For the moment Kerri had no reason to be concerned that Jenkins hadn’t mentioned her nephew. It wasn’t as if they’d asked her about the old blue car.

“One last question.” Kerri took her time, framing the question carefully. “Do you have any reason to believe Joey might know something about what happened? Maybe he saw something, and he’s afraid to talk about it.”

Cowart shook her head. “No. I was just afraid to say anything. I worried I would get fired.”

“We have no reason to mention any of this to the Chapins,” Falco assured her. “But we will need to speak with Joey. We’re going over to his aunt’s house now, and we need you not to call and tell him. You keep our secret, and we’ll keep yours.”

She nodded, her expression uncertain. “Okay.”

Kerri waited until they were in Falco’s car and driving away before she shared her conclusion. “I think she’s telling the truth.”

“I guess we’ll know when we get to the aunt’s house. If Joey has recently taken off, I say we come back and rattle the girl’s cage again.”

“Maybe. But I don’t think we’ll have to do that.”

Montevallo Road

Ilana Jenkins was home, and so was her nephew Joey.

The thirty-year-old deadbeat sat on the sofa next to his aunt. Kerri had run the nephew’s name. There was a breaking and entering when he was twenty and at least one domestic disturbance for each of his eight girlfriends over the past decade. The most recent altercation had escalated to domestic violence. According to his probation officer, Joey had an issue with his temper, which kept him unemployed most of the time. He’d gone through more jobs in the past decade than he had girlfriends. Currently he was employed by the Second Time Around Auto Salvage.

Kerri felt sorry for Jenkins. Jenkins should kick his ass out.

“He’s my only sister’s child,” she explained. “He has no one else.”

“This is why you didn’t tell us about his car being at the Abbott home last week?” Falco made no effort to hide his frustration.

“She didn’t know.” Keaton spoke up for the first time.

Maybe the guy had one decent bone in his body after all.

“Go on,” Falco ordered.

After exhaling dramatically, Keaton started to talk. “Angie and I have a thing.”

Jenkins burst into a rant about how she’d told him not to get involved with anyone close to her work. Though tears shone in her eyes, she was livid.

“I know, I know.” Keaton’s shoulders sagged. “We’ve been real careful. I wasn’t there to see her last week, though. I swear, Aunt Illy. Being there had nothing to do with Angie. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“If you weren’t in the neighborhood to see Angie or to work,” Kerri said, “why were you there? Parked near the gate to the Abbott property? You have to know that your record of domestic violence puts you at the top of our suspect list.”

“It’s not like that. I swear!” He stared at his hands for a few seconds. Unlike his girlfriend’s, his lay loosely against his jean-clad thighs. “She wanted to talk to me.”

Kerri’s instincts went on point. “Who wanted to talk to you?”

“Mrs. Abbott.”

Kerri and Falco exchanged a glance. This could be the moment—the turning point in the case.

Jenkins erupted into another outraged monologue. This time the tears flowed unencumbered down her cheeks.

“Why did Mrs. Abbott want to speak with you?” Kerri was careful to keep her rising anticipation out of her tone. She didn’t want this guy to shut down or, worse, lawyer up. Whatever he had seen, heard, or done, they needed it.

“She had a problem.” He looked from Kerri to Falco and back. “She wouldn’t really say what it was. Believe me, I asked. I told her I might not be able to help if she wasn’t up front with me, but she wouldn’t say.”

“If she wouldn’t explain what the problem was,” Kerri ventured, “why did she want to speak with you?”

“She said there was something she needed to do, and she couldn’t do it with her car or her husband’s. She needed one that couldn’t be tied to her or her husband.”

“She wanted to borrow your car,” Falco suggested.

Keaton wagged his head from side to side. “She wanted to buy it. I told her it wasn’t for sale, but she insisted. Finally, I thought, What the hell? But I did warn her it wasn’t that great. Just an old beater.”

