Page 34 of Husband Missing

Josie said, “Lila’s mother was called Roe Hoyt. I’m not sure if she’s still alive but last I heard, she was serving five life sentences in SCI Muncy for the murder of her other children.”

Heather’s pen froze. “The rotten apple didn’t fall far from the rotten tree, did it?”

“Sure didn’t. Anyway, Lila was the one who told me about her. She knew her inmate number. At one point they were in there together. Might be worth looking into whether they formed a relationship of some sort or if Lila ever told Roe anything that would be useful to know in this case.”

TWENTY-FIVE

Josie scrolled through posts on social media devoted to Noah while Trinity drove toward South Denton. With Heather’s permission, their press liaison, Amber Watts, had been working nonstop on getting word out to news outlets and across every platform possible. The state police had issued a public information release report about Noah’s abduction and Amber had run with it, sharing the information in different types of social media posts, hoping for maximum visibility and engagement alongside the efforts of the state police. The Chief had already held a joint press conference with Heather.

There had been talk of using Noah’s official police department photo, but it looked so stiff, so unlike him. It was too formal. To Josie, that wasn’t a photo that would make people want to find him or call the tip line if they saw something they thought was important. Instead, she’d provided a candid photo of him that she’d taken two weeks ago in their kitchen. He’d just successfully cooked his first pot roast, going up four whole points in the competition the two of them had come up with for who could cook the most edible meals in a month under Misty’s tutelage.

In the photo, he stood, leaning his hip against the kitchen counter, a pot holder in one hand and a gorgeous grin on his face. Josie remembered being pissed that he’d most likely now win September’s competition while also thinking that she couldn’t wait to give him his very dirty prize.

The absence of him was a deeper cut than Lila had ever made.

He’d been gone almost twenty-one hours.

Josie swallowed down her emotion and swiped over to her text messages. At least her eyes didn’t feel so gritty now. After Heather left, Trinity had forced her back to Gretchen’s house where she’d managed to get four hours of sleep, much to her surprise. During that time, the number of text messages waiting for her had quadrupled. It seemed like every person they’d ever known had reached out to say they were praying for Noah’s safe return and offer any assistance needed.

Misty had decided not to tell Harris yet. She’d keep their television tuned to Disney Plus, and she was confident that it wouldn’t be a topic of conversation among the other seven- and eight-year-olds in his class. Josie hoped she was right. She ached to see little Harris, to hold his squirmy little body in her arms and hear his cheery voice calling her “Aunt JoJo” as he prattled on about everything in his world, but she wasn’t sure she could keep her shit together in front of him right now.

Noah’s older brother, Theo, was flying in from Arizona. His sister, Laura, was making arrangements to leave her little girl with a trusted babysitter for a few days, at least, so she could come to Denton. Nothing from Noah’s dad, who had surely seen the news by now. There was, however, a message from his second wife, Andi. She said all the right things and yet, the message sent a hot surge of anger through Josie’s veins. She couldn’t even say why. It wasn’t sunny, much younger Andi’s fault that her husband was an asshole. On the other hand, she’dmarried him, and Josie couldn’t quite bring herself to respect Andi for doing so, especially when she knew exactly why he was estranged from his first three children.

There were no updates from Heather or anyone on Josie’s own team. She started to wonder if no updates meant the investigation had stalled. Panic rose like acid at the back of her throat, and she pushed it down, her mind searching frantically for something else to latch onto, if only temporarily. The universe heard her plea. Her phone started ringing.

Trinity glanced over. “Who is it?”

Josie’s stomach burned when she saw it wasn’t Heather. “I don’t recognize the number.”

“Answer it,” Trinity said.

She swiped the green icon and pressed the phone to her ear, blanching when her “hello” came out small and squeaky. Clearing her throat, she tried again. It was stronger this time.

“Detective Quinn?” It was a woman’s voice. “This is Tilly Phelan.”

Josie exhaled slowly as a strange sense of relief washed over her. Work. There was always work. Dependable and predictable in its own way with a structure Josie had always found comforting. If Noah hadn’t been abducted last night, she’d be working on the Gina Phelan case.

“How can I help you, Mrs. Phelan?” The words were out before she could stop them.

She wasn’t in a position to help Tilly Phelan. Noah’s abduction had completely eclipsed the Denton PD’s pleas for members of the public to come forward with information about the blonde woman’s identity. Josie didn’t even know if any tips had come in. She was chasing down leads in her husband’s case.

“I was hoping you could tell me something,” Tilly said. There was a long silence. Josie heard the tiny break in her voice when she added, “Anything.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Phelan,” she answered. “I don’t have any updates. I’ve been…there’s another case that I—I’m working on. Let me get in touch with my colleague, Detective Turner, and find out what’s happening.”

More silence. A sound that might have been a sniffle. “Yes, okay. That will be fine. I’ll be waiting.”

The line went dead. From the corner of her eye, Josie could see Trinity sneaking glances at her but she didn’t ask questions. Josie tapped in a message to Turner.Any news on the Gina Phelan case?

He must have been scrolling because his answer came back in seconds.

Where are you?

With Trinity. Tilly Phelan just called me looking for an update.

I’ll get in touch with her.

Is there an update?

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