Find Her Alive (Detective Josie Quinn #8) - Lisa Regan Page 0,14
really taken Trinity? Had Trinity let them? Were those her bones behind the cabin? How was that possible? Before her reluctance got the better of her, she found Shannon’s name in her contacts, and pressed the green call icon beneath her mother’s name.
Shannon answered after two rings, her voice sounding light and happy. It was a punch to Josie’s gut. “Hi honey, what’s going on?”
Josie knew from experience that ripping the Band-Aid off swiftly was the best way to deliver bad news. “Shannon, something’s happened to Trinity.”
“We don’t know,” Josie filled in quickly. She couldn’t tell Shannon about the bones. Not yet. They didn’t know for sure that they belonged to Trinity, and Josie wasn’t about to tell her family anything she didn’t know with complete certainty. “I came to the cabin to try to talk to her. Her car is here. All of her things are packed up and inside it. But she isn’t here.”
It took several seconds for Shannon’s breathing to slow to the point where she could speak again. “Then she walked off. She’s in the woods or down by the stream. Maybe she went to talk to someone in one of the other cabins. I’ll call her—”
Josie cut her off. “Her phone is inside the car. She left the landlord a note three weeks ago saying she was leaving. Shannon, when was the last time you were in contact with her?”
Another beat of silence. Then Shannon said, “I’m not sure. I’d have to look at my texts, maybe my call log. It’s been a few weeks. Things have been crazy at work with my team trying to perfect this new cancer drug. The last time I spoke with her, she had just moved into the cabin. She told me everything was fine. She just needed time to unplug, she said. She was going to stay there.”
A few weeks.
Josie closed her eyes, willing the police officer in her to take over. Who else had regular contact with Trinity? Definitely their father, Christian and younger brother, Patrick. She opened her eyes, and when she spoke, her voice sounded strangely calm and confident. “Shannon, this is really important. I need you to contact Christian and Patrick, and find out when they last had contact with her. Can you do that for me?”
“Of course. Josie, what are you not telling me?”
“We don’t have all the information yet. My team is at her cabin now—” she stopped speaking before the word processing came out, instead using the words, “looking around. We’re doing everything we can to find out what happened to her.”
“Do you—do you think someone took her?”
“We simply don’t know at this point.”
The phone was silent except for Shannon’s ragged breathing. Josie used two fingers to squeeze the bridge of her nose, willing the tears gathering behind her eyes not to fall. She tried out the word she’d only used once or twice before with Shannon. “Mom.”
A muffled cry came over the line, as though Shannon had clamped a hand over her mouth to try to stop it.
Josie went on, “I will do everything I can to find out what happened to her.”
“What happened to her? What are you saying, Josie? Because if she’s dead—oh my God. You know I can’t do this. I can’t do this again. I can’t lose another child. I know we found you, but I lived with that loss for thirty years. I know Trinity is a grown woman, but I can’t go through this again. I just can’t, I—”
“I know,” Josie said, talking over her mother, hoping to stave off Shannon’s rising hysteria. “Shannon, I am being honest with you. I don’t know where she is or what happened to her. My team is working on it. Right now, I need you to talk to Dad and Patrick and then I need all of you to meet me at the Denton Police headquarters. There are questions about Trinity I can’t answer. I’ll need your help.”
“Of course.”
Eight
Josie heard more tires over gravel as she hung up on Shannon. The medical examiner, Dr. Anya Feist’s white pickup truck bounced along the rutted road. She parked behind the ERT vehicles and hopped out, waving to the uniformed officers and striding in Josie’s direction. The sight of the doctor, who had worked so many cases with Josie and her team, had a calming effect on her. Dr. Feist tucked a strand of silver-blonde hair