Her Mother’s Grave

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Josie returned home, trudging into her kitchen and making another pot of coffee, although the way she felt, she doubted it would help—her limbs felt like they were moving through molasses. She hadn’t felt so drained since she pulled little baby Harris out of the Susquehanna River six months ago. The day had been filled with a series of shocking discoveries, but she was no closer to figuring out where Lila and Trinity were.

Josie was so deep in thought that when she heard three loud knocks on her front door, she nearly jumped out of her skin. Through the peephole she saw Noah standing on her front stoop, both hands in his jeans pockets, his gaze fixed firmly on his feet.

She opened the door and stared at him. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “Did you find Lila? Trinity?”

He shook his head, still not looking at her.

She hated this awkwardness between them, and the last thing she felt like doing was discussing what had—and hadn’t—happened between them the night before. But he was here all the same. “Would you like to come in?”

He stepped past her into the foyer, and she pulled the door closed behind them and motioned toward the kitchen. “I made coffee.”

Only when he was seated at her table did he look at her. “I’m sorry about this morning—about Tara,” he said. “I wanted to call, to warn you, but Tara wouldn’t let us go.”

“I understand,” she said.

She set the coffee mug in front of him, and as she turned away, he touched her arm. “I was trying to figure out the best way to protect you.”

Josie sighed and took a seat next to him. “Noah,” she said, “you can’t protect me from this. No one can. This fight has been a long time coming, and I’m the only one who can do it.”

“No you’re not,” Noah insisted, his hazel eyes earnest. Seeing something besides hurt and confusion in his face instantly made her feel better. “Gretchen and I are going to help you. We already convinced the mayor that it’s not you on that tape. We just have to find Trinity. We’ll get this sorted out.”

“Are you interim chief of police now?” Josie asked hopefully.

“The mayor doesn’t trust me or Gretchen to be unbiased, which is probably smart on her part. She has this guy coming in. He’s semi-retired. Has his own security firm. Used to work as a high-ranking police officer in Pittsburgh before that. He’ll be the interim chief until further notice.”

It was no surprise to Josie that Tara had someone waiting in the wings to take Josie’s job. “Right,” Josie said.

“Well, hopefully this guy is more reasonable than Tara.”

“Nothing on Trinity?” Josie asked, turning back to more pressing matters. “I know Gretchen went to the hotel. Did you get her phone unlocked?”

He raised a brow at her, but didn’t ask questions. “There were texts between her and an unknown number—a prepaid burner phone. We’re trying to see if we can track down its location now. Whoever it was said they had information about her sister. We called Shannon Payne though—that’s her mother—and her sister died as an infant.”

“Yeah, I heard that.”

“The messages were very cryptic, and after they stopped, there were a few phone calls back and forth, including one from the unknown number to Trinity’s cell just before she ran out of her room.”

“It was Lila,” Josie said.

“But why? Why go after Trinity? And who the hell is this Heinrich guy? I couldn’t find any connection between him and Belinda Rose or Lila Jensen. Although he’s on the sex offender registry. Did you know that?”

Josie nodded. “Yes. He served almost ten years for molesting his thirteen-year-old niece.”

“How do you know that?” Noah asked. “Was it one of your cases?”

“No, by the time I started at Denton PD, he was being released.”

It had taken a long time for Josie to identify Heinrich as the man Lila had sold her to, and since nothing had actually occurred between them, there was nothing Josie could legally do to him. She’d worried that he would prey on more young girls once out of prison, but it had only taken a few days of surveillance to see that Heinrich was in no shape to assault anyone. Whatever had happened to him in prison had left him with a permanent limp and restricted range of motion in one of his arms. Most of the time he moved slowly, as though in great pain.

“I don’t understand,” Noah said.

The piercing pain in her temples was back. “There are some things I need to tell you right now.”

The easy part was telling him what she had found out from Trinity’s mother, and what her own grandmother had confirmed about Josie’s birth—Josie’s father hadn’t been present when she was born. Lila had disappeared for months and then shown up unexpectedly one day with Josie. There was no actual proof that Lila had ever been pregnant or given birth, which meant there was a definite possibility that Lila had taken her from the Paynes.

Noah was on his second cup of coffee by the time she finished. His eyes had collected dark circles beneath them.

“I know it sounds insane,” Josie said.

“No. I mean, yes. It does. Completely insane, but knowing everything we know now, I can see it. When all of this is over, you should take a DNA test. You can do them by mail now. Fast. My only question is why would Lila steal someone’s baby?”

“Because it’s the worst thing you can do to a woman.”

“All because Shannon Payne got her fired?”

“Lila’s reactions to things were never proportionate,” Josie pointed out.

He downed the last of his coffee, and they sat in silence for a few moments. It pained her to bring up the last piece of the puzzle, but Josie knew she had to. Noah had supported her blindly in the face of the mayor’s coup, and he was fiercely loyal to her—even after she had cut off their encounter so abruptly and clearly wounded him. He deserved to know everything, which meant telling him about Heinrich. “Noah,” Josie said. “There’s something else. Something I need to tell you. It’s about Ted Heinrich.”

He didn’t say anything after she told him, and it didn’t take long. The few words she could muster were inadequate to express the breadth and depth of what Lila had done to her and what was almost taken from her that day. Maybe that was okay, she thought. She had spent so many years pushing those feelings down and keeping them out of her consciousness, finally saying the words might make them lose a little of their power.

Josie watched the range of emotions pass over Noah’s face as she spoke: shock, horror, pity, sadness, disgust, anger, and relief that Needle had intervened. She knew he was searching through the silence for something to say—anything.

She was relieved when Noah’s cell phone rang. Slowly, without taking his eyes off her, he pulled it out and silenced it.

“Noah,” she said softly. “You have to get that.”

His eyes were intense, zeroed in on her with laser focus. “No,” he said, “I don’t.”

They stared at one another. His phone rang again. Again, he silenced it. “Noah, it could be important.”

He tapped his index finger on the table. “This is important. You are important.”

She smiled. “Then help me. Answer your phone. It could be about Trinity. Or my mother.”

“Lila,” he said. “From now on she is Lila. She was not a mother to you.”

“Lila, then.”

His phone rang again, and he answered it, listening briefly and ending the call with, “I’ll be there in ten.”

Josie looked at him hopefully, but he shook his head. “Sorry. Nothing on Trinity. But Gretchen did pick up one of those teenagers working at the Spur Mobile store and got him to admit that a ‘really weird old lady’ gave him weed in exchange for giving out your new number, and that she ‘did some other things’ to get him to place the craigslist ads.”

Josie stood up and walked him to the front door. “I knew it,” she said. “I bet I know which one of those rotten little punks it was too. See what else you can get from him. If she came into the store, there might be video. Find out if she told him her name. Maybe we can figure out what alias she’s using now.”

Noah stood by the front door, smiling at her. “You got it, Boss,” he said.

“Sorry,” Josie replied. “It’s a hard habit to break—bossing you around.”

“I don’t mind.” He gave her a small smile, and her heart leapt.