Page 75 of Dead Drift

He squeezed Finley’s hand before letting go and stepping forward to greet Joel Hood’s mother.

Veronica smiled as she slid her Kate Spade glasses on—the fashion knowledge courtesy of Finley. “My, aren’t you a handsome visitor?” Veronica said. “And”—she looked past Griffin at his wife—“a beautiful young lady.” She set her book aside. “Have we met before?”

“No, ma’am,” Griffin said.

“And polite as well.” She shook her head. “I always tried to raise my Joel with manners, but he required constant reminding. Such an inept boy. Just like his father.”

Ouch. Most definitely an overbearing mother.

“Joel . . . your son?” Griffin said, sitting beside Finley on the floral love seat facing Veronica Hood.

“Do you know my Joel?” Veronica asked.

“We had the pleasure of meeting him in Texas,” Finley said.

“He likes it down there. Only comes home to visit twice a year.” She certainly didn’t seem pleased with that.

“On special occasions?” Finley asked.

“Well, he claims his May trip is for my birthday, but I know it’s really for her.”

“Her?” Griffin asked, scooting forward on the loveseat.

“Stacey,” Veronica said with a touch of disdain, her teeth—stained by time—clenched.

“And Stacey is . . . ?” Finley gently pressed.

“She was Joel’s college sweetheart,” Veronica said.

“And he still comes back to visit her?” Griffin asked, though he feared there was a far darker dynamic at play.

“Oh no,” Veronica said, swishing her hand as if swatting away an unwanted insect. “Stacey went missing right before the end of Joel’s junior year in college.”

“In May?”

“Yes. Early May. The sixth. At least he’s always here for the sixth. Sometimes he comes a few days before and stays through the sixth. And sometimes he comes on the sixth and remains a few days after to visit, but he’s always here on the sixth.”

“And your birthday is?” Griffin asked, wondering why she was so confident Joel’s visits weren’t for her birthday.

“Not until the end of the month,” she said. “The twenty-eighth. Oh, he says work is always more hectic at the end of the month. That’s his excuse for coming earlier, but I know it’s a farce. He comes for the anniversary of when she went missing. It’s for her. After they met, everything became about her.”

He was coming back to celebrate the anniversary of murdering his girlfriend. Griffin stiffened. What a sicko. “And the other time of year he visits?” he inquired before they got knee-deep in questions about Stacey and the thread got dropped. Always best to be thorough, and Veronica had said Joel came twice a year.

“Christmas,” she said. “He comes the twenty-fourth and leaves the twenty-sixth. But I suppose at least he comes. Most folks here have no one at all at Christmastime. No one even brings them a gift.” She shook her head. “Shame on their family members. It’s not right. After all the work we do raising them, they just ignore us as we get older. At least Joel comes twice a year.”

“Is Joel your only child?”

“Yes.”

So that aspect of the profile had been correct.

“Is Joel married?” He’d hoped not, for a myriad of reasons.

“No. He never married. Poor thing. He was going to propose, and then Stacey went missing. He was heartbroken.”

“He told you he was going to propose?”

“Yes. He begged me to give him my mother’s ring, but he came back that night and was never quite the same. Stacey went missing a few days later.” She clutched her bony fingers together, wringing her hands. “I tried talking to him, but when pressed, he just said she never showed up for their date the night he planned to propose.” She sniffed and rolled her eyes in disdain. “Of course, I knew that was not the case. He was heartbroken over her disappearance. Most assumed something bad happened to her, but I think she ran off with the man she was seeing behind Joel’s back.”