“Whoa, Charlotte, hold on.” Baldwin was on his feet too, his hands gripping her arms like a vise. He was so damn strong, even if she wanted to get away, she wouldn’t be able to pry herself loose.

He leaned in to kiss her. She tried to hold very still and not respond, but that only lasted a moment. She felt his tongue flick at the edge of her lips and opened her mouth, accepting him. He tasted like Scotch and honey, and she kissed him greedily, unsure whether this was the last time, or just the beginning.

When they finally broke for air, Baldwin gave her a smile. “We’ll talk about it again in the morning.”

Forty-Four

Nashville

5:00 p.m.

McKenzie leaned across the table.

“Who is he, Fane?”

The girl just shook her head, eyes darting toward the door.

‘Talk to me, Fane. Who is going to kill everyone?”

She glared at him, lips closed tight together. McKenzie tried a few more times, then shook his head at the camera. He stood and left the room, met Taylor in the hall.

“At least she didn’t lawyer up, like Susan Norwood.”

“That’s a plus. Her parents are nowhere to be found.”

“Crime Scene find anything at her house?”

“Nothing that I’ve heard of yet. I’ll put a call into Tim, see if he’s got anything. I need to go talk to Susan Norwood’s parents. Want to come?”

“Yeah. When are you heading over to Forensic Medical?”

“Oh, damn. I forgot Sam needed to talk to me. I better call her.” She flipped open her phone and speed-dialed Sam. She answered, gruff and impatient.

“About damn time you called me back. I’ve got some stuff for you.”

“Sorry. It’s been a crazy morning. Can you cover it on the phone or do I need to be there in person?”

“I’ll just tell you. Brandon Scott? Anal tearing, evidence of extensive sexual abuse. Recent and past traumas.”

Taylor felt her heart drop. “You’re kidding.”

“I wish I were. Either he’s an active homosexual, or he’s been raped repeatedly.”

“How recent? Was there a PERK done?”

“Yes, and the physical evidence recovery kit got us exactly squat. I cultured some blood, but it ended up being his. There were no other bodily fluids. There was lubricant, probably from a condom. I couldn’t tell you the last time it happened definitively, but it was recent enough. One more thing-his tox came back clean, just like we thought. He was killed outright, overpowered and beaten to death. COD is blunt force trauma and attendant exsanguination. The rest are drug overdoses.

“He died first too, before the others. His liver temp and vitreous fluid confirm it. He was dead between 12:30 and 2:00 p.m. on the thirty-first. The others are in the two to three range.”

Damn. This was why she liked to attend the posts herself; she could have used this information in her earlier interrogations. No matter, she had it now.

‘The dosed Ecstasy was the cause?”

“That’s the most likely scenario.”

“Okay, Sam. Thank you for this. I’ll toss it into our mix. Do you need anything else from me?”

“Just stop sending lab work to my husband. I haven’t seen him in two days.” But there was a smile in her voice.

“I’ll owe you both a nice dinner. We’re close here, so hopefully we won’t keep Simon hopping for much longer. Have a good afternoon, okay?”

“You, too. Don’t work too hard.” She clicked off and Taylor told McKenzie about Brandon Scott.

He looked pained. “Really? I wonder…” He ran his hands through his hair, got a faraway look in his eyes that Taylor was starting to recognize. He was about to take a leap of faith.

“You wonder what?”

“Remember Ms. Woodall, at Hillsboro, said Jerrold King and Brandon Scott got into an argument last week? There were some threats made?”

“Yes, I do. Letha King figured it was about her-she and Brandon used to date, and Jerrold was upset that Brandon had dumped her. You think it was something else?”

“Maybe Jerrold and Brandon were lovers.”

“Wouldn’t Sam have found evidence of that on Jerrold King’s body?”

“Depends on who was pitching and who was catching, if you get my drift.”

Taylor thought about that for a minute. “So Jerrold King kills Brandon Scott in some sort of fit of rage, then goes home and kills himself with a lethal dose of Ecstasy? It would sound perfect if there weren’t six other kids dead.”

“Good point. Still, it’s something to ask around about.”

“I agree. I wonder if Theo Howell knows anything about it? He seems pretty tied into this group.”

“Well, why don’t we ask him?”

The Homicide offices were jam-packed with people. All the interrogation rooms were occupied-the Norwoods, with their daughter and her lawyer in Interrogation One; Fane Atilio in Two; Theo Howell and his parents in Three. Lincoln, Marcus and Renn were all in the offices proper, having a deep discussion. Taylor cleared her throat and they jumped, “What’s up?” she asked.

Lincoln rubbed his dreads. “Nothing good yet, LT. The video was definitely uploaded from Fane Atilio’s laptop. There’s a ton of correspondence-it’s going to take ages to get through. One address pops up most often, and the backand-forth has got some seriously graphic content, NC-17 all the way.”

“Not underage porn again, I hope.”

Marcus blushed. ‘Close enough. It’s sex talk, between Fane and a boy. She never uses his name, but it’s pretty explicit. I felt like I was reading an erotic novel.”

“Can you trace the e-mail address?”

“Tin on it,” Lincoln said. ‘There’s something strange about it though. It’s part of a single account.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know how when you set up an e-mail account, you can set up multiple addresses-aliases, they call them. Say you and Baldwin got a DSL connection through BellSouth, and you both wanted separate e-mail addresses, but didn’t want to pay for separate accounts. You could set up to fifty aliases on that particular account at no extra charge.”

“And who is the owner of the account?”

“Jacqueline Atilio.”

“Is that Fane’s real name? Jacqueline?”

“No, her legal name is Fane Rebecca Atilio.”

“So Jacqueline might be her mother, who we can’t find?”

“That’s what I’m thinking. I’ve looked into her accounts, and I’ve seen almost no activity outside of ATM withdrawals for the past three weeks. All from the same U.S. Bank branch in Green Hills, one each day for the past week, for the maximum daily limit on the account, three hundred dollars.”

“That’s odd. Let’s get the tapes from those ATM withdrawals.”

“On it.”

“Lincoln, what else do you have?”

“Tin overloaded with text messages and IMs to decipher. I’ve been going through all the laptops and phones, looking for anything that stands out. These kids spend a lot of time online, that’s for sure.”

“What about Facebook and My Space, Twitter accounts? Are they talking about it anywhere?”

“We’re about halfway through everyone’s profiles. Nothing’s leaping out just yet.”

“Be sure you check out Fane Atilio. See if she’s got any ties anywhere. And let me know about the ATM withdrawals as soon as you can.”

“Will do.”

McKenzie caught her eye. ”The How ells are here-you saw that, right?”

“I did. Fin about to °o talk to them. And the Norwoods.”