Audra sat behind the wheel of her car for a moment, internally processing the things she'd learned on that shopping trip: Magic had known and worked with both Abigail and Candy Reign at The Scoop strip club, the MIA triplet, who turned out to be in prison, had killed Amanda Stuart while driving under the influence, the Shelleys had turned stingy for a while, and Yolanda could truly blend in anywhere.
It had been a long day, but as it was only six in the evening, Audra figured she had time to go back to the B&B for a nap before putting on her lady-of-the-night outfit and heading over to The Scoop with Yolanda. Starting the car, she took note of Ethan's truck in the parking lot next to Cordero's rental car. She remembered then that the remains of Abigail Stevens were going to be exhumed and sent to the hospital morgue.
Shutting off the engine Audra got out of the car and headed into the hospital. The receptionist recognized her.
"How may I help you?" she asked.
"A body was brought to the morgue. I believe my boss, FBI Assistant Director Cordero, and Sheriff Cole are already here."
"Yes ma'am," the receptionist confirmed. "Would you like an escort to the morgue?"
"That won't be necessary, just point me in the right direction."
"Are you sure?" The receptionist was obviously concerned about Audra having another fainting spell.
"Yes," Audra assured her.
"Alright, follow this hallway to the end." The receptionist pointed to a hallway to her left. "Take the elevator down to the morgue, it's written on the button," she instructed with a smile.
Audra nodded and began her way through the side hallway. It was a little ways away but she found herself at the elevators and pressed the button labeled for the morgue. She concentrated on breathing in and out as she prepared herself to see dead bodies in various stages of decomposition. She was sure that there would be nothing left of Abigail besides bone and hair.
Stepping from the elevator she saw signs pointing to the morgue and followed them through a maze of hallways until she heard Cordero's voice.
"No, I'm not your boss, but this is my investigation and you are here at my leisure," Cordero was saying heatedly.
Audra was glad for the purchase of the soft-soled sandals that masked her arrival to the scene. She stepped to the door and listened.
"Why don't you just tell me what you're keeping back from everyone, including Audra? Secrets never did any investigation any good," Ethan said. "What is it?"
There was a moment that passed where Audra doubted Cordero would answer.
"I hid Kendra," Cordero said. "At least I thought I did."
Audra felt her blood run cold. "There was an old friend of mine from the academy. She got injured and had to quit the force, but we stayed in touch. When I came back to Specter, I just knew I would have it so easy. Then one day, Miller springs a pregnant girl on me. At first I thought the baby was his. He assured me that it wasn't. I asked him how I could help, and he told me to make sure the young girl and her mother made it to Atlanta and back safely.
"I thought to a hospital, but no. It turned out they meant a midwife. One baby came out, the midwife handed it to the girl's mother, who handed it to a woman I didn't recognize until later. The woman handed the mother an envelope of cash and left. Then the mother left as well. I think to take the money to a bank. I waited with the young girl and the midwife. Two minutes later the young girl doubles over in pain and I end up helping her deliver a second baby.
"Abigail got to hold that one. I watched her coo and heard her sing to the baby, even named her Kendra. Then she turned to me and asked me to get the baby someplace safe. Don't let them get her too, she said.
"I knew then I was the only hope she had. I nodded and took the baby to my friend. From there I helped her get adopted. Every now and then I got notices from the family and would show them to Abigail who was pleased that her child was doing so well.
"It didn't take me long to figure out that the woman who bought the other baby was Dr. Shelley's wife. They named her Margret."
Audra heard a sharp intake of breath behind her. She turned to see the look of horror and confusion on Margret's face before she uttered a very audible, "What!"
"Margret," Audra whispered as the face the woman shared with her sister Kendra broke into sobs.
"I was bought from a hooker?" Margret dropped all of the paperwork she had been carrying so diligently for whatever tasks they were needed, turned, and ran away.
Audra couldn't make her legs move to follow the anguished woman. Ethan, however, was able to get to the hallway and gave chase after her while Cordero hung in the doorway and looked at Audra.
"That isn't the entire story, is it?" she asked.
"No. After Abigail's death, when I joined the bureau, I would come to visit Kendra every so often. And your mother and I became close."
"Stop," Audra said immediately.
"I just want you to know why I was there for Kendra and why I wanted to be there for you," Cordero concluded. "I wanted to protect you. I wanted to protect all of you." He trailed off and turned to go back into the room.
Audra was stuck fighting the urge to run and forget everything she'd just heard. She took a deep breath as Margret's broken face came to her mind. She thought about Kendra and steadied her nerves. Taking several deep breaths, she walked forward into the morgue and found Cordero seated at the remains of Abigail Stevens.
"I failed Abigail. I failed Kendra. I don't want to fail you too, kid," Cordero said earnestly.
"No more secrets," Audra said firmly.
Cordero nodded.
"Now, who is performing this second autopsy?" she asked.
"Who else?" Dr. Shelley the younger's voice preceded his manifestation into the morgue. "I just went to check on Margret, poor dear. What a way to find that out."
