Stranger in Town

CHAPTER 30





Searching the database for a latent print, even an excellent specimen like the one Maddie found inside the envelope, was tricky. Not everyone had fingerprints that were searchable. Aside from a man or a woman who had committed some type of crime, the database contained prints from people like child-care workers, law enforcement, people who carried concealed weapons, teachers, and security-type workers, among others. And that was just one hurdle. Laws varied by state, making it even harder in some cases to access specific kinds of files.

Maddie struck fingerprint gold, matching the print she found to a teacher, a female by the name of Regina Kent. This matched my theory that someone sent the letters to both Olivia and Savannah’s parents out of guilt and remorse, making a woman the most likely candidate. Now I just needed to know if I was right about why she’d done it. Did she have Olivia and Savannah? And was the man who took both girls her husband or someone else she was close to?

It didn’t take long for me to get one of my answers. Cade did some digging and came up with some information on Regina Kent. She was married to Bradley Kent, a retired surgeon twenty years her senior. His age made it less than likely that he was the one who’d kidnapped the two girls. According to our eyewitness, Todd, the man he saw in front of Maybelle’s Market looked like he was in his mid-to-late forties. Even if Todd was off by a decade, Bradley Kent was pushing sixty. Even a teenage boy with a fleeting memory couldn’t have been off by that much.

Cade learned Regina Kent had been a school teacher until three years earlier. According to the principal of the school, she walked in one day in the middle of the year and quit without any warning. I wondered why, but soon I would have the answer to my question. Cade had an address, and it wasn’t even fifteen miles away.

I waited outside of the hotel for Cade to pick me up. I couldn’t help but reflect on what a difference a few days made. Four nights earlier, seeing Cade in his Dodge Ram sent a pulsating wave of nerves throughout my body, and now I was anticipating his arrival. Even though he’d said we would work together on this case, I never expected him to keep his word, so I was astounded when he asked me to tag along. The feds were flying in the next morning. If we were going to find something on our own, we had to be quick.

Cade pulled to a stop next to me and popped the passenger-side door open. He had one hand on the wheel and the other stretched out across the top of the seat. I thought he’d move it when I got in, but he didn’t.

A thin toothpick hung out of his mouth again. He looked at me and smiled. It was one of those casual smiles a person gives to another person when they’ve become comfortable in the relationship. But I was nowhere near being able to reciprocate.

“Why are you sitting like that?” he said.

“Like what?”

“Like you’re going steady with the door.”

“Well, your arm is in my way.”

“I’m not even touching you, woman,” he said. “Relax.”

He moved his hand, resting it on his thigh.

“Is that what you call every female you meet?”

He laughed.

“What, woman?”

I nodded. He winked.

“Only the ones I like.”

I didn’t dare look over. I wasn’t sure whether he was serious or just messing around. And I didn’t want to know—at least, that’s what I told myself. Cade leaned over and turned the volume up on the radio. Some guy singing what sounded like a mix of country and hard rock blared through the speakers.

“Who is he—and what is he?” I said.

“The singer? Brantley Gilbert. You like it?”

I reached over, turning it back down. “Not really.”

Cade cranked it back up. “Give it a minute. It will grow on you.”

Country music rarely did anything for me, but I had to admit, the song was catchy. When it was over, Cade pushed a button and shut the radio off.

“There’s something I haven’t told you about the Kents,” he said.

“What is it?”

“They had two children,” he said.

“Had?”

“Yep, both dead,” he said.

“Let me guess, girls?”

Cade nodded.

I swallowed—hard.

“Do you have any water?” I said.

Cade reached under the seat and handed me a can of soda. “Here, drink this.”

“No thanks. I don’t drink soda.”

He gently tossed it into my lap. “Stop complaining, and just drink it.”

I popped the top on the can and took a few sips. I had to admit, it tasted good.

“What happened to their children?” I said.

“I talked to the principal at the school Regina Kent worked at. He told me some years back, Regina decided to visit her parents in Utah over the holidays. Bradley couldn’t go; he had too many patients to see. Regina packed up the car and got the kids ready, but by the time they left, it was almost midnight. They were tired, so she told the kids they could sleep in the car.”

“Let me guess,” I said. “She let them lay down, no seatbelts.”

He nodded and continued.

“It started snowing, the roads were slick, and Regina thought about heading back home, but she was more than halfway to Utah already. She woke the girls and told them to put their seatbelts on. In the process, she turned around. They were hit head-on by a semi-truck on the highway. The car rolled several times. By the time the ambulance was on the scene, both girls were dead. Regina was the only survivor.”

The idea of a child dying right in front of his parents was surreal to me.

“I think I’d rather not have a child at all than to face one of my kids dying before me. The guilt she felt must have been excruciating.”

“I’m sure Regina felt the same way,” he said. “After the accident, she quit her job and went into hiding, completely cutting herself off from society. Before the accident, she was well known around here. And after, she was well-known, but for an entirely different reason. People in town say she went crazy.”