The Bones She Buried: A completely gripping, heart-stopping crime thriller(84)

“Ivan,” Josie told him. “Mr. Sutton is only a few rooms away with his lawyer—don’t worry, he doesn’t know you’re here—this is our chance to make him pay. We’re so close. We just need more from you. Tell us what happened after Colette died.”

With a long and tortured sigh, Ivan began speaking. “Laura was in contact with Mr. Sutton after Colette’s murder. She told him that the police had found certain items hidden in Colette’s home.”

Josie said, “The flash drive, arrowhead and belt buckle.”

“Yes. He asked me why she had such things, and I told him. I didn’t think it mattered since Colette was dead. No one would really know what any of those things meant. Maybe the flash drive was a problem because someone might figure out it belonged to Drew Pratt, but she told me it wasn’t hers to begin with. The other two items were so random, I didn’t think anyone would question them. Then he said that I needed to be sure.”

“Sure of what?” Gretchen asked.

“Sure that there was nothing in her possession and nothing she had given to anyone else—one of the Pratts or anyone connected to Craig Bridges—that could implicate him. I told him there wasn’t. Even if someone could make the connection between the three of them, no one would ever suspect why they were connected. No one alive knew what Colette knew.”

“Except you.”

He shrugged. “Even I don’t know exactly what happened. I never saw the documents. I don’t know where they are. I was afraid maybe the person who killed her had taken them. Laura told Mr. Sutton about her murder. How whoever killed her was looking for something and had ransacked her house. How she was digging in her garden. He was convinced that he was going to be found out. There were too many variables. He wanted whatever Colette had—whatever she took from his father’s office. I told him I didn’t know where she hid it. He said to torch her house although I didn’t at first. I hoped to get over there and search so burning it wouldn’t be necessary, but Colette’s son was there every day. Finally, I had no choice. I never wanted to hurt her children.”

“But you almost killed Noah,” Josie said. “And me.”

“I’m so sorry. I had no choice.”

“You couldn’t tell Sutton no?” Gretchen said. “What did he still have over you?”

Mournful eyes turned in Gretchen’s direction. “Laura. He told me he’d kill her, and he’d do it himself. He said he’d covered up bigger crimes, and he would make sure he didn’t get caught. I didn’t care for my own life, but as I said, I didn’t want Colette’s children to be harmed. And Laura was having a baby.”

“So you did whatever Sutton told you to do,” Josie said. “And he paid you to do it.”

“Yes.”

Josie said, “When you couldn’t find the documents that Colette had, what happened then?”

“He said he wanted the two remaining Pratt children eliminated.”

“Killed?” Josie asked.

He nodded. “Yes, killed. I tried to tell him that this would only draw more attention, which it did. So he told me to burn Beth Pratt’s house down. He told me to find anyone who could connect Craig Bridges to the belt buckle found in Colette’s home and eliminate them.”

“Kill them.”

“Yes. He wanted me to burn Brody Wolicki’s cabin down, but it would have caused a forest fire. More attention. So I burned all his documents.”

“Earl Butler?” Josie asked.

“I was supposed to burn his house to the ground, but he didn’t have anything that could come back to Mr. Sutton. So, I—I suffocated him.”

Ivan still didn’t know that Earl Butler had survived. Josie decided she’d let him find out later.

“Have you ever met Laura Fraley-Hall?” Josie asked.

“No. I’ve seen her from afar. Colette talked about her. I have never met her.”

“Do you believe she knows about any of this?”

“No.”

“You know that Mr. Sutton was grooming her to take over the company?”

“Yes. That was why it was even more important to put all of this to rest. The records that Colette had were the only evidence of the bodies near the encampment where the crane fell. Once those were destroyed no one would ever know.”

A knock sounded on the door. Josie excused herself to find Hummel standing before her, his uniform covered in dirt but a grin on his face from ear to ear. In his hands was a small plastic insulated cooler.

“A cooler?” Josie said. “Really?”

Hummel slid the top off. “It was duct-taped. Don’t worry, we photographed everything before we sliced the tape off. It held up,” he said. “Look.”

Inside was a folder that had been wrapped in what had to be two dozen plastic freezer bags. “Did you look at it?” Josie asked.

“No, figured you’d want first crack, boss.”

“Take it down to the conference room. Get Chitwood and the DA—they’re in the Chief’s office—I need gloves, and I want photos and video. I’ll get Gretchen. Write up a warrant before we open this and have a judge sign it.”

“You got it.”

It took an hour to get everything and everyone in place. Ivan had been placed under arrest and moved to the holding area. The next day he would be picked up by the county sheriff and taken to their county-wide processing facility in Bellewood. Zachary Sutton and his lawyer waited impatiently in one of the interrogation rooms. Chitwood had handled some initial questioning mostly to keep the lawyer from taking his client and storming out. Those questions had to do with why Sutton had lied about Ivan and his employment status. Sutton had cited his age and poor memory which was all his attorney would allow him to say.