Save Her Soul: An absolutely unputdownable crime thriller and mystery novel (Detective Josie Quinn Book 9)

by Lisa Regan

  Lisette’s words cut into her morass of horrifying thoughts. “Josie! Look at me.”

  Josie realized she had started pacing. She stopped and met Lisette’s eyes. “Gram, this seems a little inappropriate to me. You barely know this guy. This isn’t right. It’s a sweet thing for him to do, but what is he even talking about? Receptive? What does that mean?”

  Lisette stood up, grabbing her walker and shuffling over to the foot of her bed to the spot Josie had just vacated. She sat down and patted the bed. “Please, Josie. Come sit.”

  Reluctantly, Josie lowered herself onto the bed. Their shoulders brushed against one another. Lisette found Josie’s hand and took it, squeezing tightly. “There’s something I need to tell you, dear.”

  Josie’s heart began to thunder, the roar in her ears growing more deafening by the second. Why did she feel afraid? What could Lisette possibly have to tell her that had to do with Sawyer Hayes? If he was conning her or pursuing her, Josie could still stop it. She was a police officer. She’d come after him with the full weight of her department.

  Lisette’s bony fingers tightened around Josie’s hand until it hurt. Lisette gave news the same way that Josie did—swiftly and without qualifiers. Josie had always thought of it as ripping off the Band-Aid. The sooner you got it over with, the sooner the person could process what they were about to learn.

  Lisette said, “Sawyer is my grandson.”

  A perfect silence fell over the room. Everything became so still that even the dust motes floating in the shaft of light coming through the window seemed to freeze. The bustling noises of the rest of the facility outside of Lisette’s door receded into nothingness. Surely, Josie had heard her wrong.

  “What did you say, Gram?”

  Lisette took a deep breath. On the exhale, she repeated, “Sawyer is my grandson.”

  Josie started counting off seconds in her head, trying to maintain her composure. He was running a con. That son of a bitch. One, two, three. She sprung up from her seat, tearing her hand out of Lisette’s grasp, pacing frenetically in the tiny room. “Gram, I don’t know what he told you, but he obviously thinks he can get something out of you. Some grand inheritance or something. This is a con. He’s a con artist. I knew there was something I didn’t like about this guy. Listen to me, I want you to stop all contact with him until I sort this out. I’ll talk to the front desk and tell them he’s not to come in here any longer.”

  “Josie,” Lisette said. “Sawyer is my grandson.”

  Josie pointed to her own chest. “I’m your grandchild. Me. Just me. Sawyer Hayes is a complete stranger.”

  Lisette stood, pushing her walker out of the way. Using the bed to hold onto, she made her way to her nightstand and opened the drawer. She pulled out a sheaf of papers and brought them to Josie. “This is real, Josie.”

  Trying to calm the tsunami of anxiety about to overtake her, Josie took the pages and studied them. She was looking at a DNA report of some kind. It was from one of those sites where you sent in your DNA sample via saliva, and they analyzed your ancestral origins and also, if you chose to participate, they would put you into a database with other people and match you with family members you might not know you had. According to the report, Sawyer Hayes shared twenty point six percent DNA amounting to thirty-eight segments with Lisette Matson. Life Lineage predicts that Lisette Matson is your grandmother, concluded the report.

  Josie’s hands shook. She placed the report onto the bed. “When did you do this? When did you submit your DNA? Who—who helped you? Was it him?”

  Lisette reached for Josie’s arm, but Josie tore it away. “It was several weeks ago, dear and yes, Sawyer helped me. He came to me a couple of months ago—”

  “So he lied the other day when he said that he ran into you here!” Josie said, realizing quickly that her voice had risen to a shout.

  “Josie, please,” Lisette said. “Stay calm. I’ll explain everything.”

  “This isn’t real,” Josie said, pointing to the report. “This is a con. He did this to trick you. I don’t know what he wants or what he thinks he’s going to get from you but it’s a lie. All of it is a lie. Gram, you’re vulnerable.”

