Hush Little Girl by Lisa Regan (first e reader .txt) 📗

Josie said, “Lorelei had a gun. Did you know that?”

Buckley raised a brow. “No, I did not. That’s surprising. I assume she kept it out of Rory’s reach, however.”

Not far enough, Josie thought. “Where were you yesterday morning, doctor?”

“I was here. I’m always here. As I said, my car has been in the shop.”

“Does anyone live with you?” she asked. “Anyone who can corroborate that you were here?”

“No, it’s just me.”

Noah said, “Do you have any photos of Rory?”

Buckley shook his head. “I do not. Lorelei had many, though. Albums and albums of them.”

Josie met Noah’s eyes and she knew he was thinking the same thing: those albums were gone or destroyed. She asked, “Would Rory have destroyed them if he were having some kind of outburst?”

“Certainly. He destroyed many things over the years.”

“Can you tell us what he looked like?” Noah asked.

“Last I saw him he was tall and gangly. He strongly resembled Lorelei. Brown eyes. Brown hair. Oh, he’s got a lock of white hair right here.” Buckley pointed to the center of his forehead where his hairline started.

“Poliosis,” Josie said.

He smiled. “Yes! He had the white forelock and Holly the white eyelashes.”

Noah asked, “Did Lorelei have poliosis, do you know?”

“I don’t believe so,” said Buckley.

“The children got that from their father, then,” said Josie.

“I can’t say for certain,” said Buckley. “I’m no geneticist or expert on poliosis, but perhaps, yes.”

Emily had no white forelock or white eyelashes. “Do you know if all three of Lorelei’s children were fathered by the same man?” she asked.

“I have no idea. I assumed they all had the same father. It’s not like Lorelei got out much. Her entire life was those children. Could she have met someone else after Holly was born? I suppose. We never discussed it.”

Josie thought about what Paxton and Emily had said about adults lying. Buckley had been quite forthcoming with them even at the risk of tarnishing his career. With Lorelei dead and him retiring, the damage to his career would be moot, even if Josie and Noah reported him to the state. Without Lorelei alive, there would be no one to bring criminal charges or to file any civil suits. In a sense, now that she was gone, the only thing he had to lose was his reputation. Still, Paxton and Emily were both right—it seemed every adult in Emily’s life at least had lied about many things.

“Do you know a man named Reed Bryan?” Josie asked.

There was no flicker of recognition in his face. “No. I do not.”

Noah asked, “Did Lorelei ever talk about her family?”

“Her evil half-sister?” he laughed. “Yes, in broad strokes. When I first visited her, I wondered how she’d gotten her house and all that land given she had no job and no prospects. If you’re wondering what other secrets Lorelei shared with me, there are none. Only Rory.”

Josie said, “Dr. Buckley, what’s your shoe size?”

He raised a brow but answered, “Nine.”

“Can you tell us your blood type?”

“B positive,” he answered easily. “Would you like my fingerprints as well?”

It was a joke. Josie could tell by his smile. She said, “Actually, yes.”

Twenty

“You think that guy’s the father of Lorelei’s children?” Noah asked as he pulled out of Vincent Buckley’s long driveway and back toward Denton.

“I don’t know,” Josie said. She tucked a brown evidence bag holding one of her business cards with Buckley’s prints on it into the glove compartment. She’d have Hummel process the card when they got back, see if any of his prints matched up to those found in Lorelei’s house. “It seems like he would have confessed that. He told us every other damn thing, including that he made a pass at Lorelei.”

“All the stuff he told us means nothing now,” Noah said. “Not if he’s stopped practicing medicine. But if Rory and Emily are his children, that makes things a lot more complicated for him.”

“True,” Josie said. “But he screwed Lorelei over. He actively blocked her attempts to help a patient, and people died because of it. Then he let her lose her license and her career. I don’t know if that’s something any woman would be able to forgive—not enough to have three kids with him. Anyway, right now we need to focus on finding Rory. Can you drop me off at the hospital? My car is there. I’m going to drive over to Lorelei’s house and see if I can find anything that belonged to Rory.”

“While you do that,” Noah said, “I’m going to see if I can find a birth certificate for Rory Mitchell and draw up a warrant for any medical records. I know Lorelei kept him a secret, but she had to give birth to him somewhere. I know a lot of women give birth at home, but she had both of his sisters at Denton Memorial so maybe he was born there, too. If he was, his blood type will be on file. Also, I’ll see if I can get the Sheriff to send Deputy Sandoval and her dog Rini over to you. Using the dog would probably be the fastest way to find this kid if he is out in the woods.”

“Update the team,” Josie said. “We’ll need bodies out there with the K-9 unit. It’s a lot of area to search, and if this kid is as violent as Buckley claims, it might be better to have some back-up.”

“Remember when we were talking with Pax and he said something like, ‘my dad doesn’t even know.’ He meant his dad didn’t know about Rory, didn’t he?”

“I think so,” Josie said. “If Reed is telling the truth and he was only at Lorelei’s house a couple of times just to get Pax, it’s possible he never met Rory. But Pax also said his dad was lying, too. I’m just wondering what he was lying about, and it if has any bearing on this case.”

“You mean you think Reed was