The Bones She Buried: A completely gripping, heart-stopping crime thriller(4)

Mettner frowned. “She’s still on the desk.”

“Even now? Does the Chief know what’s going on?”

Mettner nodded. “Yeah, he knows.”

Josie threw her hands in the air. “Well, I need her here. She’s the most experienced investigator we have, and this is clearly a homicide.”

Mettner grimaced, and immediately Josie felt guilty. The Chief had been grooming him over the last six months to take the step up to detective, especially now, since Gretchen was out of action. He had been on the force for seven years, was meticulous, efficient and eager to learn. Although Josie and Chief Chitwood rarely agreed on anything, she knew Mettner deserved the chance at promotion. She sighed. “Mett, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—it’s just that this is Noah’s mom, you know? Gretchen worked homicide in Philadelphia for fifteen years.”

Mettner waved a hand in the air. “I know,” he said. “It’s okay. I know she’s the most qualified, boss, I get it. But the Chief isn’t budging on this one, so you’ll have to settle for me. I can handle this, you know?”

“I know you can,” Josie replied. “Let’s do a walk-through. I don’t think Noah or I touched or moved anything. We sat on the couch in the living room, but everything else is as it was when we got here. Except the backyard, obviously. We tried to revive her, but she—” Josie broke off and her fingers swiped over her lips one last time. “Her mouth was packed with dirt.”

“Hummel got here first. He said you found her face down in the garden,” Mettner said as he suited himself up.

“Yes, but even if she had a heart attack or a stroke or something and fell, it wouldn’t account for how much dirt was in her mouth. It was packed so deep that it blocked her airway. Mett, this was not an accident. Someone killed her.”

Colette had been kind, gentle and decent. Josie’s heart flipped in her chest at the thought of someone suffocating her. She must have been terrified.

Mettner gently touched Josie’s shoulder, bringing her back to the scene. “We’ll handle this, okay? Do a quick walk-through, then take Fraley home. The rest of us will work this with everything we’ve got.”

Josie nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. She went back to Noah’s vehicle to let him know she would only be a few minutes, but he was still lost somewhere deep where no one could reach him.

Hummel signed the two of them in at the front door and they started in the living room. “We need to know what you touched or moved before you found Mrs. Fraley,” Mettner said.

They moved slowly and carefully through the house as Josie retraced her and Noah’s movements from the time they’d arrived, to them finding Colette dead in the backyard. Mercifully, the team had already photographed Colette’s body, and someone had covered her with a sheet. They would wait until Noah had gone before transporting her to the morgue. Josie talked him through everything that had happened while Mettner used his thumbs to text furiously into a note-taking app on his cell phone. When she finished he gave her a sheepish smile. “I text faster than I write. Plus, I can email myself these notes and they’re already typed.”

Josie smiled. “Whatever works for you, Mett. Great idea.”

Back to business, he asked, “When was the last time either of you spoke to Mrs. Fraley?”

“I haven’t talked to her since last month. I think Noah spoke with her this morning. I can ask him,” Josie replied.

“Mrs. Fraley lived alone?” Mettner asked.

Josie nodded. “I can get in touch with Noah’s older brother and sister and find out when they last spoke with her. If you could, maybe someone should interview Colette’s friends, neighbors…”

Mettner looked up from his phone. “Yes, I’ve already got someone canvassing.”

“Great,” Josie said.

Another member of their ERT knelt beside Colette’s body. She was a new hire who had come to Denton with a few years of experience working on an Evidence Response Team in a city only slightly larger than Denton. “Officer Chan,” Josie greeted her. “What’ve you got?”

Chan looked up and gave Josie and Mettner a nod, her gloved hands sifting through the dirt that Colette had turned up moments before her death. With her thumb and index finger she lifted a long, beaded object from the soil. Josie squatted down to peer at it. She pointed to the dirt-crusted crucifix that hung from the end. “Is that a rosary?”

Chan fingered a frayed end where the long chain of beads had broken. “Part of one, yes, I think so.”

Mettner bent closer, squinting as Chan held up the rosary for him to inspect. “Looks old.”

“It’s pretty caked with dirt. Might have been here a long time,” Chan agreed.

Mettner turned to Josie. “Maybe she was trying to dig it up? I know the timing isn’t great, but could you ask Noah about this too?”

“Of course,” Josie said, watching as Chan bagged it up for evidence.

Mettner cleared his throat, and Josie tore her eyes away from the upturned garden to meet his.

“We can take it from here,” he said. “I’ll be in touch when we know more. Why don’t you get Noah home? Notify his siblings?”

“Right,” Josie said, still feeling shell-shocked. “Of course.”