  At this, Lisette wobbled and grabbed her walker to steady herself. “Don’t talk to me like that, young lady. I’m not some old, doddering fool. I’ve still got my mind. I think I can figure out what’s real and what’s not.” She pointed to the pages. “This is real. I took the test. I had one of the nurses here help me log into the site myself so I could make sure he wouldn’t bring me doctored results. I knew you would react badly to this, which is why I didn’t tell you right away.”

  “How long have you known?”

  Lisette sighed. “The results only came back about a week ago.”

  “When were you going to tell me?”

  Lisette threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know, okay, Josie? Soon. But not while you’re working a big case or while you’re consumed with the flooding going on in this town. I was going to tell you. How could I not?”

  Josie felt her legs weaken. She sat back on the edge of the bed. Lisette joined her. Neither of them spoke for a long moment. When Josie was sure she could speak without letting a sob escape, she said, “How is this possible?”

  Lisette smoothed the fabric of her slacks over her thighs, looking at the floor. “I don’t know if you remember me telling you this a few years ago but your dad—my Eli—he dated Lila Jensen for a long time before you came along.”

  “I remember,” Josie whispered. “You didn’t like her. You were happy when they broke up.”

  Lisette nodded.

  If only that had been the end of it. If only Lila had stayed away forever. Eli would still be alive. Lisette would be whole. Josie would never have met either Eli or Lisette, but they would have had good lives. Lisette would never have had to bear the horrific burden of losing a child. But instead, Lila had gone to live somewhere a couple of hours away from Denton. She’d gotten a job with a housecleaning service and gone to work at the home of Shannon and Christian Payne. They were both successful in their careers—she as a chemist for Quarmark Pharmaceutical and he as the head of marketing for the same company. They’d just had twin daughters. When Shannon realized that Lila had been stealing her jewelry, she reported it to Lila’s boss, leading to Lila’s firing. At that point, in her early twenties, Lila was already mentally ill as well as sociopathic, with likely more than one personality disorder. In retaliation, she’d burned the Paynes’ house to the ground and as the fire raged, she stole one of the three-week-old twin girls, leaving the other to be rescued.

  That baby had been Josie.

  The Paynes believed their daughter perished in the fire, but in reality, Lila had taken her and returned to Denton after a year away from Eli Matson. She’d brought infant Josie to Eli and told him that she was his daughter—that Lila had stayed away for the entire pregnancy and beyond, but that she couldn’t keep his child a secret from him any longer. Eli hadn’t had any reason to doubt her. There were no DNA tests back then, no way to prove paternity, not that it had ever crossed Eli’s mind. He’d taken Josie in as his own and loved her more than anything in the entire world until his death.

  Josie said, “You also told me that Dad was seeing someone else after Lila left. It was her, wasn’t it?”

  Lisette nodded. “Sawyer’s mother. Her name was Deirdre Hayes. They’d only gone on a few dates, but they really liked one another. When Lila came back to Denton with you and told Eli that you were his daughter, he broke things off with her. He wanted you. He was so happy to be your father. He wanted to try to make it work with Lila. Give you a real family. He didn’t know then that that would be impossible.”

  “Sawyer’s mother—why didn’t she ever tell anyone? Did she even tell Dad?”

  “His mother passed on last year. Cancer. Before she died, she told him the truth about his father. All his life he believed his dad was dead—which was true, I suppose. You two are about the sa
me age, so Eli died when he was about six as well. She wanted him to know the truth before she died. She went to tell Eli that she was pregnant and instead, she met Lila.”

  “Lila threatened her,” Josie said. “Because Lila didn’t let anyone get in the way of what she wanted, and back then, she wanted Eli.”

  “Yes,” Lisette breathed. “Evidently it was enough for her to never contact Eli again. Then he was gone.”

  “And she wasn’t about to mess with Lila,” Josie said.

  “Yes.”

  Josie put her face in her hands. “My God.”

  After a few moments, Lisette slid her arm around Josie’s shoulder and pulled her close. “Josie, this changes nothing between us, do you understand? You’re still my granddaughter. You always will be. It’s just that Sawyer—well, his whole life he’s never known the truth, and I am the last of the family he has on his father’s side.”

