Find Her Alive (Detective Josie Quinn #8) - Lisa Regan Page 0,13
Hanna,” Frances snapped. “You’re an accomplished artist. Don’t be ridiculous.”
Alex slipped past his father into the hallway before either of them could argue over him anymore. As he flew down the steps, he heard his father say, “You go back to work. I’ll check on Zandra.”
Seven
Josie, Mettner, and Noah stood beside their vehicles and waited for the Denton PD Evidence Response Team to arrive. In spite of the stillness and natural beauty all around them, Josie couldn’t stop her thoughts from spinning out. Luckily, Mettner took out his phone, pulled up his note-taking app, and started firing off questions. Josie gave him a rundown of everything that had happened in the last six weeks, except that she didn’t elaborate on anything she and Trinity had said to each other before Trinity stormed out of Josie and Noah’s house, only saying they’d had an argument.
“You haven’t heard from her in a month?” Mettner asked, face bent to the screen as he tapped notes into his phone. “What about friends or family members?”
“Our mother,” Josie said. “Shannon Payne. She was still in contact with her after Trinity cut me off. We should also talk to my dad and brother. Oh, and Trinity’s assistant. I know they were in touch when Trinity was staying with us.”
Josie rattled off the phone numbers she knew by heart and looked the others up in her phone. She added, “But could you wait to talk to Shannon? Let me tell her first?”
“Of course,” Mettner said. “Let’s try to get a handle on what we’re dealing with here first.”
“Mett,” Josie said, reaching out and touching his forearm. His eyes jerked up toward her. He shot Noah a quick glance before returning his gaze to her. Josie swallowed over a lump in her throat. “What I saw up there—”
“Remains,” he said. “Noah told me. We’ll handle it.”
“No,” she said, tugging on his arm. “Not just remains. This is something we haven’t seen before.”
Mettner opened his mouth to speak, but the sound of wheels on gravel swallowed his response. Two Denton police SUVs pulled in behind the line of vehicles already present. Officers Hummel and Chan got out of the first SUV. Two more members of the ERT got out of the other one. Hummel popped the hatch on the back of his vehicle and the four of them immediately started donning their Tyvek suits and removing equipment needed to process the scene. Mettner jogged over to brief them. Hummel handed him a Tyvek suit and he pulled it on. Josie stayed at her vehicle and watched as they began their ascent up the driveway with Mettner and one of the other uniformed officers in tow, walking on the edges of the gravel, looking for tire tracks, careful not to disturb anything that might be evidence.
Josie felt Noah’s hand on her shoulder and looked up to see his hazel eyes swimming with concern. “It might not be her,” he said.
“I know,” she said, hoping he was right.
Noah glanced at the driveway. “You want me here with you or up at the scene?”
“I don’t want you to see that,” Josie said. She pressed her eyes closed, willing the memory of the bones to flush from her brain, but it wouldn’t. It would always be there. It would haunt her nightmares for years, she knew.
Noah said, “I’m going to see it no matter what, Josie. You know that.”
“Then go,” Josie told him, opening her eyes. “I’ll wait here for Dr. Feist and call Shannon.”
He gave her shoulder a squeeze and went over to Hummel’s vehicle to suit up. A few moments later he was gone. A couple of uniformed officers stood along the road like sentries, prepared to keep any passers-by or other curious tenants away should they drive up the road. One stood at the edge of the driveway with a clipboard in hand. He would log people in and out of the crime scene as they passed.
Josie took out her phone again to call Shannon. At this time of day, she’d be at work. She was a chemist with a large pharmaceutical company called Quarmark. Josie imagined her standing in a lab at that moment, swathed in a white coat, overseeing some experiment with safety goggles covering her eyes. Or maybe she was in her office, reviewing lab results. Josie was about to blast a crater of destruction right into her normal day. She didn’t want to face Shannon. Not yet. She could barely process what was happening. Had someone