Now this was an interesting turn of events. “And you’re sure she didn’t mention why she needed it,” Kerri pushed. “Anything she said might help us determine what’s happened to her.”

“No. Not even a hint. She just said she had something to do. She offered me ten thousand dollars, and I couldn’t say no.”

Jenkins was shaking her head and muttering now. Kerri couldn’t determine if she was praying for or chanting a curse against her nephew.

“She gave you cash?” Falco asked.

“Ten K in one-hundred-dollar bills. I bought a killer 1987 red Porsche 944. Even had enough left over to pay for the insurance for a whole year.”

Kerri pulled out her notepad. “Joey, I need you to tell me exactly what day this transaction occurred and every single detail about the car you sold Mrs. Abbott.”

“It was on Friday of last week. She made the offer on Thursday, and then I came back on Friday and got the money.” He listed off the relevant details of his 1996 Plymouth Breeze.

“Did you turn the car over to her on Friday?” Falco asked.

“I only gave her one of the keys and the title. She told me exactly where to leave the car parked at the Walmart over on Palisades Boulevard, so that’s what I did. I left the second key under the floor mat and locked the doors, like she said. She must’ve picked it up, because I drove by there after I got my Porsche, and the Plymouth was gone.”

Kerri’s heart rate kicked into high gear. The Walmart would have surveillance cameras for the parking lot.

“Did you leave the license plate on the car?” Falco asked.

“I didn’t take it off. It’s possible she did.”

Falco said, “I’ll need the registration information.”

When Keaton had produced a tag receipt, Kerri passed him her notepad and pen. “I need you to write down everything you just told us and sign it.”

She wasn’t going to risk this guy taking off on her or changing his story.

A full five minutes later he signed his name with a little more flair than necessary and passed the notepad and pen across the table to Kerri. “Done.”

“Thank you, Joey.” She stood and gave the aunt a nod. “Ms. Jenkins.” Kerri pulled a card from her pocket and thrust it at Keaton. “I need to hear from you if you remember anything else about the Abbotts. Anything at all.”

He nodded as he accepted the card. “Sure thing. You think she offed her husband and disappeared?”

Ms. Jenkins started to sob once more. Poor woman. She’d known Ben Abbott his whole life.

“We don’t know,” Kerri confessed. “That’s why we need your help.”

Keaton acknowledged this with a jerk of his head. “For the record, she didn’t seem like the type, you know.”

“Type?” Falco asked.

“To, you know, kill anybody.”

“But you barely knew her,” Kerri countered. “Are you sure about that?”

Keaton shrugged. “Maybe not. But I’ve known bad people before, and she didn’t give off that kind of vibe.”

Jenkins tearfully apologized repeatedly as she followed them to her porch. Kerri assured her that it was all good now.

Kerri needed to get to that Walmart.

No sooner did her seat belt click into place than Falco roared out of the driveway.

En route Kerri called dispatch and put out an APB on the blue Plymouth.

Maybe no one had taken Mrs. Abbott from the house.

There was a real possibility she’d left before the murders occurred.

But where had the blood on her side of the bed come from?

20

12:00 p.m.

Walmart

Palisades Boulevard

The parking lot surveillance at the Walmart had given them nothing. The car had been parked in the one part of the lot where the cameras didn’t reach. Was Sela Abbott really so clever that she’d calculated that move? The blue car was spotted on a different camera leaving the lot later the same night Keaton had dropped it off, but it was impossible to see who the driver was.

“You realize it took some doing to figure out the exact range of the camera closest to where she parked,” Falco said. “Maybe the husband isn’t the only genius in the family.”

Kerri understood this. Yes. “Whatever her motives, Sela Abbott planned everything very carefully. We just don’t know what everything includes yet.”

That was the problem. Had she been planning to leave her husband? Maybe she was having some sort of breakdown. Though her doctor didn’t seem to think so.

Kerri got up on her knees in her seat and reached for the stack of files in the back. She slid back into her seat and rifled through them until she found the one she needed. She skimmed the bank statements she’d printed out.