Page 46 of The Couple's Secret
“Yeah, but there aren’t as many people there for them to cull for interviews. People who knew Tobias, Cora, the kids. All of us.”
He wasn’t wrong. The press would expect the kids to stick around. Heading right to Denton might buy them a precious day or two before the full onslaught of reporters descended again.
“We can tour the house another time,” Josie offered.
“Oh no,” Hollis said. “Zane wants to do it while you’re here, but do you think you could meet us there in about an hour? We had planned to have a luncheon at the diner, but I think it’s too much for them. They’re going to pack and get out of town but if you come now, Zane will show you around.”
Gretchen said, “Will you be pressing charges against Dalton?”
Hollis lifted a brow. “Of course.”
To Josie, she said, “Then he won’t be going anywhere for the next few hours.”
“Perfect,” Josie replied. “We’ll see you at the house, Mr. Merritt.”
Twenty-Five
By the time they reached Tobias Lachlan’s house—which had been his son Zane’s home for the past seven years—the press was already camped out. Several news vans littered the road. Journalists milled about. Some gave live reports with the property in the background. Brighton Springs PD had dispatched two uniformed officers to make sure no reporters snuck onto the property. After a brief conversation with one of them, Josie and Gretchen were allowed to proceed down the driveway. Next to the freestanding garage, Josie recognized Hollis Merritt’s truck from when she’d seen it outside of the Denton office of At Your Disposal. She and Gretchen parked next to it. They were going to ring the doorbell until they heard the sound of arguing from behind the house.
With a jerk of her head, Josie motioned for Gretchen to follow. As they rounded the house, a door slammed.
“I told you not to give her anything else to drink.” It was Jackson’s voice, gruff and annoyed.
“Baby, it’s fine,” Riley said.
“Yeah, baby,” Zane said. “You know she can do whatever she wants, right?”
“Stay out of this, asshole. We have a three-hour drive home and I don’t want her getting sick.”
“Then she can ride with me, asshole,” Zane shot back.
This time it was a car door that slammed.
“Come on, boys,” Hollis said tiredly. “Knock it off. This day has been long enough. Nobody wants to deal with your bullshit.”
“What even happened between you two, anyway?” Riley asked.
Complete silence. Josie and Gretchen reached the backyard. An SUV and a pickup truck were parked side by side in the grass only feet from the back door. Riley sat in a lawn chair beside it, wrapped in Cora’s yellow sweater, a beer in her hand. Her strawberry-blonde hair, which had been loose and silky earlier, was windblown and tangled. Hollis stood behind her, a large paw on her shoulder. Zane threw a duffel bag into the bed of the truck and glared at his brother, only feet away, near the closed hatch of the SUV. It was a silent standoff.
“Oh, hey,” Hollis cleared his throat. “The detectives are here.”
“Sorry to interrupt,” Gretchen said.
“You’re not interrupting,” Riley assured them. “We invited you here.”
“Which we appreciate,” Josie said. “We’ll get out of your hair as quickly as possible. Before we see the house, we had a few questions for you, if you don’t mind.”
Zane said, “Ri’s drunk, so?—”
“Stop speaking for my wife,” Jackson said irritably.
Riley slugged her bottle of beer and then rolled her eyes. “Oh my God, just stop. I’m not that drunk. Anything that’s going to help find out who killed my mom and Tobias, I want to do it. What do you need to know?”
Josie stepped closer, noticing the way Zane studied Riley, his eyes filled with longing. That’s what it was between the brothers. Jealousy. Zane had a thing for his would-be stepsister, too. She wondered how long this had been going on and why Jackson was so easily riled by it. Clearly, he’d won her over, if it had ever been a competition.
Had it been? Riley and Zane were only a year apart, and they’d lived together when their parents were still alive. From everything Josie and Gretchen had heard so far, the kids managed to get into trouble together more than once—hanging out, sneaking out, drinking together. Enough that Cora had found Zane to be a bad influence on her daughter. Had there been something between Riley and Zane back then? It wasn’t as though they’d grown up as step-siblings. They were both teenagers already when Tobias and Cora got together.
It really didn’t matter though. Not for the purposes of the case. Pushing those thoughts aside, Josie said, “I’m not sure if Zane or Hollis told you but your mother had a small skeleton key in her purse at the time of her death.”
