Find Her Alive (Detective Josie Quinn #8) - Lisa Regan Page 0,45

excitement shooting from her stomach straight to her head. She took out her phone and searched for the photo of Trinity’s door panel.

“I’m sure I do,” Lisette said. “I’m not sure how well I could write it with my arthritis, but I used it for forty years. I could probably remember it. I bet the library has a few books on it if I needed to refresh my skills. But Josie, what is this all about?”

Josie turned her phone toward Lisette. “Under the name. Is that shorthand?”

Lisette took the phone from Josie, holding it in both of her hands which now shook. She stared at the photo. “I believe it is. It sure looks like Gregg shorthand to me.”

Josie’s heart felt like it might spring right out of her chest. “What does it say? Can you read it?”

“It says, if I remember my shorthand, ‘read my day.’”

“Read my day?”

Lisette’s brow lifted. “That can’t be right, but I think it is. She must have misspelled or forgotten some letters.”

“Read my day,” Josie murmured.

“It could be dairy.”

“No,” Josie said. “Not day or dairy. Diary.”

Twenty-Four

“Shorthand?” Shannon said, eyes wide.

She stared across the conference room table at Josie and Lisette. Beside her, Christian reached over and rested a hand on her shoulder. He said, “Trinity learned shorthand from my mother when she was twelve years old.”

Shannon glanced at him. “Oh wait, I remember that now. It was when your mom got sick, wasn’t it?”

Josie didn’t know much about her biological grandparents. Shannon’s father had died of heart failure only three years before Josie found out about the Paynes, and her mother was in a skilled nursing facility for residents with advanced Alzheimer’s. Josie had met Shannon’s mother once, but the woman had no idea who her own daughter was, let alone the significance of Josie having been reunited with Shannon and her family. Both of Christian’s parents were deceased. His father had served as a marine in the Vietnam War and died in combat. His mother raised him on her own, working as a paralegal for a large law firm to support him and his younger sister. She had passed of cancer decades earlier.

Christian looked at Josie. “Your grandmother, my mom, she got lung cancer when Trinity was in the sixth grade. She moved in with us so we could care for her. They treated it as aggressively as they could, but the cancer was too advanced. The doctors gave her a year to live. She made it eighteen months. She and Trinity were very close, especially during the last year of her life.”

“I had no idea,” Josie croaked.

Shannon added, “Trinity used to come home from school and spend the entire afternoon and evening sitting in her room with her.”

Christian’s eyes shone with tears. “She was very devoted to her. I know it meant a lot to my mom.”

Beneath the table, Josie felt Lisette’s hand slip into hers and squeeze.

“Trinity didn’t want her to be alone,” Shannon said. “I mean, she wasn’t alone, we were there with her, but…”

Christian looked at his wife, whose eyes were now on the table. He cleared his throat. “Trinity had a hard time in school. Socially. Especially that year.”

Shannon met her husband’s eyes. “Your mother was her only friend during that time.”

Christian pursed his lips and nodded. Turning back to Josie, he said, “They played cards and board games. Trinity would put on these little dance numbers for her to try to make her laugh. They watched television together. My mom taught her how to do her make-up.”

“And taught her shorthand,” Josie filled in.

Christian laughed. “It was their secret code. They used to leave little notes for one another that only they could understand.”

Josie felt a piercing ache in her chest. She knew how much a grandparent could mean to a young girl. If it hadn’t been for Lisette, Josie would never have survived her childhood. The woman who had posed as Josie’s mother had been cruel and abusive. Lisette had fought to get custody of Josie and had done everything in her power to protect her. The day Josie finally, permanently, went to live with Lisette had been one of the best days of her life. It had been a turning point. Lisette and Josie had also played cards and board games. Lisette had taken Josie on many adventures: sledding, roller skating, beach vacations, amusement parks, Broadway musicals, museums. Although they hadn’t had a literal secret code, they’d enjoyed certain rituals like picking each other wildflowers and