Josie and Noah kept the heater on full blast as they drove to Denton’s police headquarters. The large three-story stone building loomed over them as they pulled into the municipal parking lot in the rear. In the dark of night, it was an intimidating edifice, but Josie loved the old building. It had been converted from the town hall into the police station almost seventy years ago. With its bell tower and ornate double-casement arched windows, it closely resembled a medieval castle. The inside could stand to be modernized, but since it was on the city’s historical register, and the department would have to go through a lot of bureaucratic red tape to do so, Josie knew it would remain the same probably until she retired.
They trudged in through the back door together, taking the stairs up to the second floor which housed the Chief’s office as well as the great room—a large open area filled with desks and filing cabinets where the investigative team convened and patrol officers came to do the endless, unglamorous paperwork that went with policing. Gretchen and Mettner were already there. Of the police officers, only Josie, Noah, Gretchen, and Mettner had permanent desks in the great room. The four desks were pushed together to form a large rectangle. Josie checked the time on her phone as she plopped down in her chair. It was after three a.m. In a few hours her own shift would start. She should be in bed with Trout’s warm, snuggly little body pressed against her side, awaiting Noah’s return. At least there were plenty of people for Trout to cuddle with at their house, and she was sure either Shannon or Trinity would take him out when they woke.
The only other person with a permanent desk was Amber. Hers was in the corner of the room, meticulously organized and brightly decorated, everything from her stapler to her paper tray in a matching white and teal striped pattern. She even had fancy, multicolored thumb tacks in the corkboard she’d had Mettner hang on the wall next to her desk. Josie walked over and studied the documents attached to the board, each one lined up perfectly in a neat row. Interdepartmental memos. A calendar of public outreach events the city council had issued. A police department directory with names, phone numbers, and email addresses. A flyer printed on bright green paper announcing the date and time of the holiday party. The only remotely personal item was a black letter board roughly the size of a sheet of paper with a thick wooden frame around it. The letters spelled out: “Create A Present Your Future Self Will Love.”
Across the room, Mettner slouched in his chair, hands jammed into his jacket pockets. Chitwood had disappeared into his office, but Josie could hear him taking phone calls and by the sounds of the conversations, they were from the press. Gretchen went down to the first-floor break room to put coffee on.
“Why am I here if I’m suspended?” Mettner asked.
Noah took a seat and began booting up his computer. Josie knew there would be reports to write. “We need to know what you know.”
“I told you guys everything I know. You don’t need me now.”
Josie scanned the surface of Amber’s desk, but it was more of the same. A blotter in calendar form without a single note on it. Josie knew from working with Amber that she used an app on her tablet and phone to keep track of her schedule. Josie said, “If we tell you to go home, are you really going to go home?”
His head swiveled in Josie’s direction, but he didn’t answer. One of his eyelids twitched.
“Thought so,” Josie said. “By the way, you’re staying with Gretchen for at least the next forty-eight hours.”
“You can’t make me stay with Gretchen!” Mettner exclaimed.
Josie started opening the drawers of Amber’s desk. The side drawers held nothing but office supplies. Pens, tape, printer paper, index cards, highlighters, a pair of earbuds. Josie had seen her wearing the earbuds from time to time while using her tablet. Amber was never without her tablet. Josie opened the center drawer to find it sealed inside a soft case that matched the rest of her office supplies. She took it out of the drawer, unzipped the case, and slid the tablet out.
“No,” said Noah. “We can’t make you stay with Gretchen. But we can strongly recommend it. You know you’re in hot water here, Mett, right?”
“I don’t care,” Mettner said, voice almost rising to a shout. “I don’t care about being in hot water or deep shit or whatever. I don’t care what I did. I don’t care about my job. I care about finding Amber. I need to know she’s okay, don’t you get that? Someone left a weird message on her car about Russell Haven. We go there and find some other woman who looks like her? And now she’s dead? Amber’s in trouble. I know it.”
Josie held up the tablet. “Why is this here? I thought Amber always took it home with her.”
Mettner glanced over. “She forgot it when she left work on Friday. She said she was going to come back in on Saturday morning and get it but then we had our fight, and I didn’t hear from her and . . . well, here we are. Obviously, she never made it in to get it. Anyway, who cares about her stupid tablet? I told you, she’s in trouble. I have to do something. I need to help her.”
Josie tried to power up the tablet, but it wouldn’t come on. She found a charger inside the case and plugged it in. “You’ll help her by answering our questions, that’s how you’ll help her. You’ll help by not leaving here and going to her house and adding another count of breaking and entering to the list of shitty decisions you’ve made in the last twenty-four hours.”
“Don’t police-talk me,” Mettner said, face screwing up in agitation. “I know how this works.”
“All right, then,” Noah interjected. “Let’s get to work. We need you to fill in some blanks for us.”
Josie’s fingers felt the slim edge of something in the back of the middle drawer. Pinching it with her fingernails, she drew it out. It was a greeting card. A birthday card.
Mettner shifted in his chair, hands still deep in his jacket pockets. “Like what?”
Josie opened the card. The canned message was fairly generic, but the words Mettner had written at the bottom made her feel like some kind of voyeur. I want to celebrate every birthday with you, he had written. I’ll never stop loving you.
Josie discreetly tucked it back into the drawer and closed it. She said, “Let’s start with you and Amber. How long have you been dating?”
“Come on. You know this. You were all here.”
“We know you two were dating, yeah,” Noah said. “But we don’t know anything more than that. How long?”
“A year. We just celebrated a year. But listen, what does this have to do with anything? This is not going to help you find her. We need to find her.”
Josie checked the other drawers, then under the desk itself, including the contents of Amber’s trash bin, but found nothing of interest. She checked the tablet, but it still didn’t have enough charge to boot up. She made sure the plug was properly plugged into the wall, which it was, and as she stood back up and turned, her elbow caught the edge of the letter board, knocking it on its face.
“Be careful,” Mettner said. “Those are her things.”
“I’m sorry,” said Josie. She picked up the frame. It was heavy in her hands. Unusually heavy. Josie set it back in place but then picked it up again and shook it. A muted knocking sound came from inside.