  Josie stood up, still feeling shaky. “Gram,” she said. “You know that I would never stand in the way of you and Sawyer. If this is real, and he’s really your grandson, then of course, I—it’s okay. I—”

  She couldn’t finish the sentence.

  “Josie,” Lisette said, reaching for her.

  Josie backed away. Tears threatened again, and she wondered once more what was happening to her. Her hands went up in front of her, in a defensive posture. “I just—I just need time,” she told Lisette. “Time to—”

  To what? she wondered. What did this mean? She was no blood relation to Lisette. They’d been through so much, and it had always been them against the world. For a long time, Ray had been part of their small group. But most of the time it was just Josie and Lisette. Now there was someone else. A stranger with more right to Lisette’s affection than Josie.

  She couldn’t breathe. It took momentous effort to force her body into motion. She went over and kissed Lisette’s cheek. “We’ll talk soon,” she choked out. “I have to work.”

  Before her grandmother could protest, Josie left the room, the scent of flowers following her.

  Thirty-Nine

  In the car, Gretchen waited, scrolling on her phone. Josie made it halfway there before she doubled over, her lungs on fire, a lump in her throat so thick she thought she would choke. A few seconds later, she heard a car door slam and then Gretchen hovered nearby. “Boss?”

  Josie put a hand up to signal for Gretchen to give her a moment. But her breath wouldn’t come. She felt Gretchen’s hand on the nape of her neck. Slowly, she straightened. Gretchen kept her palm between Josie’s shoulder blades and steered her toward the car. Gretchen took Josie’s keys from her jacket pocket and then deposited her into the passenger’s seat. She went around and got into the driver’s seat. Firing the car up, she said, “I’m not going to ask. I don’t need to know unless you want me to know.”

  “Thank you,” Josie managed.

  “I’m going to talk now,” Gretchen told her.

  Josie nodded.

  Gretchen pulled away, navigating the streets of Denton that were free from flooding while she spoke. “The police department from the town in Georgia where Floyd Urban lives called the station while we were out and left a message. I just got off the phone with them. As far as they can tell, Floyd Urban’s story checks out. They questioned several people in his life. No one even knew he had a sister. No neighbors remember ever seeing her there and one of his neighbors lived next door to him from the day he bought his house.”

  “Floyd was telling the truth, then,” Josie said. “Vera lied about going to stay with him on bedrest while she was pregnant with Beverly.”

  “It appears that way. Listen, it’s very late. I’m going to drive to the stationhouse so you can drop me and Poppy off at my car. I think you should go home. Eat, sleep. Tomorrow, we’ll meet back at work and check and see which auto mechanic shops were open thirty or more years ago. It’s a pretty slim lead, but we can try to track down Vera’s friend and see if he knows anything that will help us find the killer—or killers.”

  Josie nodded.

  “Will you be okay to drive home or should I call Noah?”

  Josie shook her head. “No. Please don’t. I’ll be fine.”

  Josie had no memory of driving home but when she stepped through her front door, she was immediately rushed by two jumping dogs and one very excited toddler. “JoJo!” Harris said, throwing his little arms around her legs. She scooped him up and smelled his blond hair while he chatted away about everything he had seen and done that day: the dogs fighting over a tennis ball; the latest episode of Paw Patrol; the trip he and Misty had taken to the command post to drop off baked goods; the cookies Misty wouldn’t let him have for breakfast. The list went on, seemingly endless, and Josie couldn’t help but smile as she always did at his innocence and unbridled excitement about everything. Josie carried him into the kitchen where Misty was preparing dinner. She was using pots and pans that Josie hadn’t even known they owned.

  From her place at the stove, she smiled at Josie. “Harris,” she said. “Give JoJo a few minutes to get settled in.”

  “Settled in to what?” Harris asked.

  Josie laughed. “It’s fine,” she said, taking a seat at the kitchen table and holding Harris in her lap as he prattled on.

  When he tired of telling her every minute detail of his day, he hopped down and chased after Trout and Pepper. Misty said, “Noah called me.”

