“A search of the girlfriend’s work desk turns up a hidden diary from her childhood with a cryptic list of numbers inside it.”
“The girlfriend’s best friend confirms that the diary was from childhood though,” said Josie. “I’m not sure that’s relevant.”
“It’s relevant that she hid it from the boyfriend,” said Gretchen. “It’s relevant that she put your name on a Post-it note attached to it, especially when her boyfriend is a detective for the police.”
“That’s strange, but again, I’m not sure it relates to Eden’s murder and Amber’s disappearance. Also, their mother shows up and basically confirms everything that both Mettner and Grace Power told us already, which is that Amber grew up in a ‘toxic’ environment.”
“The mother knew where the spare key was,” Gretchen pointed out. “Mettner did not.”
“I think you’re trying too hard to put this on Mett,” Josie argued.
Gretchen’s jaw was set. “To our knowledge, Mettner was the last person to see her alive. He was the last person in her home, the last person to touch her phone. He could have hidden anything incriminating from us. We let him direct us from the beginning of this investigation. Think about that.”
Josie knew what Gretchen wasn’t saying, which was that in their last big case, the killer had pointed the investigation to themself right off and in doing so, they’d been able to control the direction of the investigation almost the entire time. It had been a massive oversight on Josie’s part—and that of the team.
“Shit,” said Josie. “He wouldn’t tell us what their fight was about, either.”
“That doesn’t look good,” Gretchen agreed. “I think we need to put a little more pressure on him. We should be looking at him just like we would anyone else in her life—like her boyfriend, not our colleague. At the very least, we need to eliminate him so we can use our resources elsewhere.”
The Denton police headquarters came into view. Josie’s stomach tightened. “Did I mention that I hate this?”
Twenty-Two
Noah was at his desk, phone pressed to his ear. Amber’s work tablet sat in front of him, its screen aglow, asking him for a password. From the phone conversation, Josie could tell he was speaking with tech support, trying to get into the tablet. Covering the receiver with one palm, he told them, “All the hydroelectric plant station employees checked out. The reports are on your desk. Mett’s down in the conference room if you want to talk with him. I went to see him at Gretchen’s and had him follow me here.”
Gretchen carried the evidence bags containing the camera, the purse, and the Thatcher Toland book, complete with newspaper article, and followed Josie down the steps to the first floor. Mettner rested in the same chair Grace Power had occupied a few hours earlier, but his arms were on the table, his face buried. When Josie and Gretchen walked in, he looked up. Half of his brown hair stuck straight up in the air. A pink splotch marred his cheek where it had rested against his shirtsleeve.
“Have you heard anything?” he asked.
Josie pulled out the chair next to him. She took off her coat, arranged it on the back of the chair and then and sat down. “You want coffee?”
He stared at her for a long moment, the fog receding from his sleepy eyes. “No. I don’t want coffee. I want to know what’s going on.”
Josie tugged at the arm of his chair until he turned to face her. Amber’s phone appeared in her hand. “She told you her passcode?”
A flush crept into Mettner’s cheeks, enough to match the sleep spot on his face.
From the other side of the table, Gretchen said, “Jesus Christ, Mett.”
He kept his eyes on Josie. “I saw her put it in a few times.”
“You didn’t have permission to look at her phone?”
“She wasn’t there! She’s gone. I was worried. I am worried. Why are you asking me about her phone?”
Gretchen reached across the table and snatched it up. “I can probably get a warrant to get into this.”
She took the evidence bags with her and left the room. Josie said, “Amber’s mother showed up at the morgue today to claim Amber’s body because she saw the news story. We told her it wasn’t Amber. She didn’t believe us. When we showed her Jane Doe, she told us she was Amber’s sister, Eden.”
“What? How did this woman know to come? Are you sure it’s really Amber’s mother?”
“Mett, why else would someone show up to a morgue to claim a body? It costs thousands of dollars to lay someone to rest. Why would anyone impersonate Amber and Eden’s mother?”
He said nothing.
“Mrs. Norris knew where Amber kept her spare key.”
He gave a slow blink. “What? No. She doesn’t have a spare key.”
“She does. Mrs. Norris knew where it was, and she let us look around Amber’s house. Mett, nothing was amiss.”
“You’re wrong,” he said. “The key—that’s a mistake. Something’s off. She wouldn’t keep that from me. Why would she?”
“I don’t know,” said Josie. “Why would she keep things from you?”
A beat of silence passed between them. Then he pointed at her. “Don’t do this. Don’t even go there. You think I was… you think she was keeping things from me because she was afraid of me?” His voice dipped low on the word “afraid” as if it was too horrific a thought to even voice.
Josie wanted to get up and leave the room. Every fiber of her being railed against doing this. Mett was a colleague and a friend. But this was her job. “Was she afraid of you, Mett?” she managed.
He shook his head, leaning back in the chair and folding his arms across his broad chest. “Of course not. Don’t be absurd. No, she was not afraid of me. There would never be any reason for her to be afraid of me. Everything I’ve told you is the truth. We fought. I didn’t see her or hear from her for a couple of days. I got worried. I went to check on her. Yes, I broke into the house and yes, I accessed her phone also without permission, but that is it. You’re wrong that nothing was amiss in that house. I’m telling you. She’s very rigid with how she does things. She has a routine. The bed was unmade! The lights were on! All her stuff is there, but she’s not!”
“Where were you on Monday morning at five a.m.?”
The color drained from his face. “Are you kidding me right now? You think I did something to Amber’s sister? I didn’t even know Russell Haven was a place!”
Josie could hear Gretchen’s voice in the back of her head playing devil’s advocate. Did he really not know about Russell Haven Dam, or was that all an act? Was he involved in Eden’s murder and Amber’s disappearance? If so, how deeply? Again, she felt the ache of discomfort all over her body. This felt unnatural, and yet, Josie knew it was necessary. She plunged ahead.