Gretchen gave her the thumbs-up and headed to the stairwell door. Josie followed her, waiting till they were in the stairwell and the door was closed to tell her about the plan to meet Alice the next morning.
Gretchen looked around the cramped stairwell. “You don’t want Amber to know?”
“Just humor me, okay?” Josie responded. “Alice doesn’t think this is a safe place to meet. The only thing different around here is our new press liaison.”
“But she has no connection to anyone here. How could she be dangerous to our mystery woman?” Gretchen asked.
“She has connections to the Mayor who has connections to city council. Maybe it’s not the police that Alice is worried about. Maybe it’s someone else. Someone higher up.”
Gretchen pursed her lips as she considered this. “Seems like a stretch, but there’s no harm in keeping this from Amber, so she won’t hear it from me.”
Josie thanked her and headed home.
Dinner was fabulous, as always, and with Patrick and his new girlfriend, Brenna, there, Harris had new adults to regale with stories of the bugs he had seen outside; his grandmother’s false teeth; and the exploits of Pepper and Trout. Josie laughed when everyone else did, but her mind was on the case. After dinner, Patrick and Brenna returned to campus and the rest of them went into the living room and watched the local news, which ran the spot about Beverly and Vera Urban as their top story. Josie sat on the couch with Trout on one side and Misty’s dog, Pepper, on the other.
From his spot on the floor where he was putting together a Duplo Lego set with Harris, Noah laughed. “The Chief must be thrilled. For the first time in a week, the top story isn’t Quail Hollow.”
Josie listened as the anchor read off the scant details that Denton PD had offered: the identity of the victim recovered during the flooding on Hempstead had been verified as Beverly Urban; confirmation that Beverly had been murdered; the fact that Beverly had been a former student at Denton East High back in 2004, and that her mother, Vera Urban, could not be located. The tip line flashed across the screen, and then the newscast moved on to the next story.
“You think we’ll get any calls?” Noah asked.
“No,” Josie answered. “No way is Alice calling the press. No one else in the world noticed that Vera and Beverly hadn’t simply moved away. It’s like they had no one in their lives.”
“Except a killer,” Noah said.
“And whoever Beverly’s baby belonged to,” Josie added.
Twenty-Four
2004
Downtown Denton was crowded on a Saturday morning. Josie parked her grandmother’s car in one of the public parking lots and took a stroll down Aymar Avenue. The day was gorgeous with perfect blue skies, sunshine, and a light, cool breeze that tickled her bare arms. It was supposed to get hotter later in the day, but at noon it was still pleasant. Until she was almost to the construction site and heard the noises: men shouting, the ear-shattering metallic pounding of a hydraulic hammer, the hum of loaders, the squeal of drills, the roar of excavators, and the clang of their diggers as they scraped away earth and rock. Outside the six-story structure that was being built on the corner of Aymar and Stockton, a tall temporary chain-link fence had been erected along the sidewalk. Someone had affixed bright orange safety netting over it to alert anyone walking past that the area was potentially unsafe. Josie found the gate that Ray had told her about, which had several metal signs on it warning anyone not working on the site to stay out. On the other side sat a man in an orange helmet and vest, perched on a concrete barrier reading a magazine.
“Hey,” Josie called to him. He didn’t look up. “Hey,” she said again. “I’m looking for Ray Quinn.”
Without looking at her, the man pulled a walkie-talkie from his belt and squeezed a button. “I need Quinn,” he barked. “Girlfriend’s out here.”
He went back to reading his magazine while Josie waited for Ray to appear. Five minutes later, he emerged, wearing his coveralls and a white tank top stained light brown with dirt. Sweat glistened along his arms and gave his face a sheen. He waited till they were out of sight of the gatekeeper before giving her a quick kiss.
“How much time do you have?” Josie asked.
“Half hour,” Ray said. “Let’s walk down to the other corner. There’s an ice cream place.”
“Only a half hour?” Josie asked. “Ray!”
He slid his hand into hers as they walked. “I’ll see you tonight. After work.”
“No, you won’t,” Josie said. “You’ll be asleep right after dinner. Ray, this job is too much.”
“I just have to get used to it. It’s a long day out in the heat. Jo, it’s only on the weekends.”
She tugged at his hand, pulling him closer to her. “The weekends are the only time I get to see you. How long are you going to be working this job?”
“School is almost out, Jo. Then I’ll be able to work during the week.”
“I thought we were going to lifeguard together at the community center this summer,” she said. “Like last summer. We’d see each other every day.”
Ray let go of her hand and slung his arm around her shoulders, pulling her tight to his side. Sweat soaked into her linen dress, but she didn’t push him away. “I make more at this job, Jo.”
They came to an intersection, stopping at the Do Not Walk sign. Josie’s gaze dropped to her feet. “Since when do you need to make more than you did last summer? Is something wrong? Is everything okay with your mom?”
“Oh, Jo,” Ray sighed. He pulled her out of the way of other pedestrians as the sign changed to Walk. They stood on the curb together and Ray turned her to face him. “I was going to surprise you, but the real reason I took this job is for you.”
Josie looked into his eyes. “For me? I’d rather see you. Next year we both leave for college. I want to take advantage of the time we have now.”
He pulled her into him, wrapping his arms around her, locking hands across her lower back. Now the front of her dress would be soaked, but she didn’t care. “Remember how you said you wanted to go to the beach?”
“Ray! What are you saying?”
“If I work this job for two months, I’ll have enough to take you to the beach for a whole week and enough to put away for college and help my mom with bills. I was going to surprise you with the trip at the end of the summer. I already talked to your grandmother. She’s going to help me plan the vacation.”
Josie couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across her face. She pulled him in closer, her cheek against his damp neck. “Ray!” she squealed. “I can’t believe it! A whole week? Are you sure?”
“Yes. I already worked it out with your Gram, and my mom said it was fine too. It’s going to be so much fun. A little getaway before senior year starts.”
Josie practically skipped through the intersection when the light changed again, the Walk sign blinking on. She held tightly to Ray’s hand, feeling a sense of euphoria she almost never experienced. Up until she turned fourteen and went to live with Lisette, her life had been filled with trauma and abuse. Any vacation was out of the question. She was lucky if she ate on a daily basis. Once her grandmother got custody of her, she’d tried to provide Josie with as many fun adventures as possible. It was Lisette who had first taken Josie on a trip to the beach the summer after her freshman year. Josie had instantly fallen in love with the small seaside town of Ocean City, New Jersey, and the ocean. Lisette had managed to take her back there for a few overnight trips, but she had always wanted to spend a whole week there. Now it was within reach, and she’d be going with Ray. She felt like she was floating.