Page 68 of The Couple's Secret
“About as well as you’d expect,” Gretchen told him.
He smoothed a hand down his light blue tie. “Right. Of course. I called but didn’t get an answer. They’ve had their hands full, I’m sure, between the press and the funerals. Now with Riley… I didn’t know Jackson had married her. I’ll call again later today. Anyway, listen, I’m sorry you came all this way because I never found anything. Nothing more than John Fanning did. You’re welcome to my files though. Since they relate to a double homicide, I don’t see an issue with confidentiality.”
“Jackson referred Riley to you,” Josie said. “Is that right?”
“Correct,” Olsen said. “I hosted a party the night Tobias and Cora disappeared. Friend of mine on the force retired. Karl Staab. Jackson was there.”
“How did Jackson know Staab?” Gretchen asked.
Olsen laughed. “From his hell-raising days. Jackson’s, that is. Karl and I went way back with that family. Before At Your Disposal was opened, Tobias helped me clean out my late mom’s house. She was a bit of a hoarder so it was quite the undertaking. I paid him for the work. There were some items my mom had that were valuable and Tobias sold them to collectors for me. It was a nice little windfall. He never took a commission though. When Karl’s dad died, I sent him to Tobias, too. He didn’t get near as much as I did but it was still a tidy sum. So later, when it was just Tobias and the boys, Karl and I did what we could to look out for them. Those kids got into the usual type of trouble and Tobias would call one of us up, ask us to come around and scare some sense into them.”
“What kind of trouble?” Josie asked.
“Underage drinking. Vandalizing school property. Taking Tobias’s car for a joyride without a license and running it through a neighbor’s garden. Harmless stuff. For a time after Gabrielle passed, they were a little lost. A little wild. They settled.”
“You weren’t at the funerals,” Gretchen said.
“Karl wasn’t either,” Josie added.
If either Olsen or Staab had been there, surely they would have approached Zane and Jackson.
“No. Karl passed a few years ago. Cancer. I was in California, looking into something for a client. By the time I found out, it was too late for me to catch a flight home in time.”
“Had you ever met Cora?” Josie asked.
He blinked. “Cora? No. By the time she came onto the scene, Tobias and I—well, we hadn’t spoken for a while.”
“Why not?” Gretchen said.
“I won’t be violating any client confidentiality rules here since this happened before I retired from the Brighton Springs PD. When Jackson turned eighteen, he came to me and asked me to find his mom.”
“Rachel Wright,” Josie said.
“Yes. Did he tell you what happened?”
“Fanning mentioned it,” said Gretchen. “She ran off with some guy.”
Sorrow flickered in Olsen’s eyes. “That was a long time ago. I was on patrol. Jackson was only about three or four. She left in the middle of the day, left little Jackson alone. Must have been hours. He was a mess. Crying hysterically. He got out of the house. A neighbor found him on the road and called 911.”
Fanning had given them a more sanitized version. One in which Tobias returned home from work to find Jackson alone in the house and Rachel gone. No mention of the 911 call.
“It was awful,” Olsen continued. “It was summer but that poor kid was shivering like it was below freezing and he just kept saying, ‘Mommy went in Victor, Mommy went in Victor.’ It was one of those things—you know how kids that age don’t always get their diction or grammar right? Under different circumstances it might have been cute but it was just sad. Anyway, Rachel left a note saying she didn’t want to be a wife or mother anymore, basically gave her son to Tobias. Thing was, Jackson didn’t remember anything. Tobias was understandably hurt by the whole thing, and he didn’t want to talk about it. When he found out that Jackson came to me, he was really upset. Told me not to help him.”
“Why didn’t he want you to help Jackson?” Gretchen said.
Olsen sighed. “Tobias thought that it would make things worse for him. Rachel abandoned him. Even if I found her and Jackson confronted her, it was never going to be a happy reunion. Tobias begged me to leave it alone. To just tell Jackson that I couldn’t locate her. He made a good case for it. I knew how troubled those kids were with everything that had happened. Rachel leaving. Gabrielle dying. Jackson had just graduated high school. He was finally in a good place. Tobias didn’t want anything to mess with his future. He said if Jackson still wanted to find her when he was older, more mature, then he wouldn’t interfere.”
“What did you do?” Josie asked.
Olsen shrugged and in the small motion, Josie swore she saw the mantle of guilt weighing him down. “I told Jackson I didn’t find her. After that, Tobias and I drifted apart a little. I saw him around from time to time but we didn’t really socialize. I felt a bit guilty for lying to Jackson and I think Tobias knew that. We weren’t on bad terms. Things were just… kind of awkward after that whole thing.”
A cell phone on his desk buzzed, dancing along the surface. He glanced at it, frowned, and picked it up. “I have to take this.”
“We can wait in reception,” Gretchen said but he waved her off.
“Stay here. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
They heard him move through the lobby and then into the hall, voice low but tense.
