Page 41 of The Couple’s Secret (Detective Josie Quinn #23)

Thirty-Seven

Josie’s fingers tingled as she picked up the photo.

Studying it more closely, the details were unmistakable.

She thought of the strip mall across the street from the motel.

The one that had sagged like a strong wind might blow it down.

A few of the storefronts were empty, abandoned.

Based on this photo, Olsen’s first office had been in one of them.

Josie walked back to her chair, sank into it, and handed Gretchen the frame.

It took her less than thirty seconds to see what Josie had seen. “Well,” she murmured. “Maybe this is a something burger after all.”

Excitement thrummed through Josie’s veins. This was the closest thing to a lead they’d had thus far. It could be nothing. A coincidence. But that’s not what her gut told her. Moments later, Olsen returned, a sheepish smile on his flushed face. “Sorry. Dealing with some stuff at home.”

Josie waited until he was seated behind his desk again before asking, “When did you move into this office?”

“Oh, I guess a few years ago.”

She nodded to Gretchen, who leaned forward and planted the photo in front of him.

His brows knit with confusion. “What’s this?”

“A picture of you in your first office is what I’m guessing,” said Gretchen.

“Oh, yeah, you’re right.” He smoothed his tie again. “It was a bit of a shithole, if I’m being honest, but yeah.”

“In Brighton Springs,” Josie said. “In the strip mall across from the Majesty Motel.”

Avoiding her gaze, he blinked slowly. “Uh, yeah, that’s right.”

Gretchen leaned forward in her chair, tapping her hand lightly against the desk to get his attention. “Tell us again how you never met Cora Stevens.”

The color drained from his cheeks. “What are you talking about?”

“Let’s try it this way,” Josie told him. “When did you meet Cora Stevens for the first time?”

He met Josie’s eyes but quickly looked away. “I told you, I never met her.”

“When was the last time you spoke with her?”

“I don’t understand what’s happening right now. I told you?—”

Gretchen tapped the desk again, cutting him off. “We know what you told us. Now we want the truth. Don’t insult us, Mr. Olsen. You did our job for decades. You know how this works.”

“But just in case you need a refresher,” Josie said, standing and planting her palms on his desk so she could lean into his space.

“Let me lay it out for you. We have a witness who puts Cora Stevens in the parking lot of the Majesty mere months before she and Tobias were killed. The pings from her cell phone confirm it. There are only two possibilities as to why she would have been there. The first and most obvious one is that she was having an affair.”

“I didn’t—” Olsen choked on his words.

Josie kept going. “We have a second witness who advises that in the weeks leading up to the murders, she was planning to leave Tobias. She’d started putting money away so she could rent an apartment for her and Riley.”

“By all accounts,” Gretchen said, “Tobias was a loving, devoted partner. He liked to spoil Cora.”

Olsen pursed his lips but didn’t interrupt.

“Tobias offered her financial security,” Gretchen added.

“A big house for their blended family. In fact, he had told her she didn’t need to work once they got married.

He also put up with Dalton Stevens, her abusive ex-husband, who continued to stalk her relentlessly.

Tobias stuck by Cora even after Dalton threatened him. ”

“Which makes me wonder,” Josie said, leaning in even closer. “Why would Cora want to leave him?”

Olsen pushed his chair back a few inches and cleared his throat. “It wasn’t—there was no affair.”

“So you did meet Cora,” Gretchen said.

“This isn’t relevant to the murders,” he said quickly. “I promise you that. If it was, I would have gone to Fanning with it first thing.”

Josie stepped back and folded her arms over her chest. “Let’s hear it anyway.”

“It wasn’t an affair, okay?” he insisted. “That’s the truth.”

“Forgive me if I don’t believe you since you lied to our faces not even a half hour ago when you said you never met her,” said Gretchen.

He groaned. “Fine. I lied about that. I’m sorry. But there was no affair. I never touched her. She came to my office.”

“She hired you?” asked Josie.

He nodded. “As you know, I have to maintain my client confidentiality.”

“Bullshit,” Gretchen said. “Cora went missing. If you had information that was relevant to her disappearance, you should have shared it.”

Olsen bristled. “I’m sure you know that there’s no mandatory disclosure requirement. I don’t have to offer up information about a client, no matter what happened to them. Besides, the issue Cora hired me to look into wasn’t relevant to her disappearance.”

Josie’s hips pressed against the edge of the desk as she leaned toward him again. She was finding it difficult not to lunge across it and shake him violently. “You’re splitting hairs here, Olsen. What did Cora want?”

“It’s not relev?—”

Gretchen shook her head, slamming her palm onto the desk much harder this time.

“No. Don’t even say it. This is a double homicide.

We get to decide what’s relevant. Now, we can all sit here awkwardly while I call my colleague in Denton and have him prepare a subpoena for those records, or you can tell us what the hell you’re hiding behind all this ‘no mandatory disclosure’ and ‘it’s not relevant’ bullshit. ”

“Either way, we’re serving you with that subpoena,” Josie assured him. “So you’ll be obligated to hand over those records. Now or later. You choose.”

He looked from Josie to Gretchen and back. Whatever he saw in their faces convinced him that he wasn’t going to win this fight.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “But I do want that subpoena.”

“Fine,” Josie echoed.

He glanced back and forth between them as if hoping one of them would let him off the hook.

When neither of them did, he spoke. “Cora came to me because when she and Tobias were putting their guest list together for the wedding, my name came up. Tobias told her how we knew one another—the whole story about Rachel leaving and me being the one to respond to the call about little Jackson that day. How I used to give the boys a talking-to whenever they needed one until I retired from the force and went private. Then he asked her not to bring up Rachel when we met. Said he didn’t want to taint their wedding day by mentioning her.

Anyway, Cora looked me up. She wanted me to confirm what Tobias told her about Rachel leaving, which I did.

Then she asked me if I’d ever done more than just take his word for it. She wanted to know if I thought?—”

He broke off, looking at the ceiling.

“If you thought what?” Gretchen prompted.

“If I thought she was dead.”

“Why would Cora care if Rachel was dead or not?” Josie asked.

He closed his eyes briefly. “This is difficult for me to say. I still don’t know what to think. I mean, I know what the evidence shows but…”

“What is it?” Josie pressed.

“Cora thought that Tobias might have killed her.”