The Bones She Buried

Four

Laura Fraley-Hall arrived like a tornado a few hours later, bursting through Noah’s door without knocking, tossing her purse and jacket onto the floor as she moved from the foyer to where Noah still sat on the couch. Laura was three years older than him and had the same thick brown hair—hers flowing down her back in waves—and the same hazel eyes. She was a head shorter than Noah though, and her face was rounder and softer. She wore a tight navy sheath dress with a colorful scarf draped around her neck, just above her visible baby bump, which she covered with one hand as she fell onto the couch on the other side of Noah. Her arms encircled his shoulders, pulling him away from Josie and into her embrace.

“I can’t believe it,” she whispered.

Noah emerged from his stupor long enough to return the hug, his tears coming afresh and mingling with Laura’s. Josie got up from the couch and went into the kitchen to give them a few moments alone. There, she busied herself making a pot of coffee. She checked his fridge to see if there was anything she could offer Laura to eat, but then figured Laura would have about as much appetite as she and Noah. Josie waited until the sobbing stopped and she could hear their voices before going back into the living room. She stood in the doorway, watching the two siblings for a moment.

“Where’s Grady?” Noah asked Laura.

“He’ll be here in another hour or two. He’s packing us some bags. When Josie called me, I just got into my car and drove. I was at a work event.”

Josie knew that in recent years Laura had been promoted to vice president at Sutton Stone Enterprises where Colette had worked as secretary and assistant to the owner and CEO for over forty years. It had started out as a small family operation at a nearby quarry, mining bluestone, limestone and boulders, and had since grown into a thriving multi-million-dollar enterprise. It now had its own construction arm, a trucking division and quarries all over the state devoted to providing asphalt aggregate for concrete, sand and gravel. Colette had bragged earlier that year that Laura had been placed in charge of getting their Bethlehem site up and running. She called Laura and Grady the family’s ‘power couple’, with Laura rising through the ranks of Sutton Stone Enterprises and Grady running a thriving accounting business that allowed him to work from home most of the time.

Laura’s hand flew to her forehead. “Oh dear. I’m sure Mr. Sutton will want to hear about this from me, not anyone else.”

“Mr. Sutton—your boss?” Josie asked, but Laura ignored her.

“He will,” Noah said. “He adored Mom. Can you—can you call him?”

Laura patted Noah’s knee. “Of course.”

Josie felt another sharp stab of sadness for Noah and his siblings; Colette’s old boss was deemed more worthy of hearing about her untimely death than the father of her children. Inwardly, she chastised herself for not having gotten the full story about Noah’s father before. Noah knew all her secrets and yet what did she really know about him? What could she really offer him in a crisis such as this? He’d always been her rock, supporting her and guiding her through the terrifying darkness life had plunged her into time and again. What could she offer him in return?

“Why don’t you go upstairs and get cleaned up,” Laura said softly to Noah. “Get out of these clothes. Take a shower. Maybe lie down.”

Josie had suggested the same multiple times before Laura arrived, but this time Noah complied, getting to his feet and climbing the stairs slowly, his shoulders stooped. Josie and Laura listened for a few moments as he shuffled around upstairs. When they heard the shower go on, Josie caught Laura’s eye. “Noah said that there was no need to notify your father.”

Laura laughed bitterly. “No, I suppose there isn’t, but I’ll let him know anyway. He won’t care enough to come to the funeral, but I’ll text him. Mom would want us to tell him.”

“We’re probably going to need to speak to him at some point,” Josie said. “At the very least to rule out any involvement.”

“Involvement? Don’t make me laugh,” Laura told her. “Fine. I’ll text you his number. Do what you must. Josie, do the police have any idea who did this to my mother? I want the truth.”

Josie shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. Not yet. But our team is working on it as we speak. Laura, I need to know, is there anyone your mother had any issues with? A friend or neighbor? Even a boyfriend?”

Laura chuckled even as tears leaked from her eyes. “She didn’t have a boyfriend. She dated a few times after my dad left, but she always said she didn’t want to get married again. So no, there was no boyfriend. I’m sure my baby brother told you she was loved by many people. She was very involved in her church, and she kept up with her neighbors.”

“Yes,” Josie said. “I know she was very involved in helping local foster children, and Noah said she would often start meal drives if one of her neighbors was having issues. Laura, I know the kind of person your mother was, which makes it even more baffling that someone would want to hurt her.”

“No one would want to hurt her,” Laura said, her voice husky with tears, her words an echo of those Noah had used earlier.

“This could have been a random attack,” Josie conceded. “It appeared from the state of her house that someone was looking for something. Do you know what valuables she kept? If you tell me what someone might have taken, I can get my team to confirm whether or not those items are still there.”

Laura plucked a tissue from the box on one of Noah’s end tables and blew her nose. “She didn’t keep much cash in the house so it wouldn’t have been that. She had some rings and necklaces that her own mother had passed down to her. When Grady and I got engaged, she gave him the ring that my father gave her, and Grady had the stones in it removed and a new ring made.” Laura held up a hand and flashed a thick band of sparkling diamonds in Josie’s direction. “Grady thought it was bad luck to propose with my mother’s ring since my parents got divorced, but he understood the sentiment—that my mother was trying to pass down something valuable and sentimental to her.”

“It’s beautiful,” Josie said. She waited a beat and pressed on. “Is there anything else you can think of that someone might have taken or even been looking for?”

Laura shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. Nothing that would be worth killing over, certainly.”

But Josie knew that for some criminals, it wasn’t a matter of things being worth killing for—some people killed as easily as they breathed. On the other hand, if Colette had been out in the garden, someone could have potentially gone through her entire house without her even knowing they were in there. So why go outside and confront her? Why kill her in such a cruel and brutal way? Josie thought of the burglaries-turned-murders she had covered in her career. The perpetrators almost always carried guns. If guns weren’t used in the crimes, there were almost always signs of a protracted struggle. Many times, the homeowners were restrained in some way. Colette Fraley looked like she had simply been digging in her garden and dropped dead from natural causes, except for the soil in her airway. Josie had seen plenty of crime scenes and this one was strikingly unusual. There had to be more to it. Josie told Laura about the rosary beads, and she said the same thing that Noah had said; their mother had been burying her broken rosaries in her garden since they were kids—both in the house they’d grown up in and in the smaller house she had bought after the divorce where she was living when she was murdered.

“Is that the only thing she buried in her garden?” Josie asked.

Laura’s eyes narrowed. “What are you getting at?”

“I’m not ‘getting at’ anything,” Josie said. “I’m just trying to piece together what happened to your mother. It helps narrow the suspect pool if we have an idea as to whether the crime was personal or random.”

“Doesn’t Denton PD have other detectives who can work on this?” Laura asked pointedly.

“Of course,” Josie said. “But we’re a little short right now. One of our best detectives is out of action for now, but we have another officer, Finn Mettner, who will be helping with the investigation. He’ll likely be working through the night.”

“Well,” Laura said, her gaze penetrating. “A word to the wise. The best thing you can do right now is be there for Noah.”

Josie’s face flamed red with embarrassment at her implication. Wasn’t she there for Noah right this second? Hadn’t she been the only person besides Colette in his life for years now? Since they’d grown close, he’d only seen his siblings over Christmas. Josie had been the one to try to breathe life back into Colette’s lungs even after she realized the task was damn near impossible. Still, Josie said nothing. The last thing she or Noah needed was a spat between her and Laura, not while the Fraley children were suffering from the loss of their beloved mother.

“I’ll go check on him,” Josie said, and walked up the stairs.