Find Her Alive (Detective Josie Quinn #8) - Lisa Regan Page 0,60
has to stay out of the press.”
Gretchen said, “Mett and I will stay on. We’ll start running down leads.”
Mettner looked at Noah. “You go home and get some rest, too. We’ll call you both if anything develops.”
Josie was reluctant to leave. She wanted to run down every lead herself, but she knew that wasn’t possible. Her team would not let her or Trinity down—that she knew with absolute conviction. For now, she had to follow the trail Trinity had left for her. She pointed to the Bone Artist file, now spread out across the conference room table. “Just one thing: I’d like to take a copy of that with me.”
Thirty-Two
Alex shook the snow from his boots at the back door and knocked three times. Hanna opened the door with a smile. A blast of hot air engulfed him. Almost immediately he began to feel uncomfortable and sweaty. He’d grown so used to being outside and cold, now the stifling inside of the house bothered him. But he needed to eat. He sat at the table in front of a plate of food that Hanna had prepared for him.
“Mom,” he tried. “There haven’t been any incidents in a long time. I’ve helped with Zandra, keeping her from hurting you. Things have been good. Plus, she’s twelve years old now. She’s more mature. I was just thinking that maybe… maybe things could change.”
“Well, your father…” She drifted off and, in that moment, he hated her for never standing up to Frances.
The front door scraped open. Alex listened as Frances stomped the snow from his boots in the foyer and took his coat, hat, and gloves off. He tromped into the kitchen, giving Alex a brief glare before sitting down at the dinner table. While Hanna served him dinner, he talked about his day, the weather, the imbeciles he had to deal with in his work. When he finished, she served him coffee and then she went into the other room and came back with a stack of papers which she placed in front of him.
“What is this?” Frances asked.
“An Agreement of Sale for the property behind this one. One hundred acres! I’m going to buy it.”
He paged through the document. “Why would you do that?”
“Because we always wanted property of our own. This is our chance.”
“You expect me to keep up with one hundred acres?”
“No, I—”
“There’s not even a house on the land!”
“Well, we could build—”
“No,” he said. “This is a stupid idea.”
He pushed the pages away from him and stood up. When he reached the doorway, Hanna said, “I wasn’t asking you. It’s my money. I can buy the land if I choose. We’re not married. I don’t need your permission.”
Alex felt a shockwave punch through the room. Frances turned back to her and pointed a finger in her face. “You know why I could never marry you. These children—”
She cut him off. “They need a legacy. Something for when I’m gone.”
He walked over to the table, picked up the Agreement of Sale and tore it in half. “If you want to keep your precious children, you’ll never speak of this again.”
Thirty-Three
Callowhill was a small town two hours east of Denton. Town, Josie thought, as she drove through its streets in the early hours of the morning, was a strong word for Callowhill. It had one main street where the essentials were grouped together: a police station, post office, library, gas station, fire house, pharmacy and an urgent care center. The rest of the town was spread across the two square miles of rolling hills and small mountains surrounding the town center. The Paynes lived in a large faux-brick luxury home situated on four acres of land. A narrow, single-lane road led to their driveway. Josie knew there were additional houses along the road, but she rarely saw any neighbors when she visited.
She pulled up in front of the three-car garage, parking next to Shannon’s SUV, and made her way up the walk to the front door. They’d given her a key the first time she visited, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling that she should ring the doorbell. As she did every time she visited, she paused at the front door and looked around. She could have grown up here. She should have grown up here. What would it have been like if she hadn’t been torn away from her family just after birth? What would she be like?