Page 17 of The Couple’s Secret (Detective Josie Quinn #23)
Fourteen
“I know what you’re thinking.” Riley fidgeted with a thread on the sleeve of Cora’s sweater. “That it’s weird that we’re married because we were almost step-siblings, and if you don’t think that’s weird, you think it’s gross because Jackson is seven years older than me.”
Gretchen’s face softened. It wasn’t something she showed other people often. “My husband was twelve years older than me when we got married. I followed him all the way across the country.”
Riley’s eyes lit up. She shot her husband a loving smile which he returned.
“Well, I didn’t follow him. Nothing ever happened between us in Brighton Springs.
I decided to go to college in Denton for art history.
Jacks was already here working with Hollis.
They were the only people I knew here so I hung out with them a lot and, over time, we fell in love. ”
“You’re still Riley Stevens,” Josie pointed out.
“I never changed my name because we were afraid the press would have a field day. I mean we’re not trying to hide or anything, but I had planned to keep doing interviews about the disappearance, keep spreading awareness of the case so that maybe someone would come forward.
Someone must know something, right? Anyway, we thought it might be awkward explaining why I’m Riley Wright. ”
Jackson squeezed her shoulder. “We just didn’t want people to get so caught up in the ‘former almost-step-siblings get married’ thing that they stopped paying attention to the case.”
Gretchen asked the question Josie had been wondering about all day. “Wright. Not Lachlan?”
“Tobias isn’t my biological father.” Jackson’s fingers tapped lightly against the side of Riley’s neck.
“He was engaged to my mom. She left us for some other guy. Tobias raised me. My grandparents wanted to, but my grandmom had MS and needed full-time care. They couldn’t take on a three-year-old.
They were happy when Tobias took me in.”
“Your mother gave him guardianship?” asked Josie.
“No,” Jackson answered. “My biological dad was in and out of prison since I was born so my mom had my grandparents designated as standby guardians in case something happened to her while he was incarcerated. He consented to it. Once she left, that stayed in place. Gram and Grandad technically had guardianship of me, but Tobias was the one who raised me. My bio dad didn’t give a shit.
He would have gladly signed away his parental rights. ”
“You’re lucky,” Riley grumbled, pinching the thread on her sleeve. “I wish my dad had just given up.”
“The medical examiner found that Cora had several old, healed fractures,” Josie said. “Eye sockets, collarbones, ribs, forearms. Do you know how she got those?”
Riley’s lips twisted like she’d tasted something sour. “My shitty father, that’s how. He used to hit her all the time. Even after she left, he was always stalking her. She made police reports but that never stopped him.”
Josie made a mental note to check the Brighton Springs file for any investigation into Riley’s father. Surely Detective Fanning had suspected him of being involved, whether on his own or in a murder-for-hire scheme.
Gretchen scrawled something on her pad. “Had he been stalking her up until she and Tobias went missing?”
Riley rolled her eyes. “When was he not stalking her? Yes and yes, he was a suspect. The police could never find any evidence he was involved.”
“What do you think?”
“As far as suspects go, he had the most motivation.” Riley clutched her mug tightly again. “But I don’t know, he’s too dumb and too impulsive to have avoided getting caught for seven years. Plus, he wouldn’t be able to resist gloating about it to someone.”
“Was Tobias ever violent with Cora?”
Jackson shook his head. “No, never. He wasn’t like that. He could get moody but usually if he was upset or mad about something, he’d get quiet, avoid you—avoid Cora.”
“Did they fight a lot?” asked Josie.
Again, husband and wife looked at one another, some sort of silent communication passing between them. Then Riley said, “The chair.”
They both started laughing, keeping it up until they had tears in their eyes.
Finally, Jackson swiped a hand down his face and turned his attention back to Josie. “My dad had this recliner that was ancient. I mean, it seemed like it was older than him. It was worn and creaky.”
“And it smelled, no matter how much Febreze he used,” Riley added. “He would not get rid of it.”
“’Cause his ass-print was just right,” Jackson said. They both chuckled. “They fought over that a lot.”
