Then No One Can Have Her by Caitlin Rother Read Free Book Online

him.
    â€œCan I come out? I—I mean, my daughter—” Steve said. “She hasn’t—she hasn’t—what kind of state is the body in? She hasn’t seen Carol, has she?”
    â€œNo, no, no,” Brown said.
    â€œCan I come out?”
    â€œYeah, if you’d like to,” Brown said. “That’d be fine. I can talk to you outside or—”
    â€œWell, I want to be with Charlotte,” Steve said, explaining that her boyfriend didn’t have a license and his daughter would be in no condition to drive home. “I’ll be right out.”
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    Steve called Charlotte right back, but she told him she was talking to the deputies and had to go.
    Immediately calling Renee, Steve talked to her for about four minutes. “Carol is dead, Charlotte is out there and I need to get out there. Will you go with me?”
    But Renee was still watching her grandson. “No, I can’t go,” she said. “I can’t leave him.”
    Steve described the voice mail Carol’s mother had left on his answering machine, which he’d checked just before leaving the house. Charlotte had gotten upset hearing it, he said, and wanted to go out right away. After pleading with him for an hour to go, he said, he’d finally let her.
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    Between calls to and from Steve that night, John Kennedy continued to call his sister’s house, hoping she would pick up. But there was still no answer.
    John got the last call back from Steve at 2:11 A.M ., or 12:11 A.M ., Prescott time. He thought he could hear gravel crunching, as if Steve was walking and talking.
    Steve’s tone was flat. Monotone. Emotionless. He offered no preamble or lead-in to soften the news. “John, you need to call your mom and tell her that Carol is gone,” he said abruptly.
    Not injured, not dead, just gone. John thought Steve’s tone was so casual that he could have been informing him that Albertsons had some good ripe melons on sale.
    Although John tried to press his brother-in-law for more information, Steve gave him very little. “She’s gone,” Steve repeated. “She’s dead.”
    â€œWhat happened?” John asked.
    â€œApparently, she suffered a fall.”
    As soon as they hung up, John woke his wife, told her what was going on, and said they needed to make the short drive over to his mother’s house to deliver the news in person.
    When they arrived at Ruth’s house and knocked on her back door, she was just hanging up with the chaplain from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, who was on his way over. The chaplain didn’t say why, but Ruth knew what was coming.
    After John confirmed Ruth’s fears about what had happened to Carol, Ruth’s knees collapsed out from under her. Her body crumpled, but John caught her and helped her into a chair before she could fall to the floor. Still in shock, she didn’t cry. Not yet anyway.
    The chaplain arrived shortly thereafter to deliver the bad news again. After he left, John stayed the rest of the night with his mother as they tried to console each other.

CHAPTER 6
    Steve tried calling his longtime assistant, Barbara “Barb” O’Non, at 12:14 A.M ., but she didn’t answer, already asleep for the night.
    Renee called Steve back a few minutes later and they talked briefly before he pulled up to Carol’s house at 12:23 A.M . Seeing Charlotte talking to one of the detectives, he immediately went to hug and comfort his sobbing daughter.
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    Scott Mascher, one of two commanders who worked directly under the sheriff, had only just arrived a couple of minutes earlier. He’d been home in bed when he’d gotten the call of a possible homicide from Lieutenant Rhodes, who said they were short-handed.
    â€œI’ll be happy to come out and help,” said Mascher, who didn’t wear his three-star uniform that night—just a T-shirt and