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EPILOGUE
SUNDAY, WEEK TWO
Jenna woke to the sound of Carter banging on her front door. It had been after midnight when she finally fell into bed. Locating the DA late on a Saturday afternoon had been a nightmare. The ton of paperwork involved due to Kara’s injuries sustained during the arrest, her attack on Rio and Kane, and detaining a minor had taken hours to complete. She staggered out of bed and, grabbing her robe, hurried to the front door. She frowned at Carter’s raised eyebrow. “What?”
“We’ve done the chores and Jo would like to start breakfast.” Carter grinned around a toothpick. “We thought we’d let you sleep. Have you heard from Kane?”
Jenna turned to look at the clock. “You should have woken me and, no, I haven’t heard from Kane at all. Wolfe took him home with him and gave him something to make him rest. Likely he had one of his headaches from hell. He’ll contact us when he’s ready.” She pushed hair from her eyes and stood to one side to allow him and Zorro to enter. “Any news of Rio and Cade? I didn’t get any information at all last night apart from they were stable.”
“I called before and spoke to Rio. He’s okay.” Carter shrugged out of his jacket and hung it in the mudroom. “Cade too. They’ll be released once the doctors have checked them over again. I doubt Rio will be back to work for a couple of days. They put fifteen stitches in his head. That woman must pack a punch.”
Jenna frowned. “Rio’s been through hell and back. I hope he takes a week off. He needs the rest.” She glanced up as the clock struck eight. “Oh, look at the time. I’ll get ready. I guess we’ll be interviewing the Judd sisters?”
“Yeah.” Carter smiled. “Rowley called me earlier. He waited for the paperwork last night and dropped by the hospital at seven this morning. He’s already charged them both with attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and kidnapping. That will hold them for now.”
Hurrying to the bathroom, Jenna waved at Jo coming through the front door. “What would I do without Rowley? I’ll be five minutes.”
“Take your time.” Jo headed for the kitchen. “We won’t be able to speak to the doctors at the hospital until they’ve done their rounds. We have time to go into the office and get all the paperwork finished.”
They arrived at the office at nine-thirty and Jenna went through the files to make sure they had everything in order. She made a call to Bobby Kalo. “Thanks for your help with the case. There’s just one more thing I need if you don’t mind? Will you run another check on Poppy? I still have a niggling feeling about her.”
“I have been checking up on her.” Kalo let out a long yawn. “She hasn’t purchased another phone but used her credit card at Walmart out of Colorado Springs for clothing and personal items. I wouldn’t worry too much about her. She has money, I’m sure she’s just fine.”
Jenna sighed with relief and drummed her fingers on the desk. She glanced at her watch and frowned. Concerned she hadn’t heard from Kane, but not wanting to disturb him if he was sleeping, she picked up her phone again and called Wolfe. “Morning, Shane. How is Dave? Still asleep? And Duke, is he okay?”
“He left about ten minutes ago.” Wolfe cleared his throat. “I kind of got the impression he was disappointed you hadn’t called him. I told him not to call you as Carter had mentioned letting you sleep, seeing as you worked into the early hours.”
Jenna frowned. “Oh, no. I didn’t call in case I disturbed him. I figured he had one of his headaches. The steel plate in his head causes him so much pain at times, and I know he likes to sleep when it’s real bad. I’ll call him now. Where was he heading?”
“I guess to the office. He’s fine. Duke is fine too. He refused to leave his side, even when Dave took a shower. You know how much that dog hates water, yet he climbed in right beside him and just sat there.” He chuckled. “They both wanted to leave and go home as soon as they’d washed off the mud. Dave is a stubborn man, Jenna. He was hellbent on driving home last night. It was just as well Rowley left the Beast at the office and didn’t drop by until this morning to give him the keys.”
Jenna frowned. “He should be here by now. Maybe he headed home?”
“He didn’t say but he did need to pick up meds from the pharmacy, and at this time of the day, the pies are fresh out of the oven at Aunt Betty’s.”
“Okay thanks.” Jenna sighed. “Catch you later.” She disconnected.
“Jenna.” Jo walked into the office. “We can go and interview the Judd sisters. Rowley just called. He’s been staked out there waiting for the doctors to give us the all clear. When Rowley read them their rights and charged them, Kara asked for a lawyer and Samuel
J. Cross has agreed to take the case pro bono.”
Standing and staring out the window at Kane’s empty parking space, Jenna’s stomach twisted. “Just a minute. I need to make a call. I’ll meet you downstairs.” She called Kane, surprised when he didn’t pick up and the call went to voicemail. She left a message. “It seems like we’ve both avoided calling in case we disturbed each other. A kind of caller’s catch-22.” She chuckled. “I’m heading to the hospital to interview the Judd sisters with Jo and Carter. Rowley is there already. If you make it into the office, you’ll need to file a report on the shooting. I’ll catch you later.”
She headed downstairs and climbed into the cruiser. As they headed for the hospital, she leaned forward in her seat. “I’d like you both to be involved in the interviews. I need a professional opinion with Kane MIA. I figure Kara is a psychopath, but you will know for sure, Jo, and Amber isn’t too far behind. Is it possible for sisters to have the same psychological disorders?”
“Yeah.” Jo turned in her seat to look at her. “Psychopathy is genetic. We don’t have a specific gene for it yet but that discovery is no doubt just around the corner. You already know a person can be born with a predisposition of developing a psychopathic personality disorder. If that disorder develops or not usually depends on factors in the child’s environment. A child brought up with loving, caring parents may never develop into a psychopath or have any of the other psychopathic disorders. However, as it runs in families, it only takes one psychotic parent to trigger the condition. Many kids with the potential find themselves in foster care or on the streets due to a parental breakdown. In this case, both kids being raised in foster care, it would be a toss-up if they survived intact or became a victim of bad parenting or worse.” She sighed. “They are victims, you know, and there’s very little we can do to help them. Once they start killing, the chance of rehabilitation is practically zero.”
Jenna shook her head. “I find it difficult to have compassion for bloodthirsty maniacs. I’ve seen way too much of their work.” She thought for a beat. “Although I do feel sorry for the kids they once were. I can’t imagine the horror of being locked in a closet. It’s no wonder Kara is like she is, but it doesn’t account for her sister.”
“It goes like this.” Carter pulled into a reserved parking space outside the hospital. “First you feel compassion for them, then you try and reason with them—and then you die.”
After speaking to the doctor in charge of the Judd sisters, Jenna stopped by to check on Rio and his brother. “Hey, so can you remember what happened?”
“Yeah, well most of it.” Rio gave a replica of the story Piper had told them.
Jenna looked at Cade. “What about you?”
“I had no idea what Kara was doing. The moment I told her about the change in my inheritance she went ballistic.” Cade shrugged. “I went with them to the cabin and she held a rifle on me and then tied me to a chair. Next thing, they showed up with Mrs. Jacobs, then I heard shooting and, well, you know the rest.”
