Page 24 of The Couple's Secret
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.”
