Thursday

Chapter Fifteen

Jeffrey felt like he had been blown across a hallway with a wooden door plastered to his body. His arms ached, and his knees felt like they would never bend right again. Working at the Weaver house had taken the rest of the day, but when he had cal led Sara at one in the morning, she had not hesitated to ask him over. Part of him was nervous about the way they had picked up so easily again. He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Sara to say that she could not go through with this. Another part of him was just so damn happy to be back in her life that he wanted to enjoy every minute of it as much as he could. Even sitting in the tub with her, talking about what was probably one of the most horrible cases he had ever worked, he felt at home.

He watched Sara across the tub as she sipped her wine, obviously letting what he had just told her sink in. Jeffrey had forgotten how great the claw-footed tub in her master bathroom was. Six feet long with a center-mounted faucet, it was perfect for two people. They had spent half their marriage in this tub.

Sara rested her glass on her knee. "Where is Lena now?"

"The hospital," Jeffrey told her. "Patterson's still holding on."

"She saying anything?"

"Grace?" Jeffrey asked. Sara nodded, and he said, "She's pretty lucid, but she's got one of those morphine pumps for the pain."

"Breast cancer is an incredibly painful way to die."

"Good," he said, leaning over the tub to pick up his glass of wine. With his parents' shining example, Jeffrey had never taken to alcohol, but after today he needed something to take the edge off. Before he started talking to Sara, he had felt like his mind was spinning, not able to concentrate on one thing at a time like he needed to do. There were so many pieces to the case floating around, and so many questions that had yet to be answered. Somehow, the alcohol was giving him focus.

Sara asked, "Do you really think Grace Patterson will give a deathbed confession?"

"Not really, but you never know…" He paused, measuring his words. " Lena 's got this thing about Mark."

"What kind of thing?"

"She kept insisting that he was raped."

"He was," Sara pointed out. "Are you saying he willingly posed for those magazines, that he seduced his mother?"

"Of course not," he said, and he was glad she had made that point. "What I'm really worried about right now is Lena."

"She's doing the best she can," Sara told him. "Give her some time."

"I just can't take that kind of chance with her, Sara." He rubbed his eyes, still smelling gasoline on his hands even though he had scrubbed himself thoroughly with soap.

He said, "She's too close to the edge. I don't want to be the one standing there watching when she finally goes over. I don't think I could live with myself."

"It's going to take time for her to get past what happened," Sara said in a measured tone. "If she ever does at all."

"She won't even talk to anybody about it."

"You can't force her to do it," Sara countered. "She'll talk about it when she's ready to."

He stared into his glass, not responding.

"So," Sara said, obviously realizing he wanted to move on. "Let's change the subject."

"Okay."

She summarized what they knew, ticking the points off on her fingers. "Mark and Jenny were posing for the magazines at Dottie's house. Grace Patterson was involved with her son."

"Right."

"What about Teddy Patterson?"

"He could be the link here," Jeffrey said. "He's a truck driver. Maybe he picks up the magazines and takes them across the country."

"Where is he now?"

"Either at the hospital or at his trailer. Frank's been tailing him." Jeffrey took a healthy drink from his glass. "He doesn't seem too concerned that one of his kids might be brain dead and the other has been kidnapped."

"What's he doing?"

"Staying by his wife, mostly."

"Maybe he's focusing on one thing at a time?" Sara suggested. "His wife's dying, he's with her. That's something immediate he can do instead of just sitting around feeling helpless."

"Trust me, he's not the kind of guy to feel helpless."

"You think he'll do something?"

"I think he'll leave town as soon as his wife is dead," he told her. "I talked to Nick Shelton. We're thinking Teddy's going to be the contact for his collar over in Augusta."

"The guy Nick arrested who had the child pornography?"

He nodded, debating whether or not to tell Sara the rest, then deciding he should be open with her. "The meeting is being scheduled for tomorrow at noon."

"What meeting?" she asked, and he could see the concern in her eyes.

"Nick's guy, this porn distributor, got a call from a pay phone. A man's voice was on the other end." He paused, trying to gauge Sara's reaction. "I didn't recognize the voice, but they're meeting at the hotel over in Augusta to drop off the magazines."

"And I take it you're going to be there?"

"Yeah," he said. "I take it you've got a problem with that?"

She sighed. "I remember when we were married how I would cringe every time the phone rang and I didn't know exactly where you were."

He drank some wine, letting this sink in. "You never told me that before."

"I know I didn't," she said, then changed the subject again. "So, how does this work? Dottie and Grace do the magazines, Teddy Patterson delivers them, then Nick's guy distributes them around here?"

"Pretty much," Jeffrey confirmed. "We think Patterson probably makes stops all around the Southeast. Nick is going to pull his records from the Department of Transportation as soon as we bust him."

"Why not before?"

"Who knows who'd tip him off?" Jeffrey pointed out.

"Besides, Frank's glued to Teddy. It's not like he's going to be able to get away with anything."

"Why arrest Patterson now? Why not follow him on his route and pick up all the distributors?"

"Nick says they have a phone network. If one of them doesn't call the next with the okay, then they close shop. It's very sophisticated."

"I don't suppose anyone knows anything about where Lacey might be?"

"You don't suppose right."

"How long has the GBI been working on this pornography ring?"

"Years," Jeffrey said. "They just needed to know who was bringing them in."

"Is this where Dottie comes in?"

Jeffrey shrugged, because nothing was clear at this point. "I don't like to think about that woman having some kind of network. It means she's got a safe place to go and hide. It means she's connected to all kinds of people all over the world who are invested in helping her because she keeps supplying them with their sick porn." He felt his anger swelling again, and took a deep breath to calm himself. When that didn't work, he settled on drinking some more wine.

"You know they swap kids," Sara said, her tone measured. "Lacey could be in Canada or Germany by now." She paused, then continued, "Or, Dottie could be abusing Lacey herself. Dottie could be keeping her somewhere, doing God knows what." Sara's voice went up on this last part as the threat seemed to hit her.

Jeffrey rubbed his eyes, like he could wipe this away. "How could a woman, a mother, do that kind of thing to a child?"

"In my experience," Sara began, "women who abuse children are much more sadistic than men. I think it's because they know they can get away with it. They know no one will believe they're capable of hurting children." She added, "It's especially bad when it's a boy who is being abused. Let's take the incest out of it for a minute. A boy having sex with a woman twice his age is patted on the back. A girl doing the same thing is considered a victim. There's a big disparity there."