The Bones She Buried: A completely gripping, heart-stopping crime thriller(75)

Fifty-Two





It was late in the day so they wrote up their warrant and had it signed by a judge. They resolved to round up all the players the next morning and have Mettner and Hummel serve the warrant while Josie and Gretchen questioned Ivan Ulrich, Laura, and Zachary Sutton. Mettner deferred to them since they were the more experienced interviewers. Josie drove home feeling both jittery and exhausted. Her body thirsted for another drink even as the headache from the morning’s hangover still lingered at the periphery of her brain. She felt relieved when she saw Trinity’s rented Lexus in her driveway. Trinity met her at the door, bouncing up and down on her toes. Josie could tell by the excited twinkle in her eyes and the breathy way she said, “Hey” that something was up.

Trinity said, “Someone’s here to see you!” in a low and eager voice.

Josie froze like a deer in headlights in the foyer. For some reason, she thought it was Luke. She’d left without saying goodbye. She had no memory of whatever had happened between them, but he probably recalled every second. What would she say to him? Had he really driven all the way to Denton to see her? Surely he didn’t believe they would be getting back together in any way, even if they had slept together, and she was sure she would never do that, no matter how drunk, because she loved Noah. She hadn’t seen his vehicle, or any other vehicles, in the driveway. Besides, it was extremely unlikely that Trinity would be this excited to see Luke.

Josie leaned to the left and peeked over Trinity’s shoulder to see Noah sitting on her couch, his casted leg up on her coffee table and a pair of crutches propped up against the couch beside him. Relief and trepidation flooded through her at once. Trinity winked at her and said, “I’ll be upstairs. Gonna grab a shower before I head back to New York.”

“Hey,” Noah said, smiling at her. He patted the couch. “Have a seat.”

Josie perched on the edge of her sofa. “How did you get here?”

“Grady brought me. Laura will probably kill him, but I had to come back.”

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“I’ve been better. You okay? You had Trinity worried. Me too.”

“Uh yeah. I’m fine. Sorry. I was following a lead, was all. What are you—what are you doing here?”

He reached over and took her hand, and Josie felt at once warmed and guilty. “I needed to apologize to you. Laura got ahold of my phone, and well… I did need to get out of Denton, but I was wrong to shut you out the way I did. I’m sorry. I’m really struggling with all of this.”

“I know,” Josie said.

“I’m still not thrilled that you spoke with my dad.”

Josie sighed. “Well, you’re not going to be thrilled about what happens next then. We need to bring Laura in for a formal interview. Chitwood’s going to call her himself tomorrow.”

Noah’s posture tensed. “Laura? Why?”

“Not for anything we think she did wrong, but we think there are things that went on at Sutton Stone Enterprises that your mother found out about and that Sutton was trying to cover up. We need to know how much Laura knew about it, if anything.”

Noah said, “She didn’t know anything. She can’t have. If it was something really bad, she wouldn’t hide it. I know she wouldn’t.”

“Then it shouldn’t be an issue to bring her in and ask her,” Josie said.

Noah raked a hand over his face. Josie could see his internal struggle; he’d come here to reconcile with her—for which she was grateful—but there was still the issue of his mother’s murder case and everything that came after, and whether or not his family was somehow involved in something nefarious. “Noah, I’m not your enemy. If you were on the other side of this, you would realize that. I’m trying to solve a case. Your mother’s murder. I can’t turn the other way just because there are things that would be unpleasant for you or Laura or Theo.”

A moment passed between them. Finally, Noah said, “I know. You’re right. I was on the other side once, remember?”

A knock on the door startled them before Josie could answer him. It was Gretchen with a file in one hand and a pizza in the other. Mettner stood awkwardly behind her. “I thought we could go over the case,” she said as she bustled into the foyer. Then she saw Noah on the couch. Her face reddened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize… hey, Fraley. How’re you feeling?”

He waved. “I’ve been better.”

Mettner gave Noah a mock salute which he returned. Gretchen turned back toward the door, pushing Mettner back onto the front stoop. “We’ll go,” she said.

Noah called, “Don’t leave on my account. I’m pretty tired. I was going to go upstairs and get some sleep. The painkillers make me drowsy.”

Gretchen looked to Josie, who nodded, and then headed toward the kitchen, waving a clearly uncomfortable Mettner along with her. Josie helped Noah upstairs to her bedroom where he was out within seconds of hitting her mattress. She said goodbye to Trinity and settled at the kitchen table with pizza and the Fraley and Pratt files.

“Do you think it’s in here?” Mettner asked.

“What’s that?” Josie said, pulling over a stack of reports from the scene at Colette’s house after her murder.