Her Deadly Touch: An absolutely addictive crime thriller and mystery novel (Detective Josie Quinn Book 12)

by Lisa Regan

  Josie trailed Sebastian and Gretchen into the kitchen. Here, too, were white cabinets and countertops, white appliances. Only the table was black. One side of the table held two plates, each one with a sandwich on it, presumably for Faye and her husband. They sat diagonally. The other end of the table was stacked with boxes. Josie took a quick peak. One box held fliers announcing a vigil to be held for the West Denton Crash Victims the evening before the trial. The other boxes held thin candles and paper drip protectors. Block letters on the side of the two other boxes read: 6.5 inch candles with drip protectors. Quantity: 50. Josie said, “Faye was organizing a vigil?”

  “Yes,” said Sebastian. “She has organized many since Nevin passed. She thought doing one on the eve of the trial would be good. Remind people of what was lost.”

  Josie looked over to see Gretchen standing before a small table in the corner of the kitchen. It was shiny black and on top of it were framed photos of the Palazzos’ son, Nevin. Candid photos of a young boy who looked very much like his father except with his mother’s long eyelashes and perfectly straight, narrow nose. In one, he played soccer. In another, he stood next to a Disney character at Disneyworld. A third photo showed him posing with his parents in Times Square. In the final photo, he grinned as his mother planted a kiss on his cheek. He looked so happy.

  Josie took in a deep breath and reminded herself that she had a job to do. Turning back to Sebastian, she said, “What was it that you found?”

  From the kitchen doorway, he bustled over to the table and pointed to one of the place settings. On the napkin beside it, Josie saw two sparkly earrings. Small, gold, diamond-encrusted hoops by the look of them.

  “They’re Tiffany,” Sebastian said. “Very expensive.”

  “They don’t belong to your wife?” Gretchen asked.

  His arm shook as he pointed to them once more with force. “They do belong to my wife! But they’ve been missing for almost three years now. We thought they’d been stolen. I had to file a police report.”

  Gretchen took out her phone and fired off a text. Josie knew that Detective Mettner would be on shift by now and he’d be able to look up the report, if it existed, to confirm Sebastian’s account.

  Sebastian continued, “There was a time that things around the house were going missing. One of my power tools, some of Nevin’s sports equipment, a necklace Nevin had given Faye for Mother’s Day—it wasn’t valuable but it looked very expensive. It had fake diamonds and said #1 Mom on it. His school had a pop-up Christmas shop every year where the kids could buy their parents inexpensive gifts and wrap them themselves. You know, to surprise us and make them feel independent. We just sent him with money in an envelope.”

  Gretchen said, “Did all these things go missing at the same time?”

  “Oh no. It was over the course of about a year, I’d say, and not close together. It was one of those things where we each thought we’d simply misplaced things until the earrings went missing. Those were very costly. That’s when we looked back and began to wonder if someone had been taking things all along. We started locking our doors and being more careful about monitoring anyone who came to the house.”

  Josie asked, “Did you ever report any of those other items as stolen?”

  “No. As I said, we didn’t realize at the time that the things were being stolen.”

  Josie looked back toward the earrings. “Is there any chance that your wife simply found these? Maybe they hadn’t been stolen after all?”

  Sebastian shook his head. “No, no. That’s impossible. Those were three-thousand-dollar earrings. I bought them for Faye for our fifth wedding anniversary. She only wore them on very special occasions and always put them back into her jewelry armoire. Very top drawer, on the left. When we realized they were missing, we tore the entire house apart. They were gone. My wife is not a careless woman, Detective. She did not lose them.”

  Josie said, “Are you sure these are the same ones you gave to your wife?”

  Sebastian’s brows rose. “Oh. Well, of course I can’t be sure. They’re expensive, but they’re not one of a kind. But how many people would just be carrying around three-thousand-dollar earrings?”

  “Are you sure your wife didn’t buy a replacement pair?” Gretchen suggested.

