Page 16 of The Couple’s Secret (Detective Josie Quinn #23)

Thirteen

Jackson didn’t ask whether Josie and Gretchen wanted coffee.

Instead, he emerged from the kitchen ten agonizing minutes later carrying a tray with four steaming mugs on it.

The scent of it made Josie’s mouth water even though she’d already had three cups so far today.

She certainly didn’t need more but her body always reacted to coffee like Pavlov’s dog.

Jackson lowered the tray right over the top of a pile of paperwork and motioned for them to help themselves.

Out of courtesy, they both took a cup but left them untouched, despite the milk and sugar offered.

Josie was too busy monitoring Riley for any signs that she needed medical attention.

She hadn’t spoken a word while her husband was in the kitchen.

“It was Cora’s,” Jackson said as he drew a chair up beside Riley and tapped the sleeve of the yellow cardigan. “It helps when she’s really anxious.”

Josie fought against the twinge of sadness that writhed deep in her stomach.

Gretchen smiled gently. “I get it. My husband died when we were young, and I’ve still got a flannel shirt he wore all the time.”

Riley’s eyes flickered to life. “Does it still smell like him?”

“I don’t know. I’ve tried to only handle it when I couldn’t stand not to so that the scent would last longer. Sometimes I think there’s something left but other times I wonder if it’s just my brain playing tricks on me. Either way, it helps to have it.”

In all the years that Josie had known Gretchen, she’d rarely talked about her late husband.

The circumstances of his death were traumatic.

She’d been so young when he passed, not even old enough to drink, but Josie knew they’d loved one another deeply.

In fact, to her knowledge, Gretchen hadn’t dated anyone seriously since.

Riley pulled Cora’s sweater more tightly around her, giving Gretchen the ghost of a smile. Jackson stirred two sugars and a splash of milk into a mug and slid it in front of her.

Josie said, “Riley, if this is too difficult, we can come back later to speak with you.”

Resting a large hand on the back of Riley’s neck, Jackson said, “It’s up to you.”

“I want to talk now,” she said, drawing herself up straighter, as if her mother’s cardigan gave her a jolt of inner strength.

Josie asked, “Do either of you know why Cora and Tobias were in Denton the night they disappeared?”

Riley and Jackson shook their heads.

A notebook and pen appeared in Gretchen’s hands. Moving her coffee cup aside, she set them on the table. “Did either of them have any connections here? Friends? Colleagues? Family?”

“No,” Riley said.

“None that I know about,” Jackson replied.

Gretchen lowered her reading glasses onto the bridge of her nose and picked up her pen. “If you had to guess as to why they ended up in Denton, what would you say?”

The answer was that their killer—or killers—had brought them here to dispose of them far from home but Josie wanted to see what Riley and Jackson would say, to expose any connections their parents might have had to Denton.

There was a long moment of silence. Riley’s fingers peeked out from the sleeves of the sweater and curled around her coffee mug. “I couldn’t even guess.”

“Someone brought them here,” Jackson said. “Why else would they leave dinner at nine at night and drive all the way here? It makes no sense. Back when they disappeared, the police told us that the last place their phones pinged was near the restaurant.”

“We always thought it was weird,” Riley sniffled.

“They wouldn’t have just turned them off.

I think all three of us knew what that meant but we just didn’t want to face it.

As long as they were missing, there was a chance they might still be alive.

Now that we know they were in Denton all this time, I think Jacks is right. Whoever killed them brought them here.”

Josie nodded. “That is the most likely explanation but we still need to look at any connections they might have had to Denton. Any idea who might have brought them here?”

“My mom didn’t know anyone here.” Riley clutched her mug until her knuckles blanched. “I don’t think she’d ever been here before. What about your dad, Jacks?”

Jackson rubbed at the stubble along his jaw. “I can’t think of anyone Dad knew who lived here. I don’t know. Maybe it had nothing to do with knowing someone here. Isn’t it possible that whoever killed them brought them to Denton because no one would think to look for them this far from home?”

“Yes,” Josie said. “But is it possible they drove here to see Hollis Merritt?”

Riley’s brow furrowed. “What? Oh—Hollis was with that woman. No, I don’t think they would have driven all the way here late at night just to see Hollis. Why? They could have just called him.”

Which meant that there had been no calls from Tobias or Cora to Hollis that night. At least, none that the Brighton Springs police had released. Josie still needed to go through the file with a fine-toothed comb.

