Free Bone Deep by Debra Webb

amount of fear. “Kate’s right leg suddenly started shaking. Has that happened before?”
    Sympathy shadowed the nurse’s expression. “I’m afraid so, Miss Ellington. It happened several times last night. The doctor is running tests to try and determine if the episodes have anything to do with the seizure.”
    Jill nodded slowly, defeat tugging at her. What was happening to her sister? She smoothed the sheet back over Kate and pressed another kiss to her forehead. Somehow she would find the answers... she wouldn’t let Kate down.
    ~*~
    Twenty minutes later, Jill parked in front of Kate’s High Point mansion. She emerged from her car, unable to take her eyes off the yellow crime scene tape that marked her sister’s home as a place where tragedy had occurred. The tape fluttered in the on again, off again breeze, running a chill over her skin despite the suffocating heat. High Point was an exclusive housing development on a ridge overlooking Paradise. Most of the homeowners were local professionals either at MedTech or the thriving fertility clinic, LifeCycle.
    Karl Manning had been a wealthy man. His family would certainly be a ripe target for kidnapping. The theory was definitely worth looking into. Why the hell hadn’t the chief investigated this avenue? She supposed he may have but he certainly hadn’t mentioned it. Jill studied the homes of the surrounding neighbors on the cul-de-sac as she formed her plan of action. Why not start right here?
    She moved up the paved walk of the house to the right of Kate’s. Though the residents of Paradise had always been considerably more affluent than their counterparts in other small Tennessee towns, this, she studied the sprawling home, was not old money whose roots went back more than a hundred years. This was new money, the kind earned in recent decades.
    People like Karl Manning built their houses high above those he wanted to impress. He and his new money could look down on those who had struggled for generations to pass along their dwindling wealth to their heirs. Karl resented having to earn his standing in the community despite the fortune he’d amassed. That was one of many things Jill hadn’t liked about him.
    She pushed her personal feelings aside and pressed the doorbell. The door opened immediately, as if someone had watched her approach. A young woman with Asian features and holding a squirming toddler in her arms stood on the other side of the threshold.
    Dark eyes widened. “Kate?” She gasped. “I didn’t know you’d been released!”
    “I’m sorry,” Jill hastened to explain. “I’m her sister, Jillian.”
    The young woman’s expression immediately turned guarded. “Oh, sorry. May I help you?” Her tone had dropped somewhere in the vicinity of the Arctic.
    “Are you the lady of the house?” Jill pushed a pleasant smile into place.
    “No. Mrs. Radcliff is at the clinic. Would you like to leave a message for her?” She swayed when a boy of about four crashed into her legs. “Roman, stop that,” she scolded.
    “Are you the nanny?” The woman looked entirely too young to be the mother of two.
    She shifted the toddler to her other hip. “Yes.” She frowned then. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m very busy right now.”
    Jill tacked her sagging smile back into place. “I apologize for the intrusion.” She extended her hand. “As I said, I’m Kate’s sister and I wanted to ask you a few questions that might help her.”
    The woman’s expression froze, as did her hand, just shy of reaching Jill’s. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything about the Mannings.” She drew her hand back and lifted her chin into a more wary tilt. “You’ll have to excuse me, I have the children to attend to.”
    Neighbors had always been close in Paradise. Jill didn’t understand this reaction. She flattened her palm against the door and held it open a moment longer. She needed answers. “What about the children? Did Roman ever play with