"Yes," Audra said, feeling a little more sympathetic about how hard a revelation like that must be to take, especially having grown up in the middle of rich privilege. "Where is she?"
"She was on the elevator with the Sheriff headed to the top floor," Dr. Shelley said.
"I'll go see if there's anything I can do," Audra said.
Cordero nodded and she left the morgue, almost happy to get way from the reality of Abigail's murdered, decomposed remains.
As she stepped back onto the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor, she wondered briefly if she had stopped Cordero from declaring that he was her father. She looked at her copper brown complexion and thought about her mother's fair skin and hair.
The only father she'd ever known had been medium brown in complexion and had always treated her like a princess. She even remembered Kendra remarking that she was sitting pretty high on the princess pedestal until Audra came along and knocked her off. Audra rejected and shook away the possibility as the elevator did its slow climb to the top floor.
When the elevator finally came to a stop, Audra stepped into the empty hallway and saw that the abandoned top floor was still under construction. She looked left then right. Craning her head in both directions, she tried to listen for voices. She figured that the top floor of the hospital would be nothing more than a large square so she tried her luck with turning right and following the hallway, keeping the interior wall to her right as well.
To her left the exterior was more or less a generous display of windows that overlooked the entire town of Specter, Georgia. Audra paused for a moment and took in the world from the top floor of the hospital. The sun was low in the sky, casting a reddish-orange hue over the town, which somehow made it seem more majestic from five stories up than it did on the ground.
"Beautiful, huh?" Gwyn's specter voice was getting stronger and more stable. Audra was not surprised or unnerved by her sudden appearance.
"Did the Sheriff send you to follow me today?" Audra asked.
"Yeah, Dad said he had other business to attend to," Gwyn admitted.
Audra smiled and realized that she was a bit relieved for the back up.
"So, I have two sisters," Gwyn remarked. "I always thought that life would be so much easier for a specter."
"Isn't it?" Audra asked.
"No, not really," she admitted.
A silence fell between them as they studied Specter's landscape. Audra took note of two landmarks on opposite ends of the outskirts of town; a large church topped with a cross-bearing steeple and an enormous cemetery that looked well manicured but somehow lonely. Midway between the two sat a mansion, immaculately sculpted and maintained.
"I guess that's the Shelley mansion," Audra commented.
"That's it," Gwyn said with a heavy sigh.
"Have you gone inside?"
"No."
"Are you curious?"
"No."
"Will you or Sheriff Miller follow me in there on Saturday?"
"Dad might. He was actually invited," she offered. "You can relay the highlights to me over coffee."
Audra smiled. She wondered if Gwyn felt cheated out of her real life.
"Have you ever been to The Scoop?" Audra asked.
"Of course not. My father would have killed me."
"Where is it?" Audra asked.
Gwyn drew a circle on the window over the section of town that held the HUD apartment building. Behind it was an alley of bars and clubs that Audra hadn't seen.
"Specter's red light district."
"About as red as anything in Georgia can be, I guess," Gwyn commented.
Audra turned from the window and began walking again. After a few minutes, Ethan's voice became audible. She quickened her steps as she realized that he was just around the next corner. She stepped lightly, not wanting to scare Margret off, until she was able to understand what he was saying.
"I did tell you about her." Ethan sounded defensive.
"Yeah, I guess you did." Margret sounded more forthright than Audra had expected.
"I love her."
Audra swallowed as she looked at Gwyn. The specter turned her sympathetic, ghostly eyes away and, out of politeness, phased out.
"Sure you do," came Margret's hurt reply.
Audra stepped closer realizing that this was the second time in the same hour that she chose to eavesdrop on a conversation not meant for her ears. But she couldn't turn away, not from this.
"If she hadn't showed up here to investigate that murder, you would be saying that about me," Margret sounded certain.
"Margret," Ethan began but was cut off.
Audra couldn't imagine what he would have said next. She stepped to the corner that would bring her in view of the pair of them.
"If she hadn't shown up…" Margret trailed off and Audra heard a sigh followed by total silence.
She turned the corner and found Ethan holding Margret in his arms.
"Oh," Audra gasped as she felt an invisible fist squeeze her stomach.
Ethan and Margret split apart and he turned to face Audra. Margret took a moment to witness the electric tension between Audra and Ethan before she turned and ran in the opposite direction.
"Audra," Ethan began.
"It's not what it looks like," Audra quoted the most obvious applicable cliché she could think of.
"I was just trying to…" Ethan paused, as Audra was certain he realized there was nothing he could say to explain away what she saw. She was smart enough to deduce that he did have feelings for Margret and, in some way, Audra's return had clouded over those feelings or at least complicated them.
Margret's words if she hadn't shown up rang in her ears as some sort of accusation against her.
"Don't follow me," Audra said as she turned to run back to the elevator.
It seemed like a lifetime passed as she traveled down to the first floor and stumbled her way back to the rental car. She sat behind the wheel and cranked the car as Ethan appeared behind the glass of the hospital's sliding doors. Ignoring him, she drove away.