Catherine's Cross Read Online Free Page A

duty?”
    â€œNo ma’am, the officer who received the initial call phoned me at home. He was aware that your sister had recently passed away and that I was in charge of her . . .”
    He paused for a moment and Jenks interjected, “Detective Mason, I’ll be home around four o’clock, and would it be all right if I call you then? I have your business card.”
    â€œYes, ma’am,” he said before saying good-bye.
    The news of the break-in had distracted her with intense worry. As Jenks led the class in social studies, she fumbled her words repeatedly, and her hands shook as she wrote on the chalkboard. At recess, one of her students approached her. “Are you all right, Miss Ellington?” Joey Adams asked. “I noticed your hands shaking.”
    â€œThank you, Joey. I have a lot on my mind today.” She patted him on the shoulder and smiled. “Go enjoy recess, and I’ll see you in a few minutes.” He smiled back and then left the classroom.
    For the rest of the day, the children were especially quiet except when called upon to answer questions; she concluded that Joey must have mentioned his concerns about her to the other students. Jenks knew that she had not done a good job for them since the death of her sister, but she had difficulty concentrating, and hoped the students would forgive her. There were only a few weeks left before summer vacation, and she wanted to focus on her work well enough to give the students the attention they deserved. Then the painful task of packing her sister’s possessions and selling her house would begin.
    After school that afternoon, Jenks met with her principal, Dr. Edwin Bishop, and told him about the break-in at her sister’s house.
    â€œJenks, I’m going to allow you personal time and sick leave to go handle what you need to in Beaufort. You’ve done a fine job with your students and testing is complete for the year.” Dr. Bishop was admired by his teaching staff for his fairness and professionalism, and Jenks accepted his proposal and decided to leave after saying good-bye to her students the next day. She placed a phone call to Detective Mason to inform him of her intentions to come to Beaufort and then went home to her apartment to pack.

    When Jenks arrived at her sister’s home, yellow police tape was wrapped around the front porch of the cottage and Detective Mason was waiting for her on the porch, sitting in a high-back wicker rocker. He rose from his seat, walked to her car, and opened the door for her. After they exchanged greetings, he led her to the house, lifted the yellow tape so they could cross under, and then opened the front door. The living room of Gigi’s house had been turned into chaos. Her bookshelves had been stripped and books lay helter-skelter on the floor. Every drawer had been emptied.
    â€œThis is maddening. I can’t tell if anything is missing or not,” Jenks said.
    â€œThe Bernsteins noted that one thing is missing—your sister’s computer.”
    â€œWhy would anyone want that?”
    â€œInformation.”
    â€œWhat on earth about?”
    â€œWe’ll have to try to figure that out.”
    â€œWere you able to find any fingerprints?”
    â€œThe area around your sister’s computer table was wiped clean. The fingerprints we did find were run through the FBI’s national fingerprint identification system, IAFIS. We found Frank Hiller’s fingerprints along with David Bernstein’s. The database includes active-duty and former military personnel, plus federal government employees. David worked for the Internal Revenue Service, and Frank is a former member of the US Navy. Your sister knew both of these people, so it’s normal that their fingerprints would be found in her home.”
    â€œThe area around her computer desk was completely wiped clean?”
    â€œYes—whoever took the computer was smart enough to wipe