Nine
Hillary handed Josie a stack of pages containing the logs she had promised and then led her and Mettner back to the pool area. Again, the heat and humidity hit Josie like a wall. Her clothing was almost dry, for which she was grateful. Hillary said, “I’m going back to headquarters to make some phone calls, see if I can’t get a list of swim team members for your department to interview.”
“Thank you,” said Josie.
Mettner pocketed his phone and took the stack of pages from Josie, tucking them under one arm. “The library was the last place we know for sure that Nysa went last night, so I’m going over there to see if I can get footage of her arriving and leaving. Try to nail down a timeline and see if she spoke to anyone or left with anyone.”
“Perfect,” Josie said. “I’m going to check out Nysa’s apartment.”
She watched as Mettner strode off. Then her gaze flicked toward Sawyer and Owen, who had secured Nysa’s body in a body bag and lifted it onto the stretcher for transport. Josie felt sadness tug at her heart. Dr. Feist was gone, likely headed back to the morgue ahead of the body so that she could talk to Nysa’s parents and ask that one of them give a positive ID. The thought that a family was about to be shattered cut deep, as it always did in her line of work. She pushed her own feelings down. Her job was to find answers for that family. She could never bring them peace, but she could discover what had happened to their daughter. It was a paltry offering in the face of their loss, but Josie would do her best.
As Josie’s gaze lifted from the body bag, she met Sawyer’s eyes. His thin mouth was set, and his blue eyes flashed—some combination of grief and anger. Like Josie, he had experienced loss in his personal life. Sometimes the job got to you, especially when the dead were young.
Noah stepped directly in her path, blocking her view of Sawyer. “That guy is everywhere,” he groused.
She hadn’t even seen Noah come in. “Hey,” she said. “Where have you been?”
“At the station, why?”
“I called you. You didn’t answer. Mett said you weren’t at the station.”
He looked over his shoulder, where Sawyer stood staring while Owen finished securing the body bag. “I was—I had—the Chief gave me something to do. Why is that guy staring at you?”
Josie said, “What?”
Noah turned back to her and lowered his voice although Sawyer and Owen had already started for the doors. “Sawyer. Everywhere we go, he’s there. I know he left Dalrymple Township to come work for Denton, but still. Doesn’t the city have other EMTs?”
Josie put a hand on her hip. “What are you even talking about right now?”
Sawyer and Owen disappeared into the lobby. The doors swung shut, leaving Josie and Noah alone. “He comes to our house for dinner. We see him at Rockview when we go visit your grandmother. Now we’re at work, and here he is.”
Josie said, “He’s family now, Noah.”
“Is he? He’s not related to you, only to your grandmother.”
Lisette Matson had raised Josie as her granddaughter for decades before the two found out they weren’t blood-related. Josie had grown up believing that Lisette’s son, Eli Matson, was her father. Eli had died when Josie was only six, leaving Josie in an abusive household with a woman she believed to be her mother. Lisette had made it her life’s work to get Josie out of there and raise her. For years, Josie and Lisette had only had each other. Then a few months ago, Sawyer had shown up on the scene, claiming to be Lisette’s grandson from a relationship that Eli had had with a woman he’d been seeing before Josie came along. DNA proved this to be true. Lisette was over the moon to have another grandchild. It had been a little more difficult for Josie, worrying that things between her and Lisette might change. She was doing her best to accept the new dynamic, though and welcome Sawyer into their lives. Anything less than that would break Lisette’s heart, and Josie was not about to do that.
She said, “You were the one who encouraged me to get to know him.”
“I think you know him well enough now.”
“What’s going on with you?”
Noah huffed. “Nothing. I’m just annoyed.”
She regarded him with a raised brow. “Annoyed? Well, stow it. Right now, we have a case to focus on, Fraley.”
Josie detected a slight flush in his cheeks. He waved his notebook in the air. “I am focused. I talked to Mett on the phone and also to Gretchen. What are you thinking? Accident?”
“I don’t know, but this doesn’t feel right.”
Noah said, “You think this is a homicide?”
“No. I don’t see how it could be. There was no one else here.”
“Wasn’t there a security guard?”
“He was at the desk the entire time Nysa was in the pool area.”
“Could someone have slipped in through the back?”
“I don’t think so,” Josie said. “According to the logs Hillary gave us, no one but the guard used their key card to access the rear doors either last night or this morning.”
“Is it possible someone could have come in here yesterday and spent the entire night?”
“I don’t see how they would get out after the fact without setting off an alarm or being seen on camera.”
“True,” Noah agreed. “If no one killed her, then what? She accidentally drowned?”
“Unlikely. She’s the university’s star swimmer.”
“She was intoxicated?”
“Given her behavior on the video we saw, she didn’t appear inebriated,” Josie said. “Certainly not enough to accidentally drown. If she was that messed up, I would have expected her to be stumbling or at least slurring her words. That leaves us with a sudden medical event. Although that doesn’t explain why she came to the pool hours before her normal swim time without a bathing suit. We need more information. Once Dr. Feist does the autopsy and we talk to people who knew her and who were in contact with her in the last day or so, it might be easier to conclude whether this was some kind of accident or suicide.”
“Suicide,” Noah echoed. “We haven’t touched on that yet.”
“Her roommate doesn’t believe she would commit suicide. Gretchen’s on her way to the hotel to get the parents. They might be able to shed some light on Nysa’s state of mind.”
Noah sighed. “This is terrible. You okay?”
“I’m fine,” Josie said.
It was her stock answer whether she was fine or not. Finding Nysa in the pool, not being able to revive her, had shaken Josie. But death and tragedy were the daily bread of her job. She was a professional, an expert at setting aside her own sadness so that she could do her work. Later, she’d have to meet with Nysa’s parents herself. She wanted to be able to answer at least some of their questions.
Noah didn’t press the issue. Instead, he said, “Where do you want me?”
Josie said, “Campus police headquarters. Work with Chief Hahlbeck to get as many swim team members and swim coaching staff as you can possibly get in there today for questioning.”
“You got it.”