Page 23 of Remember Her Name

Another tug at his beard. “The, uh, K-9 searches didn’t turn anything up.”

“What?” Josie looked back down at her phone, opening the text from Noah. Blue had followed Cleo Tate’s scent across the fifty acres of the lot, onto a residential street, and then lost it.

Which meant that she’d been put into another vehicle.

Josie quickly tapped in,Geofence?

She didn’t know if Turner saw her text or not but he said, “I already got the warrant for the geofence. We’re waiting on the results. But Quinn, listen. I got a…”

His eyes drifted from Josie to the doorway behind her. Trout went quiet. Trinity’s voice floated from inside. “What’s going on? Is that Misty, by any chance? I wanted to talk to her about— Oh.”

Josie turned to see Trinity framed in the doorway, staring at Turner. There was a definite flicker of recognition in her sister’s eyes.

Turner said, “Miss Payne.”

“Kyle,” Trinity replied. “What are you doing here?”

He shook his head, as if to say ‘not now’ and focused on Josie again. “Quinn, I got a real big problem.”

FIFTEEN

Josie’s phone vibrated in her palm. A text from Noah, telling her the same thing Turner had just said. She barely registered it, dropping the phone back into her pocket. The only thing she could concentrate on in that moment was the fact that Trinity and Kyle Turner knew each other. How in the hell did they know one another? Wouldn’t Trinity have mentioned that at some point in all the months that Josie had complained about him? Except Josie never used his real name. She always referred to him as Douchebag.

“Quinn,” Turner said. “Did you hear me? I got a real problem.”

“Kyle,” Trinity said. “You know my sister?”

He didn’t even look at Trinity. Josie’s stomach bottomed out at the unwelcome thought that the reason they knew one another was because they’d had some sort of tryst. Was that possible?

“I work with her,” Turner answered tersely. “Quinn, are you having a stroke or something? I need your help.”

No, no, no. Trinity would never. She had to know him in her capacity as a journalist. That had to be it.

“Oh my God,” Trinity gasped. She pushed her way out the door and onto the landing next to Josie. “Thisis Douchebag Detective? Are you kidding me?”

Josie wanted to ask Trinity how she knew Turner. Even more than that, she wanted to know why it was surprising that Kyle Turner was Douchebag Detective. Anyone who spent five minutes in his presence would get the nickname immediately. Drake certainly had.

Josie narrowed her eyes at Turner. Why hadn’t he said anything about the fact that she’d been referring to him as Douchebag to her sister? He tugged at his beard again, harder this time. He had a lot of nervous tics but this was not one she’d seen before. “What’s wrong with you? What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything.” He hooked a thumb toward his car. Now that Josie looked more closely, she could see a figure in the passenger’s seat. “Your press liaison is in my car.”

“Why is Amber in your car?” said Josie.

“Kellan Neal came back to the stationhouse. I was working on warrants. He said he confronted Remy about this morning. The guy won’t admit to an affair. Won’t admit to anything. Neal told him that as an act of good faith, and so that we won’t waste precious investigative time looking in the wrong direction, he should let us search his vehicle and electronic devices. Remy Tate refused.”

They already knew that Remy Tate was hiding something. Whether it was a simple affair or involvement in the abduction of his wife was the question. Even if he was innocent of Cleo’s kidnapping, would he admit to his father-in-law, a retired prosecutor, that he was having an affair? Providing an alibi seemed like a no-brainer, but if he thought there was a chance Cleo might come home then maybe he was holding out. Once he admitted to it, the damage was done, and Josie rememberedKellan Neal well enough to know that, in his mind, a mistress would only make Remy more viable as a person of interest.

Josie could feel Trinity’s presence beside her. She wasn’t sure if Trinity was still there because she knew Turner or because she was interested in the details of the case. Probably both.

The dark outline of Amber’s silhouette didn’t move. “That doesn’t tell me why Amber is in your car.”

Turner sighed. “I was talking to Neal when she came in to deal with this Cleo Tate mess. Neal told her he wanted to do a public appeal. Amber said it was a good idea. Highlight this guy’s service to the city. Get him to ask the public for help finding his daughter. She set everything up for him and the Chief to have a press conference an hour from now.”

Josie brushed past him and started walking toward the car. “Get to the point, Turner.”

He followed her. “After Neal left, I was looking for something in Mettner’s desk drawer. Then the drawer got stuck. I had to pull the whole thing out.”

Amber didn’t even look over when Josie reached for the door handle. Turner gently grabbed her wrist, stopping her from opening the door. When Josie glared up at him, he released her. Lowering his voice to a whisper, he said, “The drawer was stuck on this key chain. Couple of keys on it. Not important. It said, ‘Uncle Finn,’ on it. She saw it and just freaked out. Totally lost her shit, Quinn. I didn’t know what to do.”