Find Her Alive (Detective Josie Quinn #8) - Lisa Regan Page 0,33

There’s nothing anyone can say or do to make this hurt less, but I do promise you that I’ll do everything I possibly can to find the person who did this to your mother and put him away for life.”

Monica nodded.

Josie continued, “Is there anyone we can call for you?”

“No,” Monica said. “No one. I mean, I have friends, but I’ll call them. My dad’s family lives in California. I hardly ever see them. Mom didn’t have anyone.”

“No siblings? What happened to her parents?”

“She never knew her father, she said. He was never in the picture. Her mother was largely absent, according to her. Then she died when Mom was fifteen.”

Thinking of what Heather had said about Nicci’s occasional struggles with depression, Josie said, “That must have been difficult for her. What happened to her after her mom died?”

“She ran away,” Monica said. “She didn’t want to go into foster care. She said she stayed in a shelter for homeless youth for a while, until she aged out.”

“Was that around here? In Bellewood?”

“No,” Monica answered. “I think in Philadelphia. She never talked about it other than to say it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible. Eventually, she got a job and a shitty apartment. Started taking college courses to get her teaching degree at Temple University. That’s where she met my dad. He got a job at the courthouse in Bellewood and they moved here. They were together until the day he died.”

Josie said, “What was her maiden name?”

“Cahill,” Monica answered.

“Detective Loughlin mentioned that your mom would become depressed at times. Was that even before your dad passed away?”

Monica nodded. “Yeah, my whole life. It wasn’t often. Sometimes she’d just get into these funks. She would stay in bed for a few days, cry a lot, not eat. My dad used to take care of her, and he’d always tell me just to let her be, that she was ‘going through something’ although he never said what.”

“Did you ever ask her?”

“Once, right after I moved back in here when Anabelle was first born. I asked her why she had those episodes and she wouldn’t tell me. She said it was none of my business.”

“What do you think they were from?” Josie asked.

Monica shrugged. “I don’t know, but one time when I was a teenager and my dad was still alive, I heard him trying to comfort her, you know? He had left their bedroom door cracked and I could hear them. She kept saying, ‘I could have done more,’ and my dad said, ‘You did everything you could.’ I was too scared to ask about it. Even when I was an adult. I mean, that one time I brought it up with her; I told her I’d overheard that whole thing. That’s when she said it was none of my business. I just thought it must have something to do with before she met my dad or when she was a kid or something.”

Josie thought about Trinity and the week before she went missing, when she was still staying with Josie and Noah. “Monica,” she asked. “Did your mom seem out of sorts or anything before she vanished?”

“In what way?

“More stressed than normal? Anxious? Did she act unusual in any way?”

“No, not at all.”

“Did she receive any unusual items before she disappeared? Anything in the mail?”

“No, why?” Monica asked, one brow kinking with suspicion.

“My sister—Trinity—received a white hair comb in the mailbox a few days before she was abducted. It could be nothing. Maybe it has nothing at all to do with her abduction but I’m just—”

“Grasping at straws?” Monica said with a dry laugh. “I’ve been doing that for the last seventeen days. Going over every tiny detail of my mom’s life, trying to figure out if there was any clue as to what happened to her, no matter how obscure. When you don’t know what’s important, everything is important.”

Josie smiled and nodded, thinking that Monica should go into law enforcement. “Exactly,” she said.

“My mom didn’t receive any unusual packages before she was taken, and she never wore hair combs.”

“Thank you,” Josie said. “Is there anything else you think I should know about your mom?”

“She was a good mom,” Monica said, a fierceness to her tone. “A great mom. I know we talked about her being down sometimes, but she was happy, especially after Annabelle came and we moved back in. She took my dad’s death so hard. When Annabelle was born, things got so much better. Good lord,