“Jenna’s expression for the little girl from the park.”
Georgia smiled. “I’d heard she was one of the best. I’ve watched her in action in front of KC’s and she’s so good.”
“Amazes me she just sauntered into KC’s and offered to draw pictures.” Seemed a bit too neat for him.
“Girl’s gotta eat, I guess.”
He took a pull on the beer. “Seems a waste of talent.”
“I was thinking the same, but she’s on leave and no doubt will be back on the job in Baltimore before long. Unless we can get her to fall in love with Nashville.”
“Meaning?”
Georgia always thought three steps ahead of the Morgan men. “If you solve this case because of her drawing, it makes me wonder what other cold cases out there could be solved with her help. And she might find that living and working here is a better fit. She’s said she likes the open spaces.”
His tone remained neutral. “I got the impression Jenna was doing a one-time favor and she wasn’t staying.”
“It’s only because I’ve not asked for another favor or really started to sell her on Nashville. Give me time.” She grinned. “You know how persuasive I can be.”
“I do.”
“KC and I were talking yesterday about cases that weren’t solved because of time, money, or the science.”
Rick shifted his stance. “We’ve a cold case squad.”
“Doesn’t mean they couldn’t use a fresh set of eyes on their cases. And if we were our own group, we wouldn’t be limited to Nashville.” Her eyes danced as she nodded.
“Before you take this idea and start running, let’s see if we can solve this case.”
“Yeah, sure.”
He could almost hear the grinding of the wheels in her head. “What else do you know about Jenna Thompson?”
“Professionally?”
“Personally?”
Her grin turned wicked. “Rick, are you interested?”
“No. I just sense there’re pieces missing to that puzzle.”
Nodding, she didn’t discount his statement. “I did a little digging with Baltimore. She’s had a distinguished run with them. Went to high school there. Some college. All good. No trouble.”
Absently, he scratched at the beer label with his thumb. “Why’d she take leave?”
“From what I’ve been able to piece together, she and her partner took a call to a run-down part of the city. They found a little girl locked in a closet. She was alive but she was in rough shape. Seems she’d been in the closet for months. Jenna quit two days later.”
A case like that couldn’t have been easy. “When was that?”
“Almost four weeks ago.”
“And she moved to Nashville three weeks ago. She pulled up stakes pretty quickly after the call.”
“The ones with kids are always hard.”
He’d been tempted to chuck it all after the shooting. A few times he’d been seconds away from packing up Tracker in his car and just driving. But his roots in Nashville ran too deep. “I couldn’t imagine leaving Nashville.”
Nodding, she picked up a tortilla chip from a bag on the counter. “A couple of the guys on her team were shocked when she quit.”
“How do you know?”
“I called in a favor.”
“I didn’t think you just skimmed the surface. What did you learn?”
“My buddy learned when he called her commander that she handled all kinds of nasty cases and never blinked. A lot of the guys thought she was bulletproof. And then this case, and she splits.”
“Hit a nerve.”
“Seems so.”
Unanswered questions swirling around Jenna shouldn’t have mattered, but they did. Fact, they bugged the hell out of him. “She said she was born in Nashville. Spent the first five years of her life here.”
“Really?” She gobbled the chip and opened the stove and with oven mitts pulled out a pan filled with enchiladas.
The smell filled the kitchen, his stomach grumbled, and he realized he’d not eaten since breakfast.
She set the dish on hot pads on the counter. “I guess it would be pretty rude to dig into her past and find out what happened when she was five.”
He sipped his beer. “What makes you think anything happened?”
Georgia arched a brow. “Something happened.”
Great minds think alike. “How do you know?”
She held up her index finger. “A five-year-old leaves Nashville.” Her next finger rose. “Raised by an aunt in Baltimore.” Another finger. “Has a tough call involving a child and returns to a place she’s not seen in almost twenty-five years.” A fourth finger. “And then she’s busting a gut to help solve the case of a murdered five-year-old.”
“Wouldn’t be too hard to search cases from twenty-five years ago involving a young girl.”
“Bet you a dollar you find something connected to her.”
“It’s really none of our business.”
She laughed. “And you believe that line?”
“No.” Smiling, he drained his beer.
“Dig a little. It’s no skin off anybody’s nose and if you don’t find anything, then no one’s the wiser.”
“I will.”
Her head cocked. “You like her?”
“Like? That’s a strong word. I appreciate her work and she’s a good-looking woman. But I’m more curious than anything.”
She shrugged as she opened another tin of food. “I could not care less about the pasts of people I don’t like.”
He snagged another chip. “I don’t care about her.”
She leaned forward. “It would be okay if you did. Really. Nice to see you move on after Melissa.”
The mention of Melissa’s name soured his good humor. “Don’t go there. Not tonight. I want to be civil to Alex.”
“Understood. No sense in poking the hornets’ nests.” She pulled a serving spoon from a utensil drawer. “How long has it been since you and Alex really talked?”
“Right after Buddy died.”
“That’s too long, Bro. I met Melissa a few times. Hot, but not worth this kind of strife. You two are brothers.”