  “Oh no. She was angry with me when I bought them. She said they were entirely too extravagant. There’s no way she would buy a new pair. Besides, we submitted the police report to our insurance company. We did receive a payout.”

  Gretchen’s phone chirped. She swiped and scrolled. “Our colleague confirmed that you filed a report two and a half years ago. Says here that your wife was getting ready for a night out, went to get them, and they were gone. She hadn’t worn them for six months before that so there was no way to know when they’d gone missing or when they could have been stolen.”

  “Which explains why it never made it to a detective’s desk,” Josie said.

  Sebastian spread his hands. “We knew there was no possibility of recovering them or finding who took them. We had had parties. We’d had work done on the house during that six months—a plumber to fix the downstairs toilet, some painters. We had a contractor build a custom shelving unit for Nevin. It could have been anyone. We were too trusting, I guess. Anyway, the officer who took the report told us that the best thing to do would be to present a claim to our insurance company so that’s what we did. Faye didn’t want me to spend the payout on another pair of earrings, so we put it into savings. We were going to take a trip. Nevin wanted to go to Universal Studios. Of course, then he died…”

  Sebastian drifted off. His whole body went still, and his eyes took on a faraway look. Either he was staring into his past or he was dissociating from a present that was too painful to bear. Josie would bet her life savings on the latter. She waited a moment before touching his forearm gently. “Mr. Palazzo?” she said softly.

  He shook his head, as if shaking off a trance. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Sometimes I just… I remember all over again. That day. The reality. It hits me. Even after all this time, it hits me like a truck.”

  “Please,” said Gretchen. “No apologies. Really. Did you touch these earrings?”

  “No,” he said. He looked back toward the hall. “I came in the front door. I thought it was odd that it was unlocked, but then I thought maybe Faye just unlocked it for me. I locked it behind me. I called out to her. Came into the kitchen and she wasn’t here, but the plates were, so I thought everything was fine.”

  “Did you sit to eat?” Josie asked.

  “No,” he said. “I wanted to see my wife. I wanted to eat with my wife. I thought she went to the bathroom but when I looked, the door was open and it was empty. Dark. I searched the rest of the house, calling her name. Nothing. I checked the garage and the yard. Nothing. Then I came back here and called her phone, but it rang.” He pointed to the countertop where a cell phone rested. “That’s when I really started to panic. I went to the neighbors’ houses on either side and across the street. Some people are at work so no one was home. One lady was but hadn’t seen or heard anything.”

  Josie asked, “Do you or any of your close neighbors have security cameras of any kind?”

  He shook his head. “No, I’m afraid none of us do. There has never seemed a need.”

  “When did you notice the earrings?” Gretchen asked.

  “I came back in and checked Faye’s phone—her password is Nevin’s birthday—to see if maybe someone had called her or there was anything that might tell me where she went. There wasn’t, but as I was looking, I was kind of pacing back and forth and then I saw them there.”

  Josie motioned toward Faye’s phone. “Do you mind?”

  “Of course not,” he said. He reached for it, tapped in a code, and handed it to Josie. “But you won’t find more than I did.”

  He was right. Josie searched all text messages, emails, and social media accounts and found nothing that sent up any red flags. In fact, Faye Palazzo seem
ed to do very little but stay at home and attend the support group. There were emails to and from the district attorney’s office informing her of the trial schedule as well as emails between her and the city clerk regarding the vigil she’d been organizing, but other than that, nothing. Just as her husband said.

  Josie said, “Did Faye have any close friends she might have gone to see? Family members?”

  “Oh no,” Sebastian responded. “Her father is a professor at Duke. They rarely speak. Her mother is an ex-pat living in El Salvador. They speak even less.”

  “She’s an only child?” asked Gretchen.

  “Oh, well, her parents fostered children back when they were together, but Faye never grew close to any of them, so yes, she was basically an only child.”

  “What about friends?” Josie asked. “Can you make a list of Faye’s friends? Perhaps we can talk with them?”

