Find Her Alive (Detective Josie Quinn #8) - Lisa Regan Page 0,99

cameras there, which works out perfectly for this guy, but your team says that the park has special meaning for you.”

Josie nodded slowly, her mind working. “I was raised there. That’s where Trinity and I were when we first talked about the fact that we were probably sisters.”

“The only way that the Bone Artist would know about the significance of the trailer park…” Mettner began but trailed off. None of them wanted to say it. It was as if saying it might jinx it somehow. But Josie knew what they were all thinking: Trinity might still be alive.

Josie said, “Take me to the trailer park.”

They rode in a caravan of unmarked vehicles. There was no need for their emergency lights as the traffic was almost non-existent that early in the morning. Moss Gardens sat on top of a hill behind the city park, a collection of about two dozen trailer homes. At the entrance, a wrought-iron archway announced the name of the park in large, ornate letters. Beyond it were brightly painted, well-kept trailers, their small yards cheerily decorated. It was a far cry from the dreariness of her youth. The caravan passed the lot where her childhood home had once been. The trailer she’d lived in with the people she’d believed to be her parents had been torn down long ago after a fire destroyed most of it. The last time Josie was in the park, the lot had held nothing but a few pipes poking from yellowed grass. Now there was a new trailer with cream siding, its windows trimmed in burgundy. The driveway was freshly blacktopped, and the tiny yard in front of it had been turned into a large flowerbed boasting a large array of vibrant colors.

Josie watched it pass by as the caravan headed toward the back of the park where a paved one-lane road ran alongside a wooded valley that lay between the trailer park and one of Denton’s working-class neighborhoods. The vehicles stopped in a line along the woodland side and they all got out.

Josie asked Mettner, “Does the Price family still live here?”

He nodded and gave her a grim smile. “That’s who called us.”

Three years earlier during a different investigation, Maureen Price and her two boys, Kyle and Troy, had been instrumental in helping Josie and her team resolve a difficult case. The last time Josie had seen them, Kyle was twelve and Troy was eleven. Walking toward their trailer, Josie barely recognized Kyle, now fifteen, and taller than her. He was still thin, with thick brown hair that fell just above his eyes, but he looked much older. More like a college student, Josie thought. He stood at the edge of the Price driveway, dressed in jeans and a gray T-shirt with the periodic table on it and beneath that, the words: “I wear this shirt periodically”. He smiled when he saw her. “Detective Quinn.”

“Just Josie to you, Kyle,” she said. “How are you? How’s your mom and Troy?”

“Pretty good,” he replied, bobbing his head. He pointed to an area from their yard to the street that he had cordoned off using hockey sticks. In the center of it was a cardboard box, slightly bigger than the one Trinity had received at Josie and Noah’s house. On the top of it, large block letters spelled out Josie’s name. Kyle said, “I saw you on the news last night. I’m sorry about your sister.”

“Thank you,” Josie replied. Turning to Mettner, she said, “Call Hummel.”

“Already did,” he said. “The ERT is on the way.”

“And Dr. Feist,” Josie said.

“What?” Mettner said.

Josie turned to see all three members of her team and Drake staring at her. “There’s only one thing that could be in that box,” she said. “Remains. Let’s just hope they’re not Trinity’s.”

No one spoke.

She turned back to Kyle. “Did you see who left this?”

He shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. My bedroom is on this side of the trailer. Near the road. A noise woke me up. Like a low rumble. Took me a few minutes to realize it was a car or a truck idling. Probably a truck by the sound of it. By the time I got up to look out the window, I heard the sound of screeching, like tires burning rubber to get the hell out of here.”

“We’ll canvass the park,” Gretchen said. She, Noah, and Drake walked off.

Kyle continued, “I saw taillights, that way, but I couldn’t make out a plate or anything. Looked like a white