  Josie took out her cell phone and logged in to find five missed calls from Noah.

  Misty said, “Lisette called him. He’s stuck at work, and he couldn’t reach you.”

  Josie massaged her temples. “What is this? Some kind of network you guys have? Has anyone else been notified that my grandmother has a long-lost grandson, and she’s worried that I might lose my shit?”

  Misty shrugged. “You’ve lost your shit before. This is a whole lot to take in.”

  She turned off the burners on the stove and sat down across from Josie, focusing all of her attention on Josie’s face. Her blue eyes bore into Josie, making her feel like she was the only person on the planet. Squirming in her chair, she waited for the barrage of pitying questions, but they didn’t come. Misty said, “Did you check this guy out?”

  Josie resisted the urge to come around the table and hug Misty. “Not yet.”

  “Don’t you think we should get that over with at least?”

  Josie laughed. “You know me very well.”

  “I’ll get the laptop.”

  Josie downed more ibuprofen and spent the next hour searching the internet and every database she had access to for Deirdre and Sawyer Hayes. Everything checked out. There was an obituary for Deirdre from the year before. From what Josie could gather, she’d moved the two of them out of Denton shortly after Sawyer was born. Josie wondered what, exactly, Lila had said to Deirdre that had made her feel she had to not just stay out of Lila’s way but leave town altogether? They’d lived for a long time in Williamsport. Sawyer had gone to college at Penn State, then hopped around the state a bit before settling just outside Denton a few years earlier and taking the EMS job in nearby Dalrymple Township.

  “There’s nothing here,” Josie told Misty as she placed a plate heaped high with steak and steamed vegetables in front of her.

  “You mean there’s nothing suspicious.”

  “Right.”

  Josie heard the rapid clickety-clack of dog feet on the tile of the foyer. A moment later, Harris hollered excitedly, “Noah!”

  A few minutes later, after properly greeting child and dogs, Noah entered the kitchen. He looked around and went straight for the stove to make himself a plate. “Misty,” he said. “Josie and I have been talking, and we’d like you to move in full-time.”

  Misty laughed. “You know, my cooking’s not that good. But thank you.”

  Around a mouthful of food, Josie said, “Trust me, your cooking is the best.”

  Noah sat down at the table with a plate of food and dug in. “Or maybe it’s that Josie’s co
oking is just that terrible.”

  Josie said, “I’d get mad but he’s actually right about that. Plus, his cooking is only passable.”

  Noah chuckled. “And I would get mad about that but it’s true.”

  They ate in silence. Misty went in search of Harris so he could join them. Noah put his fork down and regarded Josie. “Are we going to talk about it?”

  She said nothing.

  “Josie,” he said. He left the questions unspoken. He knew that if he asked her if she was okay, she’d say she was fine. She was always fine. But he wasn’t going to leave it alone. Not until she said something. He never left her alone with anything. Sometimes it was maddening, but she understood that he was trying to tell her something. He was going to be there for her whether she liked it or not.

  She said, “I’m still in a little bit of shock.”

  “I can imagine,” he said. “Lisette wanted me to tell you that this doesn’t change anything.”

  But of course it did, Josie thought. It changes everything, she wanted to shout at him, but she didn’t. What she wanted more than anything was for this conversation to be over. By now, she knew there was only one way to accomplish that. She mustered a smile for Noah and said, “I just need some time, okay?”

  He smiled back and nodded. “You got it.”

  That night, sleep was even harder to come by than the night before. Her mind was so full, it felt like it might explode. Her thoughts swirled with questions about Lisette and her new grandson, Sawyer, and the Urban case. Beverly, Vera, the WORMM club, the Mayor, Ray. Had Vera really been some kind of upscale drug dealer, peddling painkillers to rich women? What else was the Mayor not telling Josie? What did Ray have to do with any of it and how had Beverly gotten his jacket? Why had Vera hidden all these years if she knew exactly who killed her own child? Who killed her? Was it the same person who killed Beverly? Was all of it drug-related or was there something else in play?