  “She doesn’t have friends,” Sebastian said. As if realizing how that sounded, he threw his hands up defensively. “I know, I know, it sounds awful, doesn’t it? When Nevin was alive, she was very active in the Parent Teacher Association and she always had someone to meet with, have coffee with, go to Zumba with and all that, but even those relationships were very superficial. Then once Nevin was killed, well, that was the end of that.”

  “Faye chose not to continue her relationships?” Gretchen asked. Josie could tell by her kinked brow that she, too, was perplexed.

  “No, no,” Sebastian explained. “You see, Faye is very beautiful, and we found that other women were extremely intimidated by her beauty. It was hard for her to get close to people. That’s why she didn’t have friends. That, and, once Nevin died, she really didn’t care about friendship anymore. She didn’t care about anything, really.”

  “How does she spend her days?” Josie asked.

  Sebastian looked around. “She spends her days here. She makes lunch and then she cleans or gardens or runs errands and then she makes dinner. Then after that, we spend time together before bed, and the days, they just… keep passing.”

  It sounded like a terribly sad life only because Josie imagined how much fuller their lives must have been when their son was alive. Faye Palazzo sounded like a woman who was just biding her time until death. But she wasn’t here to speak for herself. They had only Sebastian to provide an accurate picture of Faye and her life.

  Gretchen asked, “What about the other support group members? Did she speak to any of them? Outside of the group?”

  “Oh, well, yes. Occasionally. I think she might have met Dee Tenney for coffee once or twice in the last couple of years. Although last night she talked about leaving the group. I’m sure you know about Krystal. Dee told us at the last group meeting. It’s just devastating. Faye took it really hard.”

  “Was she close to Krystal Duncan?” asked Josie.

  “Oh no. I mean, we had a boy and Krystal had a girl and they were in different grades. Faye knew Krystal before the crash because of PTA activities but didn’t really get to know her until the start of the support group.”

  “Did they speak outside of the group?” Gretchen asked.

  “No, no. But Faye still took the news very hard. We both did. We know exactly what Krystal went through losing her child—and then for her to be killed? It’s unbearably tragic.”

  “Mr. Palazzo,” Josie said. “Were there ever any disagreements within the support group? Any arguments about anything?”

  He thought for a moment. “No, not generally. There was one time that Krystal told us that she had gone to meet with Virgil in jail. I’m not sure when but it was fairly recently. We all reacted badly to that, I’m sorry to say. But we’re all very emotional and those meetings can be very—well, they stir up a lot of emotions. I’m sure you can imagine, things get heated sometimes. Grief is a rollercoaster ride that you can’t get off no matter how badly you want to do so, but no, there was never any true animosity, if that’s what you’re asking. Even after we found out that Krystal had seen Virgil, by the next meeting, all of us were over it. I mean, we were all friends with him before the crash. Probably every one of us at one time or another has wanted to go see him and confront him about what he did. But Krystal didn’t seem very satisfied by her meeting with him.”

  “We understand that at last week’s meeting, Krystal Duncan was upset,” said Gretchen.

  Sebastian’s chin dropped to his chest. “Yes, she was very distressed during that meeting. She lashed out at all of us, but we didn’t think anything of it. We had been so hard on her about the Virgil thing. We kind of had it coming. No one took it personally.”

  Josie suppressed a sigh. Every minute that passed there was less and less to work with. She turned the conversation back to Faye. “What about your wife’s hobbies? Did she have any?”

  “No,” said Sebastian. “Nevin was her whole life until he was killed. Since then, well, neither of us feels like getting out of bed in the morning, much less taking up any kind of activity.”

  Gretchen said, “Did your wife ever explicitly express any suicidal thoughts? Did she talk about killing herself? Maybe how she would do it if she was going to do it?”

  He shook his head. “No, no. She only ever said that she wished she was dead.”

  Josie said, “Mr. Palazzo, what do you believe happened here this morning?”

