“I just want to make sure I don’t miss anything.”
She doubted Paterno missed much. “Aaron’s the oldest, just turned forty, then Robert’s thirty-nine, they’re only a little over a year apart, then, um, Shea…He’s next and I think he’s thirty-seven, not quite thirty-eight. Oliver’s a year and a half older than me at thirty-four.”
“And you’re thirty-three?”
“That’s right.”
“What about your brother Neville?”
“He was…Oliver’s twin. Thirty-four.”
“You keep referring to him in the past tense.”
She closed her eyes. “I guess there’s a part of me that assumes he’s dead,” she said quietly. She’d never admitted as much before, always been the one who had told her mother, “He’ll return, you just wait and see. When he’s good and ready, Neville will walk right through your front door.” But now she realized she’d been lying, kidding herself. Deep inside she’d believed her youngest brother was dead. Turning from the window, she stared at the detective, noticed Travis, standing to one side watching her. “If he’s alive, then where is he? Why is he hiding? Does he have some kind of secret identity, or amnesia, or is he in the witness protection program or…What?”
“Maybe he wants to stay hidden.”
“Why?”
“Maybe he’s a criminal,” Paterno posed. “Maybe he did something so bad, he can’t come back.”
“Like what?” she asked, then realized what he was getting at. “You think he killed Ryan? Because Neville left shortly after Ryan’s death?” She was incredulous, shaking her head. Her voice had risen and Khan, once again relegated to his rug in the kitchen, growled. “Shhh!” she commanded as the puppy then let out a whimper. For the moment, she ignored the animals. “No, it wasn’t—isn’t—in Neville’s nature. I don’t believe it.”
“You mentioned a conversation between your brothers?”
As Rossi bagged the tape, she explained what she’d overheard. “I don’t know what it meant, and probably wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but one of them, and I can’t really say which one, mentioned ‘birth order,’ another one said something about ‘it,’ whatever ‘it’ is, being Dad’s fault.” She saw the question forming on his lips and she said, “I don’t know. I really can’t even speculate what they were talking about, okay? You’ll have to ask them.”
“You got it,” Paterno said, wrapping it up. The two officers gathered their things and started heading toward the door. Before they left, Paterno alerted Shannon that the FBI would be out in the morning as this was a kidnapping case. He also said that he would analyze the tape and let her know what he found, and that her truck was being towed into town to the police garage where it would be searched minutely, examined for any evidence left by whoever had delivered her the tape.
Travis stayed with her as the tow truck, carrying her pickup, rumbled down the drive, and finally they were alone.
“Now what?” she asked.
“You need rest.” He placed a finger gently on her cheek where the last of her abrasions was still healing. “I’ll take care of dinner.”
“You can cook at a time like this?”
“No.” His lips twisted. “But I think we need to regroup.” He tried to appear calm, in control, but a little tic beneath his eye belied his pent-up energy. “We’ll talk it out over pizza. They deliver here?”
“Gino’s does, but the delivery charge is about the cost of a round-trip ticket to Europe.”
“I’ll buy.”
She realized he didn’t want to leave her. “You don’t have to babysit me, you know.”
“Is that what I’m doing?”
“Looks like it.”
He shrugged. “Okay, first of all, you’re trapped here since the police took your vehicle, and secondly this seems to be the center of it all. And I’m not just talking about the six in the middle of a star, but this place is where he strikes.”
“So you’re either hanging around to be my bodyguard, or because you think you can catch him here?”
“A little of both, I guess,” he admitted.
“Should I be flattered? Or pissed off?”
He lifted a shoulder. Blue eyes glinted. “A little of both, I guess,” he repeated. “Now go, get into ‘something more comfortable.’ Doctor’s orders.”