“Hollis was due back in Brighton Springs the next day anyway,” Jackson added.

“No family or friends here. No business associates,” Josie said. “What about ex-spouses or ex-intimate partners? Anyone from the past they might have been feuding with?”

Jackson glanced at Riley. “Your dad?”

She shook her head. “My dad never lived in Denton. I don’t think he’s ever been here.”

“We hadn’t had any contact with my mother since I was three years old,” Jackson said. “And Zane’s mom died of cardiac arrest.”

Riley leaned toward him. “Did your dad have any girlfriends before he met my mom?”

“None that I know about. Zane and I kept him pretty busy. He always said he didn’t have time to date.”

Changing the direction of the questions, Josie asked, “Did either of your parents own a gun?”

“Not my mom,” Riley said. “She hated guns. Your dad had some though, right?”

“Yeah. A couple of rifles, a shotgun. Pistol, too, I think.” Jackson lifted his chin in Josie’s direction. “Zane would have those. Still in Dad’s gun safe, probably. We didn’t mess with them. He got the long guns for hunting and then never went hunting.”

“What was the pistol for?” Gretchen asked.

“Home defense.”

“Did he carry it with him?”

“Nah. It was always in the gun safe.”

“How about you?” Gretchen continued. “Did you own a gun?”

Riley’s lips twisted. There was an edge to her voice as she answered for her husband. “Jackson wouldn’t bring a gun into our home. I don’t like them anymore than my mom did.”

“It’s okay, Ri,” he said softly, brushing the hair from the back of her neck. “They mean back then.”

“What? Why?” She turned her narrowed eyes toward them. “Why do you need to ask that?”

“They need to ask everything, Ri,” Jackson soothed. “They need to investigate everyone, even me. They’re just doing their jobs. It’s fine.”

Riley didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t protest. Addressing Josie and Gretchen, Jackson said, “The answer is no. I’ve never owned a gun. No need.”

Josie decided to change the direction of questioning. “Did Hollis Merritt have business associates here?”

Riley seemed momentarily confused by the abrupt shift. “What?”

“We know that at the time of your parents’ disappearance, Hollis wanted to expand the business and open a new location here in Denton,” Gretchen said. “Was there someone here Hollis was connected to that Tobias might have wanted to speak with? Maybe without Hollis being present?”

Riley looked at Jackson again. “Was there?”

Jackson shook his head. “I don’t know. You’d have to ask Hol.”

“According to the Brighton Springs police file,” Josie leaned forward in her chair, “before the disappearance, Tobias and Hollis had been seen by several employees arguing about the expansion plans. Do either of you know how serious the expansion disagreement was, or if there were other issues they fought about?”

Jackson answered, “They didn’t have other issues that I knew about.

The expansion thing wasn’t that serious.

I mean they got heated sometimes but they were still friends.

Dad was worried about overextending themselves.

He didn’t think they were ready to expand.

He thought they should wait. Hol said he’d do all the work himself, but Dad said that wasn’t the point. ”

“Jacks started working for them before he even turned eighteen,” Riley explained. “So he was with them a lot.”

Jackson took a long sip of coffee. “I don’t remember them ever disagreeing about anything besides that. I mean small, dumb shit, sure, but nothing that would have led to violence.”

Gretchen lowered her chin, looking over her reading glasses at Jackson. “What did happen in terms of expansion?”

“Hollis went ahead with it,” he said. “When Dad didn’t come back after two years, he asked me and Zane if we’d be opposed to it.

Dad and Hol had an operating agreement for the company that if Dad ever became incapacitated, his interest would go to me and Zane.

If Hol ever became incapacitated, his would go to his sister.

Dad vanishing wasn’t in the agreement, but Hol treated it as though he was incapacitated which meant that he needed mine and Zane’s approval to move forward with the expansion.

We were fine with it. We have a place here, and we just opened a new one in Allentown. ”

“You came with Hollis to Denton?” Josie said.

Jackson grimaced. “Yeah. Too many memories in Brighton Springs. I moved as soon as Hollis got a place here. Zane was old enough by that time to take over at home. He’d been tagging along with Dad since he was fourteen. He knew how the place ran.”

Gretchen jotted something down. “Who’s in Allentown?”

“Some guy Hollis hired about five years ago.”

Josie asked, “Riley, did you move here to be with Jackson?”