“What did you do?” Cadde thought he’d better get to the heart of Hooter’s visit.
“Stay calm, okay?”
“What did you do?” Cadde asked with as much calm as he could muster.
“Jessie called me about four days after that man attacked her and she lost the baby.”
Cadde curled his hands into fists. “What did she want?”
“Money and information.”
“What?”
“You said you’d stay calm.”
“Tell me what the hell you did.”
“She wanted information on Angela’s sisters and I paid the computer kid at Shilah for everything he had on Jessie’s mother and her family. Jessie then wanted a plane ticket to the village outside Rome where they lived.”
Cadde was on his feet, his calm forgotten. “You let her go to Rome all by herself? In her state of mind?”
“Jessie’s pretty stubborn and I could see she was all messed up in her head. I begged her to call you, but she wouldn’t.”
“So you just let her go to Rome.” Anger coiled through him, but something registered in his mind—something about the way Hooter had said Angela.
“Did you know Angela?”
“Hell, yeah. I was with Roscoe when he met her. I told him she was too young and that she’d take him for every dime he had, but he wouldn’t listen. He was besotted.” Hoot fingered his hat. “I thought Shilah would go under for sure, but I underestimated ol’ Roscoe. He kept his money and the baby.”
“Did either of you ever think about Jessie or her life?”
“That was Roscoe’s business, not mine.”
Cadde ran his hands through his hair. “Just get out.”
Hooter stood with his hat in one hand. With the other he pulled a slip of paper from his left pocket. “Here’s the address. Knocked me for a loop to find out Angela’s sister is a nun and her other sister is at this orphanage, too.”
He didn’t take the paper. “I know where her aunts live. I just never imagined Jessie would go there, but you made it easy for a severely depressed woman to do that.” He took a deep breath. “Get out, Hooter, before I hit you.”
“Now, Cadde, I risked a lot coming here. You can remove me from the board and my investment in Shilah will be…”
“Get out,” he shouted. “I don’t give a damn about you and I don’t give a damn about Shilah.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. Someone has to be at the helm to protect all our investments. I could take over…”
“Get out!”
Cadde paced in the living room, trying to control his anger. How could that old fool think he was helping Jessie? How could…
His cell rang and he answered.
“I know where Jessie is,” Myra said.
“So do I. She’s at an orphanage outside Rome.”
“How do you know that?”
“An old friend of Roscoe’s just dropped by. He helped her get there.”
“And he’s just now telling you this?”
“Yeah. Kind of blew my mind, too.”
“Forget about him. I called the orphanage and Jessie is there. The woman who answered the phone spoke broken English, but when I asked about Jessie she said, ‘Sì,’ and something about a laundry room. I gave her my number and asked for Jessie to call me—whether she understood me or not I don’t know.”
“Let me have the number.”
“Cadde.” There was a long pause. “Jessie went there for some sort of peace or maybe to feel a connection to her mother. Whatever it is she needs to do it on her own. She’s feeling a lot of guilt over the forced marriage and the baby deal.”
Cadde gripped his cell. “She didn’t force me into anything. Please stop saying that.”
“But Jessie feels it. Give her time.”
“Myra…”
“I know it’s hard, but she’s okay and if she calls, I’ll phone right away.”
“Thanks. Oh, Myra, I just thought of something. Jessie came home for her passport. That’s why Rosa found the front door opened that day with Mirry on the front porch.”
“Makes sense now, but I would never have suspected Jessie of doing something like that.”
“Me, neither. That just shows how depressed she really was.” He gripped the phone. “Are you sure she’s okay?”
“She’s with her aunts and they’ll take care of her.”
“Yeah.”
Cadde ended the call and hurried into Roscoe’s study. Opening the bottom drawer, he pulled out the security box that held some important papers and Roscoe’s and Jessie’s passports. Roscoe’s was there, but Jessie’s was not.