Page 32 of Husband Missing

Heather shot her a smile. “Perfect.”

Josie dropped her tea bag into her mug, watching the water slowly turn brown. Shannon fussed a bit more, setting out napkins, spoons, milk, sugar, and honey before bustling out of the room. Josie knew that she was just outside the doorway, along with Trinity. Christian and Patrick had been relegated to the living room after Trinity bluntly told them that their pace was too slow.

“Lila Jensen is dead,” Heather said without preamble.

Josie nodded.

“But you think this break-in and Noah’s abduction had something to do with her.”

“Yes.”

The skin at the corners of Heather’s eyes tightened. “Because there were photos missing from this box?”

Josie hadn’t shared her theory that Noah had meant to leave her a clue. It was one thing to tell Trinity. Her sister was fiercely loyal. They’d been through enough harrowing situations together that Trinity would follow her off a cliff if Josie asked. Heather’s job was to deal in facts and tangible evidence, not a wife’s intuition. The blood and the stolen photos would be reason enough to investigate Lila’s associates in connection with Noah’s abduction.

“And jewelry.” Josie swirled the tea bag around in her mug. “Which Lila would not have kept if it was truly valuable. She would have sold it instead. Whatever was taken from that box meant something to someone. It was important enough that they were willing to break in here and take my husband in order to retrieve it. It had to be someone who knew Lila, knew about her souvenirs.”

Heather tapped her pen against her notepad. “What about your jewelry? Did it have any connection to Lila?”

“No,” said Josie. “But I’m thinking they took it for quick cash or to make it look like their intention was to rob the housewhen really, they were here for something in that box. I never inventoried it so there could have been additional items taken.”

“It’s a mess in there,” Heather said. “Are you sure the photos aren’t buried under some other things?”

Josie, Trinity, and Shannon had done a quick but thorough search for the photos before contacting Heather, careful not to disturb Lila’s box. “They’re not there.”

Heather stared over her glasses again. “The photos could have been taken by accident. Swept up along with the jewelry. I don’t need to tell you that armed robbers don’t spend a lot of time in a home once they’ve broken in, especially not with an injured homeowner.”

Just outside the kitchen doorway, the floor creaked. Shannon or Trinity—or both—shifting their weight while they eavesdropped.

“Don’t dismiss this,” Josie said through gritted teeth.

“The similarities to some of the armed robberies we’ve seen outside of Denton are striking, Josie.”

“You mean the Wi-Fi being out, the house being trashed, and the homeowner being violently attacked? Are there other similarities I don’t know about? Because given the other characteristics of the crime that happened here…” she gestured around them, “there could be more differences than similarities.”

Her cheeks were hot with anger. She was aware that her tone was skirting the line between assertiveness and disrespect, but she couldn’t seem to modulate it. Noah was missing. If Heather and her team chose to fit the evidence into what they’d already decided had happened instead of letting the evidence guide the investigation, it could cost them precious time. The words slipped out before she could stop them. “Do your damn job, Heather.”

“I’m not your adversary here, Josie,” Heather said calmly. “I am doing my job. I’m here, aren’t I? My team is looking at the big picture. I’m not dismissing your theory that this has something to do with Lila Jensen.”

That’s not how it had come off to Josie, but she didn’t say anything.

Heather jotted something on her notepad. Finally. “Let’s talk about Lila. I remember the case that finally put her away. I know what she did to you and to your family. Never watched theDatelinesbut I did follow the press coverage. Things worked their way through the grapevine at work. I’m going to ask you to go over it with me anyway, so I don’t miss anything.”

Josie took a deep breath, trying to quiet the anger simmering inside her. The tea had stopped steaming, but she prepared it anyway, quickly going through the basics for Heather starting with Lila kidnapping her and passing her off as Eli Matson’s daughter. In a detached, clinical voice, Josie briefly described Lila’s emotional and physical abuse; her drug addiction; how she’d finally been persuaded by Lisette to leave Denton when Josie was fourteen years old; and the details of the case that had brought her back into Josie’s life sixteen years later. The narrative was well-worn, having taken up space in Josie’s psyche for so long that speaking it out loud held no power anymore. There was no emotion attached to the words. No, the trauma lived inside her skin, in her sense memories, bubbling up at strange and unexpected times without warning.

Josie concluded with finding Lila’s twisted treasure trove in the garage, looted.

Scrawling in her notebook, Heather asked all the same questions that Trinity had. How had Josie ended up with the box? Had it ever been processed? Were its contents ever photographed? Had Josie or any agency ever conducted aninvestigation into the items or photos inside the box? Did any calls ever come into the tip line once Lila was in prison?

“I need you to make me a list of the items you remember from the box,” Heather said, pushing her pen and notepad across the table. “We’ll check it against what we find in the garage.”

Josie started jotting down the list.

“The men in the photos,” Heather said. “You said you’re not sure if they’re victims or accomplices.”

“Or both,” said Josie, sipping lukewarm tea.

Heather pulled her own tea toward her and slowly prepared it while Josie finished her list. Then she took the notepad back and flipped it to a new page. “You recognized your father—well, the man Lila Jensen made you believe was your father, Eli Matson. Did any of the other men look familiar to you?”

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