Twice Kissed - Lisa Jackson [141]
“Not at all. In fact, I’ll even make a plea to anyone who might have information about my sister.”
“That would be great. How about you?” Jasmine asked, her dark eyes moving to Thane. “As an ex-husband, someone who was once married to her, would you like to make a statement?”
“No.” Thane’s jaw was rock hard. “Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to find Mary Theresa, but I’m not gonna be part of some media circus.”
“It could help. This is going to be relayed to the network and will probably be on cable news within the next hour or so.”
“Maggie can do what she wants, but count me out.” He was firm, his lips a thin, resolute line, and Jasmine was intuitive enough not to push. Phil filmed the crash site, then zeroed in on Jasmine before turning the camera on Maggie, who took off her shades, answered a few questions, then looked directly into the lens. “I would just like to say if anyone has any information about my sister, please contact the police.”
“Would you look at that,” the smoky-voiced woman said from somewhere behind Maggie. “Put a little makeup on her and she could be that missing woman…the one whose car is down in the gulch.”
“Shh. She’s not.”
“But—”
“Just hush, Sally.”
Maggie slid her sunglasses onto her nose again and ignored the curious stares cast in her direction. A few more cars stopped, another news team and tow truck arrived, and Henderson—with the help of other policemen—insisted that everyone back up, allow the police to do their jobs, and, unless they had data that would help the investigation, be on their way. He was interrupted by several phone calls and underlings, but managed to keep things moving along. Eventually he motioned Thane and Maggie to meet with him beside his car.
“We haven’t found anything yet,” he admitted, chewing on a stick of gum and squinting against the afternoon sunlight, “but we’ve got tracking dogs and the best men in the state, who will help canvass the area here. If your sister is anywhere near, we’ll find her.”
“KRKY is offering a ten-thousand-dollar reward,” Maggie ventured.
“I heard.”
“Will it help?”
Henderson spit his gum onto the side of the mountain road. “I’d like to say it won’t hurt, but what will happen is every nutcase in the country who needs some extra cash will come up with some kind of scam.” His lips twisted into a sardonic smile. “Let’s just say it’s gonna take a lot of manpower to wade through the shit.” He shrugged. “On the other hand, it might just be the incentive some greedy son of a bitch needs to sharpen his memory.” He frowned as the tow-truck driver maneuvered his truck to the side of the road and released a long cable attached to a winch. “We can only hope.”
“…and so, the mystery remains unsolved,” the reporter, an Asian woman from a Denver news station, reported via satellite to L.A., where Becca lay sprawled over a beanbag chair in the middle of her cousin’s room. Eyes riveted to the screen, Becca, fascinated but horrified, watched as a publicity photograph of her aunt was flashed onto the screen, followed quickly by pictures of a wrecked Jeep twisted in a clump of trees on the side of a canyon. “Mary Theresa Gillette, known as Marquise and cohost of the popular morning program Denver AM, is still missing. The identity of the woman driving Marquise’s Jeep is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, and no one knows what happened to the Denver celebrity, but the investigation into Marquise’s disappearance continues—”
The slap of thongs heralded Connie’s arrival from the vicinity of the spa. She walked into the room, grabbed the remote control from the nightstand, and aimed it at the television.
“KRKY is offering a ten-thousand-dollar reward for information as to the whereabouts of—”
Click. The set immediately went dark. “I don’t think you should be watching this.”
“Wait!” Becca launched herself off the bed and slapped on the television. Her mother stood talking with the Asian woman. “…so please, if anyone has any information about my sister, please contact the police—