14 - J. T. Ellison [43]
“Miss Douglas, it’s—”
“Doctor.” The cold, imperious tone was meant to intimidate, but all it did was annoy Taylor further.
“Fine. Dr. Douglas. I’ll be with you shortly. I’ve had a development that I need to tend to immediately. Please, make yourself at home.”
She turned to Baldwin. “Could I see you for a moment?”
She heard Charlotte giggle as Baldwin stepped into the office and shut the door behind them.
Baldwin started to talk, but Taylor cut him off.
“I don’t have time for foreplay right now. I assume you just got here?”
“Two minutes ago, and it’s already been a long half hour since I picked her up. The sooner we can get her presentation, the sooner we can get her out of town.” He ran a hand wearily through his hair, making the ends stand up like porcupine quills.
“Okay. We have a development.” There was a quiet whimper from Taylor’s chair, and she waved a hand at the girl. “This is Daphne Beauchamp. Her roommate, Jane Macias, has gone missing, and she fits our profile.”
Daphne had become a small, unkempt girl in the few moments that Taylor had known her. Sitting at Taylor’s desk, she exuded none of the edgy savoir faire she’d given off at the paper.
“Daphne, this is Dr. John Baldwin. He’s a profiler with the FBI. He’s working with us on the Snow White cases. I’d like him to hear a little about Jane. Could you share some of what you’ve already told me?”
Daphne sat up a little straighter, visibly pulling herself together. “Sure, of course. I mean, I don’t know how much to tell. Jane’s a great girl. Really smart, going places, you know? She wants to be an investigative journalist, the old-school, hard-nose type. Wants to bring down administrations and change the course of humanity.”
Taylor watched the girl speak. “Those are pretty tall orders. Does she have what it takes?”
“Yes, she does. She’s brilliant, can write like the wind. I’d…well, I admire her. She’s got what it takes to make something in this industry. Went to the J School at Columbia, that’s as good as it gets. Wrote for the paper there, had some freelance jobs for the Times…she’s a sharp cookie.” Daphne fiddled with a pencil she found on Taylor’s desk, tappity, tappity, tap.
“So why is she working here? If she was that talented, couldn’t she get hired onto one of the big papers?”
“No, no, that was her choice. She decided to take a year and get out of New York, see if it didn’t broaden her horizons. She chose Nashville because she’s got some god-awful crush on John Siegenthaler.” Tappity, tappity, tap.
“Siegenthaler Senior? Isn’t he a little old for her tastes?” Taylor reached over the desk and took the pencil.
Daphne stared at her for a moment, then broke into the first smile Taylor had seen from the girl.
“No, no, not in a sexual way. His mind. She finds him intellectually stimulating, wanted to walk in his footsteps for a bit. Of course, the Tennessean isn’t the investigative powerhouse it used to be, we all know that.”
Taylor shot Baldwin a look, put the pencil back in its holder. He took the hint, continued with the questions.
“Jane is from New York?”
“Yes. She’s such a city girl, too. Really kind of funny, the way she reacts to all the Southernisms around here. She’s got this nasally accent, not a hard, brassy one, just definitely uptown. When she orders food she gets all kinds of looks.”
Ah, good, Taylor thought. Something like that would make her stand out, and someone might remember when they saw her last.
“Where would she have gone last night, Daphne? You said she wanted to get out of the house because your boyfriend was over. Did she usually leave when he stopped by?”
“Yeah. She thinks Zac is some kind of idiot because he plays football. He isn’t, but she just turns up her nose. She’s like that—has the literati attitude. Like just because she can manipulate words, she’s smarter than everyone. She was actually having kind of a difficult time here. She pissed off a few people at the paper with her attitude. I mean, yeah, she’s brilliant, but sometimes you don’t need everyone in the room to know