Page 16 of The Couple's Secret
When I read this quote to Riley, she agrees. “That is certainly how it feels but whatever happened, someone somewhere knows the truth. At this point, I’ve made my peace with the fact that my mom isn’t coming back. I just want to know what happened.”
Tobias’s sons want the same thing for their father. “We just want answers,” Zane told me by phone a few days before I interviewed Riley. “We pretty much know at this point that they’re dead. You hate to even think it, but the truth is that if our dad was alive, he would have found a way back to us by now. He was our world. Losing him was like having everything we knew ripped out from under us. He deserves to rest in peace. They both do.”
Despite having realistic expectations about what happened to their parents, neither Tobias’s sons nor Cora’s daughter have given up hope that one day, they’ll get closure.
“It would be wrong to lose hope,” said Jackson Wright in response to an email I’d sent him regarding the case. “After all this time, we’ve come to grips with the fact that they’re likely dead, but we can’t give up on finding them. They would never give up on us. We still want to bring them home.”
Josie’s chest constricted. The bone-deep sadness, weariness borne of years of not knowing, was palpable, oozing out of the phone screen and trying to crawl under her skin. Next to her, Trout sighed.
“Hey.” Noah’s large, warm hand curled around her ankle. She hadn’t even noticed him come out of the bathroom. Stark naked, he tugged her toward the foot of the bed until she was flat on her back and then climbed over her. Drops of water from his wet hair showered her.
With an unhappy grunt, Trout sprang up and jumped from the bed, finding a sunspot to bask in.
“You’re dripping,” Josie said, looking up into Noah’s hazel eyes, alight with that particular kind of mischief that set every cell in her body on fire.
He took the phone from her hand and tossed it aside. “I prefer glistening.”
Josie laughed, gliding her hands up his arms. Her fingers brushed over the puckered scar on his right shoulder where she’d shot him ten years ago. It was before they were together. She’d been trying to save the life of a teenage girl. At the time, Denton PD had its own issues with corruption. As far as she was concerned, no one could be trusted. Desperation made her pull the trigger. Noah had covered for her and proven his loyalty time and again over the years.
Lowering himself, Noah kissed the hollow of her throat. “Wren?”
“Not home for another ninety minutes.” He smelled like soap and fresh linen and home. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest.
“What were you reading?” he asked against her skin.
“What do you think?”
He knew her well enough by now to know that she obsessed about big cases even when she wasn’t at work. Her collar was tugged down. Noah’s mouth found its way lower. “I’m going to give you an update. Not because I like talking shop in bed—as you know—but because I don’t want you thinking about anything else but us for the next ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes!” Josie protested, wrapping her arms around him. “I just told you we had ninety! Surely, you can do better than ten.”
“Maybe if you sweat perfume and fart incense…”
Smiling, she swatted at his back. “I will leave this bed right now.”
“No, you won’t.” His lips traveled up to her neck and he was right. Short of a fire, nothing was getting her out of this bed anytime soon. “’Cause then you won’t get to hear my update.”
“Fine,” she said. “Let’s hear it.”
Hot breath cascaded over her skin as he spoke. “Everything is wrapped up at the river. From what Hummel could tell, the gear shift was in neutral.”
Which meant someone had rolled the car into the river.
Noah continued, “The driver’s seat was back far enough to accommodate someone Tobias’s height—which we got from his driver’s license. Another skull was recovered. Likely belonging to Cora Stevens but that will have to be confirmed.”
“Gunshot wound?” Josie asked, breathless with anticipation as his hand slid under her shirt.
“Probably. That needs to be confirmed. Also, Hummel found some personal items. The remains have been transported to the morgue. Dr. Feist should have something by tomorrow.” He lifted his head and planted a soft kiss on her mouth. “Now, stop wasting minutes.”
Nine
“Not a single return call?” Josie asked. “Not even one?”
Gretchen punched the down button on the hospital elevator. “Nope. I even made sure to tell the desk sergeant that this was one of Brighton Springs PD’s most famous unsolved cases. Three times.”
A soft ding sounded, and the elevator doors swished open. They stepped inside and Josie pressed the button for the basement. “Did you try Fanning?”
Gretchen adjusted her reading glasses on the top of her head. “Retired last year.”
