The Bones She Buried: A completely gripping, heart-stopping crime thriller(45)

Gretchen could barely contain her grin as she answered, “Yes, sir.”





Thirty-Two





Noah’s dad lived about two hours away from Denton in a town near the northern border of New Jersey and the southern border of New York state. Gretchen called him before they left to make sure he would be home. They spent the drive discussing Gretchen’s adult children with whom she had just been reunited—she had spent a lot of time with them during her months off, and things seemed to be going well. It was one more thing they had in common; reconnecting with family after decades without them. As they pulled up in front of Lance Fraley’s house, Josie wondered if Noah would ever reconnect with his dad.

When she saw two boys playing basketball in the driveway, she realized why that was not likely. Both boys were tall, perhaps thirteen or fourteen years old, dressed in oversized T-shirts and loose-fitting shorts. They both had shaggy brown hair and looked like miniature Noahs, except without the resemblance he bore to Colette. As Josie and Gretchen got out of the car and started walking up the driveway, one of them hollered, “Dad! Your friends are here!”

They kept playing as though Josie and Gretchen weren’t there. Edging around the one-on-one basketball game, Josie and Gretchen made their way to the front door. The house was a large two-story with eggshell white siding and bright red trim. Carefully tended flower beds surrounded the perimeter. The porch had a bench swing and several potted flowers hanging from its small roof. A small brown carpet in front of the door announced: The Fraleys.

Josie felt her heart stop momentarily when a pretty blonde woman, who could not have been much older than Josie herself, answered the door. She smiled brightly at them, drying her hands off with a dishtowel before opening the screen door. “You’re the detectives, right? Come on in.”

She waved them past her into a bright foyer area with hardwood floors and a small cherry table that held a pile of mail and a bowl of keys. “Andi Fraley,” the woman said, extending a hand toward them. Gretchen shook it first and then Josie, who was so dumbstruck, she couldn’t speak. Luckily, Gretchen introduced them both and then gave Josie a nudge as Andi Fraley led them into a spacious living room with a large, taupe-colored sectional sofa and a matching area rug over the gleaming hardwood floors.

“Can I get you anything? It must have been a long drive. Water? Coffee?” Andi asked.

Gretchen said, “Coffee would be great.” When Josie didn’t respond, her gaze traveling the room, Gretchen added, “Detective Quinn would love some coffee as well.”

Andi shot them another megawatt smile and said, “Sure thing. I’ll get Lance. He’s in his office.”

The moment she was gone, Gretchen hissed, “Quinn, snap out of it.”

Josie motioned toward the far wall where a large bookcase stood, its shelves dotted with happy family photos. They showed Andi, the two boys from the driveway, and what was obviously Lance Fraley. Noah looked nearly identical to him. Noah’s sister had a pretty equal mix of both their parents and Theo looked almost entirely like their mother, but Noah was a near clone of his father.

And Lance Fraley had left his wife of thirty-four years and started a whole new family.

“He started over,” Josie said. “Completely.”

Gretchen whispered, “That is typically what people do when they get divorced.”

“Well,” Josie answered. “There has to be something more. Maybe he didn’t try to reach out to them as much as he said he did.”

Josie could see now why Noah and his siblings were so bitter over their father’s absence. Josie wondered if what Lance had told Gretchen about making an effort with his adult children was really true. The Noah she knew was kind, forgiving, even-tempered and fair. It was hard to imagine him turning his father away; choosing not to have any type of relationship with him at all. Given what she knew, it made more sense that Lance’s “efforts” had been so minimal as to be non-existent. Then, given the age of his children with Andi, it was quite possible he had already been seeing his new wife when he was still married to Colette. Even if he had made some efforts to stay in his children’s lives, the fact that he had left their mother for another woman and started a whole new family would have been extremely painful for all of them. Gretchen was right. It was what people did—get divorced and start over—but if Lance had been as absent as the Fraley children claimed after the divorce, she could see why they were still so angry with him. She wondered what it would be like to have a real father your whole life—someone who was caring and doting and attentive, someone who was there—and then one day have that person walk away from your family and more or less not look back.

Before she could speculate more, Lance Fraley came in with Andi trailing behind him. She carried a small tray with cups of coffee on it, two spoons, a squat little carton of milk and a bowl of sugar. Lance shook their hands while Andi set the tray onto the coffee table. Josie studied him as they sat down. He was much taller than Noah and his hair was gray, but it was thick like Noah’s, and their faces were almost identical in person as well as in the photos she had seen.

With another sunny smile, Andi left them alone in the living room. Lance sat diagonally from them on the other part of the sectional, his large hands on his knees. His smile looked more like a grimace. It was the same look Noah got when he knew he had to do something, but was dreading it. “What can I do for you ladies?” he asked.