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If Josie had been in that position, would she have considered her mentor’s implied offer to keep her abusive husband away from her in exchange for ruling a death accidental? Especially given the fact that there wasn’t a shred of evidence to suggest that it wasnotan accident?
Josie knew a thing or two about making compromises and messy decisions from a place of fear. “I understand,” she said.
Anya let out a breath. “Thank you. I’m not proud of it—that I took this into account when I made my decision—but Josie, the only reason I was comfortable ruling Jana’s manner of death an accident was because, as Garrick pointed out to me, if the police came up with evidence later that Jana had been murdered, we could always change it. But from what you’ve told me, they never did.”
“You’re right,” Josie said. “As far as I know, but it didn’t stop the public from speculating or casting Mathias Tobin as the villain.”
“Because he was the last to see her alive?”
Josie nodded. “From what I’ve learned so far, he actually followed her that night until he lost her on a side street. He lived with her, too. They were foster siblings. In fact, he and his other foster sister, Hallie Kent, raised Jana from the age of nine. He was like a father to her. I think that gave people the belief that he may have had reason to kill her—that prior relationship—and the fact that he had previous allegations against him for a violent crime probably contributed.”
“Well, if he did kill her, he did a hell of a job of leaving no trace of himself whatsoever. You said he was Keri Cryer’s boyfriend? That is a direct connection to the Jana Melburn case—for which I performed the autopsy. Is he a suspect?”
Josie said, “He’s a person of interest. We need to speak with him.”
“Did you talk to Sharon Eddy’s grandmother?”
“I did,” Josie said. “Her daughter—Sharon’s mother—was the clerk at the gas station where Jana and Mathias were last seen speaking on the night she went missing.”
“My God. Sharon Eddy couldn’t have been more than ten years old when Jana Melburn died.”
“She was nine,” Josie said.
“Why would someone do that? Why kill the child of the woman who saw Mathias and Jana together for the last time? This makes no sense. Keri Cryer’s murder doesn’t make sense either. Why kill the girlfriend of Jana Melburn’s older foster brother? What does it accomplish?”
Trout stopped once more, this time scenting the air, trying to discern something neither of them could smell. “Anya,” Josie said. “The killer is trying to get your attention. The connections to the Melburn case? You did the autopsy. The branding? That was a direct message to you. I’m really not sure about the correlation between the Melburn case and your branding, but what this killer has accomplished is to send a message to you.”
Tears spilled down Anya’s cheeks. “God. These poor women. They’re both dead because of me. I can’t— Who would do such a thing? Why go to all this trouble? If this killer has a problem with me, he should just come for me!”
“He’s angry,” Josie said. “And very sick in the head. Vance is the obvious suspect, especially given the brand and the fact that he’s still harboring a lot of anger toward you, but Anya, is there anyone else from your past who might be angry with you?”
“Enough to kill two innocent women? No.”
“How about just angry?” Josie said.
Anya bit her bottom lip.
“What is it?” asked Josie.
She looked away. “God, I just can’t believe this stuff is coming up now. After all these years. That was the worst time of my life. I was an emotional disaster. I did things I’m not proud of—things I would never do now or ever again.”
“Name someone who claims they’ve never done something they’re ashamed of and I’ll show you a liar,” Josie said. “Just tell me.”
“I had an affair. Well, not really an affair. I had been separated from Vance for months, waiting for the court to settle things—the assault on the criminal side and my divorce on the civil side. The person I was with, well, he was single. His wife had died the year before and his daughter was in college, although a month or two into our affair, she moved back in with him. She was still so distraught over her mother’s death that she had to withdraw from school. But being together wasn’t a good look for either of us. It was very complicated. At any rate, it wasn’t serious, and I didn’t think it would last. Because I didn’t think it would last, I broke it off. Except I didn’t tell him I was breaking it off. I just left. Without a word, and never looked back.”
A sinking feeling settled into Josie’s stomach. “Who was it?”
“Cy. Cyrus Grey.”
TWENTY-SIX
Josie’s mind was still reeling the next morning as she and Trinity drove to Bly. She kept coming back to Anya’s revelations. First, there was Garrick pressuring her to make her ruling on Jana Melburn’s autopsy report an accident for what he said was the good of the community. But what did he think would happen within his community? Why had he been so desperate for Jana’s death to be ruled accidental that he had made a thinly veiled offer to Anya: do this and I’ll make your abusive ex-husband go away for good? There had to be something more to Garrick’s motivation than what Anya told her. Noah was going to track Garrick down while the rest of the team was still digging into Keri Cryer’s life and trying to locate Mathias Tobin.
Then there was the revelation about Cyrus Grey.
Anya had gone on to make all kinds of justifications for the brief tryst. Cyrus had been kind to her. He’d made her feel safe, less alone. He had given her, in her lowest moments, the things she had craved for years, the things that she had gone without while she was with Vance. Being with him had been a brief respite from her harsh reality. It hadn’t been love, but even if it had, carrying on a relationship with a police officer who was actively involved in the case against your husband was a huge problem. In the end, Cyrus had still represented a period in Anya’s life that she wanted to close the door on forever.
Josie wondered how Cyrus Grey saw things.
