Page 52 of The Couple's Secret
“What do you mean?” he said.
“They were meeting in a place where anyone could see them,” Gretchen pointed out.
“Yeah, but they were sneaking around.”
Hollis had already told them that Cora had spoken to him privately about intervening in her relationship with Tobias to convince him that she should keep her job. Hollis hadn’t mentioned where that conversation took place.
“When was this?” asked Josie. “How long before Cora and Tobias disappeared?”
“I don’t know.” Dalton shrugged. “Couple of weeks, I guess.”
That conflicted with Hollis’s timeline. He’d told them that the private conversation with Cora had taken place a couple of months before the couple went missing. The last time he had physically seen her had been at the company headquarters. Josie tucked the discrepancy away to ask Hollis about later.
“Is that the only reason you think Cora was having an affair?”
It was hardly damning evidence. John Fanning had spoken to practically every person in Brighton Springs, and no one had mentioned anything about seeing Cora with another man. Plus, Hollis had frequented the diner long before Tobias and Cora started seeing one another.
“I saw her at a motel,” Dalton blurted out.
Now that wasn’t in Fanning’s file.
“Which motel?” Josie pressed.
“There’s a shitty place over by the interstate. It’s called Majesty Motel. They rent by the hour, if you know what I mean.”
“You saw Cora at the Majesty Motel?” Gretchen scribbled on her notepad. “Going in or coming out?”
Dalton leaned an elbow on the surface of the table and rested his chin on his fist. He looked weary now and a little bored. “I’m not sure. I was just driving past. She was in the parking lot. By the time I looped around the block, she was gone.”
“When was that?” asked Josie.
“Don’t know. Five or six months before she and Tobias went missing.”
“How many times did you see her at this motel?”
“Twice,” Dalton replied.
“How about the second time?” Gretchen continued her notetaking. “Was she going inside or coming out?”
“She was in her car,” Dalton answered. “Like, just sitting there, with her hands on the wheel.”
Josie peered into her coffee cup, wishing it would magically refill itself. “Did you see anyone with her?”
“No, but come on. This is Cora. Why else would she be at a motel in the middle of the day?”
With all the documented evidence of Dalton’s relentless harassment of his ex-wife, Josie found it hard to believe that he had simply walked away and never mentioned it. Never tried to use it against her.
Dregs it was. She tipped the cup as far as it would go and let the last bit of coffee drip into her mouth. Two cups would have been the smart way to go. “What did she say when you approached her?”
His eyes snapped to hers. “What? How do you know I approached her?”
Josie arched a brow. “Really? You’re really going to ask me that? Detective Dorton?”
Meredith pretended to be startled out of a daydream. “Oh, yes, Detective Quinn?”
“How many times did Mr. Stevens violate the PFAs that Cora had against him?”
“Oh, well, at least?—”
