All the Pretty Girls - J. T. Ellison [71]
She fiddled with the gold braid attached to an upholstered throw pillow.
“I was hoping you could look into things for me, Lieutenant. Perhaps examine some of the stories she was working on, see if something came up in one of them that could affect my family or me in some manner.” She cleared her throat. “Perhaps Whitney came across something that may be…embarrassing? Other than that, I just don’t know what to tell you.”
Taylor was silent for a moment. “Mrs. Buckley…”
“Call me Quinn. We’re of an age, after all. Mrs. Buckley always makes me think of Jake’s mother.”
Taylor nodded. “Quinn, you mentioned your husband travels quite a bit. May I ask what he does?”
“My, you really are out of the loop, aren’t you, Lieutenant?”
“Taylor, please. Out of the loop?”
“Well, your father, Win? He’s friends with Jake.”
Ah, Win Jackson. That was something she didn’t feel like dealing with right now. “My father and I aren’t close. So tell me, what does Jake do?”
“He’s the senior vice president of Health Partners. Your father is on the board of directors for the company.”
“Oh,” Taylor said in a small voice. Like that was supposed to mean something to her. Quinn must have caught her confused look, because she continued to explain.
“Health Partners is the leading small community–based hospital company in the country. Jake has to travel to all of their sites constantly to make sure everything is going well. They have holdings all over the Southeast and a few in the Northeast as well. They’re growing bigger and Jake’s job is to make sure they grow in the appropriate places.” Quinn sounded bored, like she was reading a description off the back of an annual report. Even her eyes had taken on a bit of a glaze. Taylor surmised that Quinn wasn’t very interested in her husband’s job, despite the obvious trappings and advantages the job gave. They certainly weren’t lacking for money.
“Okay, that’s good. I tell you what. I’m sure you want to go through your sister’s things. I’ll accompany you over there and have a look around. Does that sound good?”
“That would be fine. When would be convenient for you?”
Taylor noticed that the moment Quinn had started speaking of her husband all the warmth and sparkle had gone out of her voice. And now talking about her sister was bringing it all home.
“Anytime is fine with me. Would you like to go now?”
“I’d prefer tomorrow morning. I have some arrangements to see to, and I haven’t been able to reach our younger brother, Reese. He is in Guatemala doing a mission trip with several other doctors from Vanderbilt. He’s the youngest resident to ever go on one of their trips. They spend two weeks doing surgeries on cleft palates, joints, all the procedures these poor people have absolutely no access to. Reese will be doing some pre-op and post-op counseling. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. He’s not due back for another week. I’ll try to get word to him, but he told me before he left that there wasn’t a solid line of communication. He’ll want to have a hand in everything.”
Taylor handed her one of her cards and said, “Anytime tomorrow morning is fine with me. Just give me a call and I’ll meet you there.”
With that they wrapped things up with a few niceties and Taylor made a hasty retreat. Something was very sad about Quinn Buckley, and it wasn’t only that her twin sister had just died.
Back in her car, she decided she might have time to head over to Betsy Garrison’s house. She dialed the number, and Brian Post answered.
“Hey, Post, can I come on over? I wanted to check on Betsy, see how she’s doing. Maybe talk about the case for a moment.”
“You know what, Taylor, it might be best if we gave it a day. She’s starting to come off all the drugs and really grasp what happened and she’s pretty pissed off. Having the story out on the air isn’t helping matters. I don’t want her to have to go through it with other people around, you know what I mean?”
“Of course. That’s no