Page 109 of Concealed in Death

As Peabody hurried out, Eve took the time to send a short, direct e-mail to DeWinter—copied to Whitney.

Appreciate the fast, efficient work. As per my reports, we’re pursuing several investigative lines. Until we have all the victims identified, all the notifications done, and have interviewed all relevant parties, any media release or conference remains on hold. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve.

“Keep a lid on it,” Eve muttered, then like Nadine, scooped up her coat, swinging it on as she walked out.

They found Teesha Maddox with a baby of indeterminate age and sex in a neat and attractive apartment. She took one look at Eve, at Peabody, nodded wordlessly. She pressed her lips to the baby’s forehead, just held them there a moment, then stepped back.

“Please come in. You’ve come to tell me my Shashona’s gone. One of those poor girls they talk about on screen.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m very sorry.”

“I knew when I heard the report. I’ve known all along, but that’s when I knew where she was. I was going to come in to the police station, but Miss Hilly—she’s my lady. Hilly McDonald? She said, now, Teesha, don’t put yourself through that. If they’ve found her, they’ll come to tell you. And here you are.

“I’m going to put the baby down. She’s all dry and fed and burped. I’m going to put her down in her crib awhile, with the monitor on in case she goes fussy. You have a seat here, and I’ll be back in just a minute. I don’t like to talk death with the baby. They take in more than some believe.”

“Nice place,” Peabody said quietly. “It has, I don’t know, a nice, settled, comfortable feel to it. Totally stylish, but homey at the same time.”

Decent view, Eve thought as she sat down, scanned the room.

A lot of photographs—baby, no, two babies, with one of them progressing to the small person a kid was. Maybe three, four? No way for her to know.

Pictures of a woman—Hilly, she supposed—and a guy who was likely the father. Together, with baby, baby, kid. And a shot of Hilly—a white-skinned redhead with Teesha, whose coloring made Eve think of Dennis Mira’s amazing hot chocolate.

“She doesn’t look old enough to be the grandmother of grown women,” Peabody commented.

“She’s sixty-four.”

“Doesn’t look it. And still really young to have grown grandchildren.”

“I was seventeen when I had my girl. Didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” Teesha said as she came back. “I’ve rocked a lot of babies in my time. Rocking babies soothes the soul, and keeps the wrinkles away. I can fix something for you to drink,” she offered. “Cold day like this, maybe you’d like some tea, or coffee. On the police shows they sure drink a lot of coffee.”

“Don’t trouble yourself,” Peabody told her. “We’re fine.”

“Miss Hilly won’t mind, so if you decide you want something, just say. I was seventeen,” she repeated as she sat, neat and tidy as the room. “I was just stupid in love, the kind of stupid you can be at that age when it isn’t love at all. But when you think you are—why, a boy can talk you into most anything. Sixteen years old when I got pregnant, and scared to death. I didn’t even tell my mama until I couldn’t hide it anymore. I told the boy, and he was gone like the wind. My mama stood by me, even when my daddy went a little crazy. But he came around. I learned when you do something foolish sometimes you spend your life dealing with it.”

She sighed, looked toward the window. “I loved my girl. Love my girl still. I’m good with babies, with children. It’s my gift. I did my best for my baby, and my mama helped. I worked, earned money, finished school at home, tended my baby. I raised her to know right from wrong, to be responsible and kind and happy inside her skin.”

She sighed again. “It just didn’t take with Mylia. She seemed to run wild no matter what I did, and she hated that I worked with other children to put a roof over her head, food in her mouth, to give her some fun or something pretty to wear. Anyway, she was barely older than I’d been when she started Shashona. I stood by her. I helped every way I knew. She took off awhile with the boy, but he left her, and she came home to me, had the baby a month later. That didn’t take either. She just didn’t have the gift.”

“So you raised Shashona,” Eve said.

“I did. Mylia, she’d come and go, leave for weeks, then come back. We had some fights over that, I’ll tell the truth. Then another man, another baby. And she’s off and gone again as soon as she could get out. Beautiful babies, Shashona and Leila. I did my best by them, too. I had to go to court after a while, and they made me legal guardian. The people I worked for then, nice people, sweet children, they were both lawyers, and they helped me.”

At the slightest mew, Teesha’s gaze shifted to a little screen on the table where Eve saw the baby sleeping on pink sheets in a white crib.

“She’s just dreaming,” Teesha said with a smile. “The truth is Shashona took after her mama. Had a wild side nothing seemed to tame. Smart girl, clever girl. I prayed on it, prayed she’d grow out of the wild some, make something of herself.”

She took a long breath. “She was smart, ma’am, like I said. I believe in my heart she’d’ve turned that wild into a passion for something, maybe she’d’ve done something important one day.”

Teesha pressed a fist to her heart. “That passion, that important? It was just hidden inside her, waiting for her to grow up a little more.”

In all the pretty young girls, Eve thought. The life yet to come had been hidden inside them.

“What happened the day she went missing?”

“She went off to school just like usual, but she didn’t come home that day, not after school, not after dark.”

“Was that usual?”