  He spread his hands. A pleading look came into his eyes. “I think someone took my wife. They came here and took her, and those earrings were left behind as some kind of message.”

  “What kind of message?” Gretchen asked.

  “How should I know? But my wife is gone. You have to find her. You have to help me.”

  Josie held up a hand before he could become hysterical. “We’re going to help you, Mr. Palazzo. I promise you that. Who would want to do something like this? Do you have any idea?”

  He rubbed his hands down over his face. “I don’t know. I have no idea.”

  Gretchen asked, “Were either of you having any issues with anyone recently? Feuds, bad blood, disagreements? That sort of thing?”

  “No, no. We keep to ourselves.”

  “But someone was here,” Josie argued. “In your home. They left behind earrings that they’ve either held onto for three years or that they bought as replicas of the ones that were stolen. What do you make of that?”

  “A stalker,” Sebastian said. “It has to be a stalker. Faye is a very beautiful woman.”

  “You’ve mentioned that,” Josie said. “Has she had issues with stalkers in the past?”

  “When she lived in New York she had trouble with someone. That was handled in the courts. Then when she first moved here, there was another gentleman that I believed was taking too much of an interest in her. A man at the gym. She reported him to the gym management and they expelled him. That was the last we heard from him.”

  “How long ago was this?” Gretchen asked.

  “Oh, maybe fifteen years?”

  Which meant there would no longer be a record of the man who’d been kicked out of Faye Palazzo’s gym, and it was unlikely the same man would have stalked her for a decade and a half without making himself known to the Palazzos before this.

  Josie asked, “Did either of you have any reason to believe that Faye was being stalked recently?”

  “No, nothing. She would have told me. I know she would have. I have always been hypervigilant when it comes to her and I haven’t noticed anything, but what other explanation is there?”

  Josie had an inkling of another possible explanation for Faye Palazzo’s disappearance, but she wasn’t about to share it with Sebastian. “Mr. Palazzo,” she said. “Detective Palmer and I are going to step outside for a few minutes. First, can you tell us what Faye was wearing when you left this morning. Was she still in pajamas?”

  “She had already changed. It was, uh, like a jumpsuit. Shorts and blouse but one piece. Linen, pink, baggy.”

  Josie nodded while Gretchen jotted it down. Then she said, “We need to call in some
more units and get things moving. If you wouldn’t mind not touching anything here in the kitchen until our team has had a chance to go over it, we’d appreciate that.”

  His eyes lit up. “You believe me! Thank God. Yes, I mean no, I won’t touch anything. Thank you. I can wait in the living room.”

  Josie thought of the massive, sultry photo of Faye on the living room wall. “Why don’t you wait on the front stoop?” she suggested.

  Chapter Twenty

  Sebastian Palazzo paced back and forth along his front walk while Josie and Gretchen stood several yards away near Gretchen’s car. They had called for two patrol units to canvass the neighborhood although they didn’t expect anything to come from it. The street was quiet, with very little traffic, and if the neighbors on either side and across the street hadn’t seen anything of note, then it was unlikely anyone else had. Still, they had to try. Another unit would be assigned to search relevant places: the memorial site and anywhere else within walking distance. Josie also dispatched a unit to take a drive through the cemetery where Nevin Palazzo had been buried. Gretchen had called the Evidence Response Team to have them process the Palazzos’ kitchen and front door.

  “You’re not getting prints from those earrings,” Josie told her after she hung up with Officer Hummel.

  “I know,” Gretchen said. “It’s a long shot, and if Krystal Duncan hadn’t turned up dead two days ago, I wouldn’t even be taking a report.”

  “But both Krystal and Faye were in the same support group.”

  “Yes,” Gretchen said.

  “Both were home until they weren’t, and both disappeared and left their phones, purses, and vehicles behind.”

  “Yes,” Gretchen repeated.

  Josie glanced toward Sebastian, but he continued to pace. His head was down, and it looked like he was muttering something to himself. “He seems a little overbearing.”