Riley’s voice was thick but filled with a sweet sort of nostalgia. “Mom hated that stupid chair. Actually, we all did. Zane, too.”
Jackson surreptitiously wiped away a tear as it fell from his eye and curled his arm around Riley, hugging her close to his side.
“Where is the chair now?” asked Gretchen.
Riley said, “It’s Zane’s year.”
Jackson grinned. “Yeah, my brother and I pass it back and forth every year. At Christmas. Zane’s got it now. It’s a silly tradition but…” He drifted off, face going slack. Grief raged in his eyes. He blinked back more tears.
In the silence that followed, their pain—and now their defeat—was a living, breathing thing.
“Traditions help,” Gretchen offered.
Riley looked down at her sweater and then back at Jackson. “You got joint custody of the chair, and I got the cat.”
Jackson dragged a hand down his face again, wrestling some of his composure back. “Stupid cat.”
“She’s around here somewhere. Probably in our bedroom. Captain Whiskers. That was the last thing—” Riley’s voice cracked. “The cat was the last thing she texted anyone about that night.”
Not for the first time, Josie wished there had been time to review all the phone records. “What do you mean?”
“Mom and Tobias were on their way home,” Riley explained. “Mom sent Jacks a text right after they left the restaurant.”
“That was meant for Zane,” Jackson said. “But yeah, I mean that was on the news a few times. The last message either of them sent before vanishing was about the damn cat. The police told us both their phones either went dead or were turned off about twenty minutes after that.”
Tapping her pen against the notepad, Gretchen asked, “What did Cora’s message say?”
“To make sure I let her in. Something about how Captain would be wound up and give Cora hell when she got home if she wasn’t let in right away.”
“Zane and I found this stray cat,” Riley explained. “It was right after Mom and I moved in with him and Tobias. They let us keep her but insisted that we take care of her.”
“Which they didn’t,” Jackson said. “Naturally.”
Riley gave a sad smile. “We tried, but yeah, Mom ended up doing all the work. That stupid cat loved her the most. Every afternoon she’d let her out and then in the evening before bed, she’d be at the back door, scratching to come in for the night.”
“When I got Cora’s text,” Jackson said, “I replied that she had the wrong son. She said she was sorry. I told her not to worry and that I’d just call Zane because he was supposed to help me paint my apartment that weekend. She said thanks. That was it.”
“Did you call Zane?” Gretchen asked.
“Well, yeah.”
Josie frowned. “Cora texted Zane but not you, Riley?”
Riley’s lower lip quivered. “We were fighting. I, um, had stolen some liquor from Tobias and gotten drunk at a friend’s house. She punished me and because I was a dumb sixteen-year-old, I got angry with her. I think she didn’t trust me to respond or to let Captain Whiskers in just to spite her.”
This lined up with what Josie had read in the Herald article. “They had just left the restaurant to go home but she wanted someone to let the cat in. Wouldn’t that have been an indicator that they intended to stay out later?”
Riley and Jackson looked at one another, their faces lined with consternation. “I never thought of it that way,” Riley whispered.
“Me either.” Jackson squeezed her shoulder. “I didn’t know what their routines were at that time. I was already living on my own. Did Captain Whiskers have to be in at nine sharp, or could she have waited for your mom to get home?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t remember. I never gave it much thought.”
It could very well be one of those mundane details in an investigation that took on more weight than it warranted and, in the end, meant nothing at all.
Maybe the couple had intended to stay out later or go somewhere else before heading home.
Josie could check the witness statements from people who saw them at the restaurant.
Perhaps someone had overheard them making post-dinner plans.
“We won’t take up much more of your time,” Gretchen said. “One last thing. Was either of them acting strangely before that day?”
“In what way?” asked Jackson.
“In any way,” Josie said. “Unusually withdrawn? Jittery? Anxious? Depressed? Paranoid?”
“No.” Jackson shook his head. “Dad seemed the same as always to me whenever I saw him at work. What about your mom, Ri?”
“Other than being furious with me, she seemed fine.”