The Bones She Buried: A completely gripping, heart-stopping crime thriller(47)

“And I bet it was still hard to let go of something you’d been in for so long,” Josie went on. “Especially when you knew all of each other’s secrets.”

Lance was nodding as she spoke.

Josie said, “Although from what we’ve gathered so far, Colette wasn’t really the type to harbor secrets.”

“She wasn’t, that’s true,” Lance said. “What you saw was what you got with her. There was really only this one time that I saw her…”

He broke off.

“Saw her what, Mr. Fraley?” Josie prompted.

He waved a hand. “It was nothing. I don’t even know why I’m bringing it up.”

“It couldn’t be nothing if it stood out to you enough that you remember it all this time later,” Josie pointed out.

“One time I saw her talking to another man, which in itself wasn’t that unusual. She talked to lots of people. She was friendly with people at her church and at work. The butcher at the grocery store just loved her. But this was… I don’t know, different.”

Both Josie and Gretchen had moved to the edge of the couch. “In what way?” Gretchen asked.

“They were in the park,” he said. “You know, Denton’s city park?”

“Yes,” Josie and Gretchen said in unison.

“We used to have this little dog, when the kids were teenagers—well, Laura and Noah—Theo had already moved out by then. You know, the older they got, the less they wanted to spend time with us. We thought if we got this dog, it would bring something to the family. So anyway, Colette always took the dog for walks after dinner. Noah was, oh I don’t know, maybe thirteen at the time? He had a friend over and they were horsing around. Noah fell and smashed up his nose pretty good. I figured I’d take him to the ER, swing by the park to let Colette know I was taking him on the way there. Well, we were driving down that road alongside the park, and I saw her standing under a tree with the dog, talking to this guy. He was big, burly, and bald. But not like he lost his hair, like he shaved his head on purpose. Tough-looking. At first, I thought maybe he was threatening her because he looked like the type, but as I got closer, it looked like they were talking. They were standing close. He was leaning down into her. Then she—she put her hand on his chest.”

“Like she was pushing him away?” Josie asked. “Or more of an intimate gesture?”

“It was definitely more of an intimate thing,” Lance said. “Noah didn’t see anything cause he had his head leaned back with a big old ice pack on his face. I kept driving. The whole time at the ER, I was wondering what the hell was going on. I mean I really thought she was seeing this guy. I thought maybe all those walks with the dog were just a ruse to go meet her lover.”

“Did you confront her?” Josie asked.

“Yes, of course. That night after the kids were in bed, I told her that I’d seen her with a man in the park and she said, ‘Oh, that was Ivan.’ Like it was nothing at all. I said, ‘Who the hell is Ivan?’”

“And who was Ivan?” Gretchen asked.

“She said they went to grade school together and that back then they were very good friends. Like brother and sister, she said. I told her, ‘If you were like brother and sister, why is this the first time I’m hearing about him?’ And she said it was because he moved away from Denton a long time ago, and he only comes back to town every few years and they had grown apart during that time.”

“Did she say if she had just run into him at the park that day or if it was planned?” Josie asked.

“She said she ran into him but I’m not so sure.”

“And that was it?” Gretchen asked.

He shrugged. “I pressed her on it. Damn near came out and accused her of cheating with this guy but she scoffed, laughed it off. Said the whole idea was absurd. It was the way she dismissed the idea that made me think she was telling the truth. Colette was a terrible liar to begin with. I felt very confident that she was telling the truth about the whole thing.”

“But that’s what came to mind when we asked you about extra-marital affairs?” Gretchen said.

“Yeah. It was something between them. Like you said, an intimacy. A level of comfort I saw between them just in those few seconds from far away. I know it sounds stupid, but it really struck me at the time.”

“Did Colette have siblings?” Josie asked.

“No. It was just her and her mom. Her dad died when she was eight.”

“Did her mom remember Ivan?” Josie asked. “Did you ever bring it up with her?”

“Colette did,” he said. “The next time we went to her house for dinner. Right there at the table she said, ‘Mom, you remember that boy Ivan from school? I ran into him in the park in April.’” He laughed. “Then her mother said yes, she remembered him. He had been an altar boy before he started getting into trouble—kid stuff, she said, like vandalism and such. The family pulled up stakes and moved after he was expelled from the school.”

“Wait a minute,” Josie said. “When you and Colette met in high school, was she still going to Catholic church?”

“Well, we didn’t even notice one another until we were seniors in high school,” he said. “By that time, she was going to the Episcopal church.”