. If you hear anything from her, I want you to call me, okay? I’m sure this is all going to work out.”
“No, it won’t. This creep, he does bad things to women. He doesn’t let them go once he has them.” She teared up, and Taylor laid a hand on her shoulder.
“You’re making assumptions. You spend all day with journalists, you know better. Let us look into this. Every
thing is going to be fine.”
I hope, Taylor thought. I hope. Taylor arranged for the girl to be taken home, watching Baldwin stalk her office. Two steps, turn, two steps, turn. There wasn’t enough room to pace; he looked more like a caged circus lion in a too-small pen.
“What’s wrong?”
He looked over his shoulder at her, a lopsided smile on his face. “What isn’t wrong?”
“Getting a bit melodramatic, aren’t you?”
“Oh, come on, Taylor. This is supposed to be a great week, and here we are, chasing another madman. We’ve got the queen bitch out there waiting to drop some sort of bombshell, a possible missing person, and I just want to 134
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get on a plane Sunday morning and spend three weeks drinking wine, eating carbonara and fucking you silly.”