Her Final Confession

Chapter Seventy-Two

Josie stood in front of the hotel window. Below her, the lights of New York City shimmered and glowed like something alive. Now that she was here on a vacation instead of a case, she could appreciate the view, which was similar to—but a little better than—the one from Trinity’s apartment. Of course, the room was Trinity’s doing. Josie told her that she and Noah wanted to get away for a few days, and Trinity had made all kinds of arrangements for them. Josie suspected that Trinity was trying to get her to fall in love with the city so that she would visit more.

Behind her, the door creaked open, and Noah walked through. In his hands he held a collection of brochures and maps. His phone was pressed to his ear.

“Yeah, okay,” he said into it. “That’s good news. Yeah, I’ll tell her.”

He hung up and tossed his phone onto the dresser. “That was Loughlin. She said the DA decided not to press obstruction charges against Gretchen. They felt it would be too much of a public-relations nightmare to prosecute the Strangler’s only surviving victim now that he’s been caught and the press is following his case so intensely.”

“That’s great,” Josie said.

“Yes,” he said. “It is.” He waved the brochures in the air. “I got a map of Manhattan.” He walked to the table in the corner of the room and spread them out. “Here’s one for the tour of Rockefeller Center. Horse carriage rides in Central Park, the 9/11 Museum… oh, and it looks like Trinity got us tickets to a Broadway show tomorrow.”

From behind him, Josie wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face between his shoulder blades. He turned in her embrace, smiling down at her and smoothing her hair away from her face. “This is great,” he said. “But to tell you the truth, the only thing I want to see in New York City is you.”

Grinning, Josie stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. “Same.”