“It looks like she already moved in here,” Noah said.
One of the spare bedrooms was made up as a guest room with a neatly made bed that looked as though it hadn’t been touched in months. The other spare bedroom was filled with fishing and hunting stuff, including a gun safe, which was secured. In the master bedroom, the king-sized bed was a mess, blankets balled up at the bottom of the bed, pillows askew. Josie could tell by the end tables which side belonged to Mettner and which belonged to Amber. His nightstand held a framed photo of her next to his alarm clock and lamp. On her nightstand were a pair of hoop earrings, a tin of hand cream, a phone charger and a stack of books. Except these were all romance novels: Moonlight Over Muddleford Cove by Kim Nash, If Only by Angela Marsons, The Man I Loved Before by Anna Mansell, and Happily Never After by Emma Robinson. A far cry from the Thatcher Toland book that they had found in Amber’s home.
Noah opened the large closet to reveal that half of it had been cleared—for Amber, Josie assumed—but not filled yet. She started opening the dresser drawers. One side of drawers were empty except for the top one which contained ladies’ underwear and bras. Josie felt around in the back of the drawer and beneath the undergarments but there was nothing more. She moved to the other side of the dresser. These drawers were filled with Mettner’s clothing. The top drawer was also undergarments. As she had with Amber’s, Josie felt the back of the drawer and under the clothes. This time, her fingers hit on something that didn’t feel like boxer shorts. She pulled out a small gray drawstring bag. Inside it was a black box bearing the logo of a local jewelry store.
“What’s that?” Noah asked, looking over her shoulder.
She slid yet another box out of the black box. This one was slightly smaller and navy-blue. It opened like a flower, its sides pulling apart to reveal a bed of velvet. A large, sparkling diamond ring winked at them. “An engagement ring,” Josie said. “The biggest one I’ve ever seen.”
Noah leaned in closer and peered at it. “This makes me look bad,” he joked.
Josie put the ring box onto the dresser and picked up the drawstring bag, rooting around in it until she came up with a small folded sheaf of papers. Smoothing them out on the dresser, she saw the certification that the diamonds were real, a protection plan, and a receipt evidencing how much Mettner had paid for the ring—and when.
“He bought this after dating her for only three months,” said Josie.
Noah leaned over and glanced at the receipt. “So?”
“It seems a little…” She trailed off as she searched for the word.
“Romantic?” Noah suggested.
“Scary.”
“He didn’t propose to her after three months. He just bought a ring.”
“Because he intends to propose to her.”
“Josie, they’re moving in together. I’m sure Amber expects a proposal eventually.”
With a sigh, she repackaged the ring just as she had found it. Digging deeper into the drawer, she found several shiny brochures. Pulling them out, she immediately recognized Thatcher Toland’s face. They were exactly the same as the ones she had seen at the megachurch: one for their community outreach program and another inviting congregants to hold their weddings at the church, officiated by Thatcher Toland himself.
Noah said, “That’s weird. I didn’t think Mettner was into the megachurch thing.”
“He had been going to that community church down the street from the stationhouse,” Josie said. “I guess Thatcher Toland’s online and media campaign to get more followers worked on him.”
She tucked the brochures and the ring back under Mett’s boxer shorts. Following Noah back downstairs, she said, “I don’t see anything that makes me think that something violent happened here.”
“Me neither,” Noah said. “But Mettner’s one of us. He’d know how to clean up if something bad had happened. Why don’t we have Hummel come over and do one run-through with the luminol in some select places to see if there are any bloodstains that we can’t see? Even if they were cleaned up, that will show them.”
“Sounds good,” Josie said. She took out her phone and called Hummel to ask him to bring another member of their ERT to Mettner’s house to look for blood.
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” he told her. “By the way, I processed Mettner’s truck. We did find traces of blood in the back but it was animal, not human.”
“Mett’s a hunter,” said Josie. “That tracks. We’ll see you when you get here.”
Josie and Noah waited for Officers Hummel and Chan to arrive. Then they went out to their car while Hummel and Chan worked in the house, looking for evidence they could not see with the naked eye. After a few hours, they’d found nothing of concern and nothing that could be reasonably connected to a crime of any sort. Hummel started packing up their equipment as Josie and Noah pulled away. Josie’s phone rang. It was their desk sergeant, Dan Lamay. “What’s up?” she asked him after swiping answer.
“Boss,” he said. “I know it’s after ten at night, but Hugo Watts is here. He just showed up. Should I tell him to come back tomorrow?”
Josie glanced at Noah. “No,” she said. “Tell him we’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
Twenty-Seven
Back at the stationhouse, Josie entered the conference room first and was immediately jarred by Hugo Watts’ smile. It was Amber’s smile. In fact, in person, Josie could see the resemblance very strongly, and the same delicate features that made Amber so stunning made her father dashing and handsome. He was much taller than Amber, of course, and his hair was a darker auburn than hers. He wore a black suit with no tie beneath an unzipped gray parka with a faux-fur hood.
Josie made introductions and invited him to sit down. He took off his coat and threw it into one of the empty chairs. He sat down and folded his hands together in front of him, almost as if in prayer. Josie sat next to him, Noah across the table. Worry lines creased Hugo’s forehead. “I saw the news this morning—before you called—about a woman being pulled from the river. After you called, I went back and replayed the newscast. The description—”
Josie touched his arm. She kept her tone calm and as soothing as possible. There was no good way to deliver this kind of news. Josie always preferred to do it quickly. “I’m very sorry, Mr. Watts, but the woman we pulled from the river was your daughter, Eden.”
His chin dropped to his chest. One hand swiped over his mouth, dragging down to his chin. “Oh no,” he said. “Oh no. No, no, no.”
“We’re very sorry for your loss,” Noah echoed. “I realize this is the worst possible time for it, but we really do need to ask you some questions.”
Slowly, Hugo looked up. “H-how?” he stammered.