The Bones She Buried: A completely gripping, heart-stopping crime thriller(30)

His brow furrowed. “My uncle Drew? What was on it?”

“Legal documents,” Mettner said.

“But nothing that tells us anything about what happened to him,” Josie added. “We were actually on our way to speak with Beth about her dad’s disappearance when we found her.”

“Why?” Mason asked. “You’re the police. Don’t you already know everything there is to know about his disappearance?”

“We do have a file here,” Josie said. “Because he vanished within the city limits, but a lot of agencies have worked his case over the years and that means that our file could be incomplete. Also, it happened long before either one of us came to this department. We wanted to hear from some of the people who knew Drew back then directly. Tell me, Mason, did Beth believe any of the theories that abounded after he went missing?”

Mason dragged both hands up and down his cheeks, looking more exhausted by the second. “Beth believed that her dad was dead. But not by suicide. She always believed someone murdered him. It was just a matter of finding his body.”

Mettner asked, “Did she have any thoughts as to who killed him or why?”

“She thought the most obvious explanation was probably the right one.”

“Which was what?” Josie asked. “That his murder had something to do with someone he prosecuted?”

Mason nodded emphatically. “Exactly. That’s where your mind goes first, right? Successful, respected assistant district attorney who’s been doing his job well for decades? Uncle Drew put away illegal arms dealers, drug traffickers, and lots and lots of gang members from biker gangs to white supremacist gangs. Even that Latina gang—you know, the 23?”

Josie felt a jolt of recognition. “Yes, I know the 23. Some of them were involved in a shoot-out on the interstate right here in Denton a few years ago.” In fact, it had been that shoot-out that had plunged Josie directly into the dark depths of the missing girls case that had rocked not only the city, but the entire nation.

Mason scratched behind his ear. “Yeah, I think I remember that. Anyway, Uncle Drew put away a shit-ton of bad guys, you know? Beth always believed it was someone from one of the organized crime outfits that did him in.”

“Not Patti Snyder?” Josie asked.

Mason raised a brow.

“She was—” Josie began, but he cut her off.

“I know who she was—is. Believe me, Beth and I know all the players in every scenario the press has vomited up the last twelve years. I can see why a lot of people bought into that, but there was never any proof that Uncle Drew knew anything about what was going on with the Kickbacks for Kids scandal. So no, Beth never believed that Patti Snyder killed her dad.”

“Some investigators over the years have suggested that Patti Snyder was the woman talking to Drew Pratt at the craft fair the day he died,” Josie pointed out.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

Mettner asked, “Did Beth have any theories about that woman?”

“She didn’t think it was Patti Snyder. She thought whoever that woman was—she was there to lure Uncle Drew to his death. She was one of the last people to see him alive, to talk to him. If she wasn’t involved, then why hasn’t she ever come forward? Plus, if it was Patti Snyder and she knows what happened to him, why wouldn’t she use that for leverage—you know, for a reduced sentence or something?”

“Good point,” Josie said.

“Also there was that two or three week period where Uncle Drew was—” Mason stopped abruptly, a hint of panic flashing across his face, as though he’d said too much.

Softly, Josie said, “Where your Uncle Drew what?”

“Beth never told anyone because she thought that the cops and the press would immediately cry suicide, but for the two or three weeks before he went missing, she says Uncle Drew was in a bad way.”

“In what way?” Mettner asked.

“She said he wasn’t eating or sleeping; he was snappy and just out of sorts.”

Josie asked, “Was there anything that precipitated this?”

“He wouldn’t talk about it. Beth asked him many times, but he blew her off and said he was just stressed about work.”

“But his work files were studied thoroughly after his disappearance,” Josie said. “He had no major cases pending. It was only minor stuff.”

Mason said, “Yeah, Beth really pressed the police on that after Uncle Drew went missing, and they told her there wasn’t anything really stressful going on at his job.”

“But she still believed that he was killed by someone he prosecuted?” Josie asked.

“Yes. She thinks maybe he received some kind of threat a few weeks before he went missing.”

“But there was no evidence of that,” Josie said. “Investigators went over every inch of his life.”

Mason threw his hands in the air. “I know. I’m just telling you what Beth believes—believed. My God, I can’t believe this. I can’t believe she’s gone. Who would do something like this? Why?”

Josie felt her stomach drop as tears streamed down his face. He’d lost his father, then his uncle and now his cousin—all under strange and suspicious circumstances. She wished she had more answers for him.

Mettner said, “That’s what we wanted to ask you. Beth’s house looked as though someone had gone through her things, as though they were looking for something. Can you think of anything she might have had that someone might want?”