Page 64 of Close Her Eyes

Mettner said, “Yes, but that’s all we can say. I’m not sure it’s enough if we can’t put Vance in Denton on Saturday night into Sunday, or link Keri to his car in any way.”

“It’s circumstantial,” Noah said. “But we might be able to work with it.”

“No,” said Josie. “We need more than that. We have to keep looking. What else do you have for us, Mett?”

He looked back at his notes. “Hummel also got everything from Keri Cryer’s phone. Here’s what we know. The GPS on her phone had her going from her apartment to about three blocks from where she was picked up. That was it. It was turned off at that point.”

“Told you,” said the Chief. “The killer made her turn it off. How about Mathias Tobin? Did you get a phone number for him?”

“Burner phone,” said Mettner. “Gretchen is trying to track it, but I don’t think it will go anywhere. There are some text messages between them, mostly concerning when he will be at her place, except for Friday and Saturday where he messaged her repeatedly asking her to please contact him as soon as possible. He called her at least three dozen times. In fact, it looks like they called each other most of the time. Obviously, we have no idea what the content of those calls was.”

“What about the text messages?” asked Noah.

“Here is where it gets interesting,” said Mettner, holding up an index finger. He looked past them to the conference room door. Quietly, Anya slid out into the hall, Cyrus in tow. Both their faces were flushed.

Anya said, “This is one of the reasons I wanted to come.”

Mettner said, “There were a series of messages between Mathias Tobin and Keri Cryer that concern Garrick Wolfe.”

“What?” Cyrus said.

Mettner swiped his phone and then turned it toward them. “It’s easier if you just read it. These are the last messages between them before Keri Cryer went missing.” He pointed to the screen. “The blue messages are from Mathias.”

They all leaned in for a better look. Josie felt Cyrus’s breath on the back of her neck.

Mathias:I know you’re angry with me but please try to understand.

Keri:I understand that you say you want a family with me but you’re not willing to put your past to rest once and for all.

Mathias:This isn’t about putting my past to rest. We don’t need this in order to start a family.

Keri:You deserve for everyone to know the truth. You deserve that. You shouldn’t be kept hidden like some dirty secret. You think you can move on from this but you can’t. You don’t see it, but I do. Have you even talked to Garrick?

Mathias:No, but I will. I promise.

Keri:I don’t know why you won’t just go to him. He paid your legal fees for years. Obviously, he is willing to help you.

Mathias:It’s so much more complicated than that.

Keri:No. It’s really not. You can choose yourself and a future with me but to do that, you have to also choose the truth and I don’t think you really want to do that.

Mathias:I don’t need to know the truth for us to have a future together.

Keri:Yes, you do. You absolutely do. I can’t believe you don’t see it or maybe you just don’t care. I’m sorry M but I’m exhausted from it. I gave up everything for you and it doesn’t seem like you’re willing to do the same. I love you but I don’t want to see you until you figure out what you really want.

Josie said, “This exchange took place in the twenty-four hours after Mathias Tobin was last seen leaving her apartment but before she got into that car at the bus stop.”

“Right,” said Mettner.

The Chief looked at Anya. “How do Garrick Wolfe and Mathias Tobin know one another?”

Anya shook her head. “They don’t. Or at least, ten years ago, they didn’t.”

“What can you tell us about Garrick?” asked Noah.

“He’s a brilliant pathologist. He was a brilliant internist before that, but he has a drinking problem. A big one. He never said, but I heard around the office when I started working for him that he’d had to give up his practice and switch to pathology because of his drinking. ‘He’s better with dead people than living ones,’ people used to joke in the halls. I never put much stock in it. He was good to me. Kind and caring. He always had my back. Always. His wife was the same way. It was them that I stayed with when I left Vance. After the branding.”

Cyrus said, “Marie died a couple of years after you left. Brain tumor.”

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