Page 79 of Her Dying Secret

A prickle of unease rippled across Josie’s skin. “That’s what the registration said.”

Gretchen said, “Maybe Mira’s not a victim. Maybe she’s in on all of it. Unless Seth drove it here and left it, but that’s a pretty long hike from here to Furnished Finds.”

“No,” Josie said. “I don’t think Mira…” She trailed off. Again, there was that something fighting to break through the shadows in the back of her mind. What was it?

Noah picked his way back to her. “You don’t think Mira what?”

Josie couldn’t make the thoughts break through. “Never mind.”

“Come on,” Gretchen said.

Hand on her holster, Josie turned away from the bank and followed Gretchen into the trees. Noah took up the rear. The foliage was dense but the island itself wasn’t very big. Even on this side, they could see slivers of the water and riverbank on the other side.

“Rosie? Mira?” Gretchen called.

Closer to the center of the island, the treetops formed a canopy, making the area feel dark and closed in. A flash of color to Josie’s left stopped her in her tracks, but it was just a small jon boat.

“There’s your way on and off the island,” said Noah.

Except if it was here, that meant that whoever had come on it was still here. But it couldn’t be Mira. Josie’s gut told her that Mira was in just as much danger as April had been in, just as much as Rosie was in now.

But how was that possible?

“Rosie? Mira?” Gretchen called again. “Denton Police. We’ve come to get you out of here.”

Over the rush of the current all around the island, Josie thought she heard a high-pitched sound, almost like a squeal, but it was muffled. The three of them froze, trying to figure out from which direction it had come. There was nothing around them but tall, narrow tree trunks and leafy branches.

Noah gave a signal for them to spread apart so they could cover more ground and have a better chance of spotting any potential threats.

“Rosie?” Josie called. “Mira? You’re safe now. We’re going to take you home.”

The squeal came again and then a figure came crashing through the trees from Gretchen’s side. Before she could think rationally, Josie’s hand unsnapped her holster and drew her weapon. She swung it toward the sound of labored breath and pounding feet just as a girl flew into the open and right into Gretchen’s arms. Staggering backward, Gretchen nearly fell. The rocks beneath her feet shifted as she worked to get her balance with Rosie Summers wrapped around her body. Noah quickly moved past Josie, tapping lightly against her elbow, indicating she should holster her weapon. Gretchen was still flailing with Rosie clinging to her like a barnacle. Noah gripped Gretchen’s shoulders and held on until she had her footing.

The girl was taller than Josie had expected and, thank God, at a healthy weight. Her brown curls hung down her back, tangled and dotted with leaves and sticks. Purple leggings, striped with dirt, hugged her legs, and the back of her gray T-shirt showed a few small holes near the bottom.

Josie holstered her pistol but the relief she expected to overwhelm her didn’t come. Something was off. What was she missing? Her mind worked backward through the case: the long days, the endless dead ends and leads, the small details that her brain had logged even though they seemed completely meaningless.

Noah took a few steps in the direction that Rosie had come, peering through the trees. Gretchen gripped Rosie’s shoulders and pushed gently, making space between them so that they could see her face. Her skin was cleaner than her clothes, but her eyes were wide with wonderment and fear. “You came!” she whispered.

Something about the sales desk at Furnished Finds. The initials on the drawings in the freaky romper room—R.L. Josie went back further. Mira’s house. The roses. SORRY. The two coffee mugs. Mira had had coffee with someone and then left, only to be abducted by Seth in the white truck moments later. But then he had come back.

But had he come back?

Gretchen smiled down at Rosie. “Yes, we came. I’m Detective Gretchen Palmer, that’s Lieutenant Fraley, and this is Detective Josie Quinn. We’re going to get you out of here.”

Josie’s mind went back to the roses. SORRY. The two coffee mugs. A napkin next to one of them with a spoon tucked inside it. The napkin. The spoon. The roses. The sales desk at Furnished Finds. R.L.

Rosie looked over her shoulder, where Noah was about to disappear between two tree trunks. “Don’t go that way!” she said. “Take me the way you came from. We have to hurry. It’s not safe.”

Josie’s eyes searched all around them but saw nothing. Her mind was still working at breakneck speed. There had been an empty coffee mug along the back portion of the sales desk at Furnished Finds and next to it, a napkin with a spoon folded inside of it. All those drawings in the creepy room signed R.L. Some of them old and faded, the skill level much more advanced than Rosie. No drawings of roses. Josie hadn’t given it any thought at the time.

Noah stopped walking and turned back toward them, smiling. “You’re safe now, Rosie. It’s okay.”

Gretchen gave her shoulders a light squeeze. “You and your mom are both safe. We’re here to take her back, too. Can you take us to her?”

A teenage boy had brought Mira roses. They hadn’t found the florist he worked for because he didn’t work for a florist. You could buy a dozen roses at a supermarket. He had delivered them and stayed for coffee. He was driving the truck. That was how Seth was able to abduct Mira and then return so quickly to search her house. Because Seth hadn’t been there earlier.

It was the boy.

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