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Gretchen said, “That was probably when she went to Asher’s. Too much heat on Thomas up here for her to stay in the cabin with him, and the septic tank wasn’t a long-term solution. I bet we can get Asher to fill in some of the blanks.”
“We’ll bring him in,” Noah said.
“I think the torque converter was already in when I spoke to him earlier,” Josie said. “We had returned the car to him after it was processed. He would not have expected us to impound it again. He probably put it back then while the car was sitting right here. That’s why the tires were still clean.”
“He probably wanted it ready,” Noah agreed. “In case he needed to access the tank.”
“Which he did,” Josie said. “Clearly. When Kayleigh showed up with Savannah, he simply turned the car on and reversed it so that they could get her inside.”
“Imagine if you hadn’t seen the mud, bos—Josie,” said Gretchen.
A shudder worked its way up Josie’s spine. “I don’t want to imagine that.”
FIFTY-SEVEN
Josie watched from across the table as Harris picked up a slice of pizza that was twice the size of his head. His small hands struggled to hold it as he brought it to his mouth. Half the cheese slid off and onto his paper plate. Beside him, Noah laughed and picked up the cheese with two fingers, slopping it back onto the slice. “You have to fold it up, like a book,” he told Harris. He used his own slice to demonstrate. Harris studied the technique and tried it on his own. Some of the cheese still spilled over and fell back to the plate, but he managed a bite.
“Or,” said Misty, who sat beside Josie. “We could ask them to give us smaller slices. Who could possibly eat slices this big?”
Noah popped the last bit of crust into his mouth and grinned. Harris stared up at him in amazement. “Uncle Noah can!”
Josie smiled and shook her head.
Misty said, “Harris, you don’t have to finish that. Just eat what you can.”
But his attention was already on the front door of the establishment, a new pizza parlor that featured an extensive arcade called Play Pizza Play. A boy that Josie recognized from Harris’s Little League team walked in, hanging from his father’s arm. He pointed toward the arcade and the father nodded. The boy ran toward the games while his father headed toward the pizza counter. “Is that your friend from baseball?” asked Misty.
“Yeah,” said Harris. “Can I go play with him, Mom?”
Misty scanned the large room. “Sure,” she said. “But what do we always say?”
Harris stood and brushed crumbs from his shirt. “I have to stay in your eyesight.”
“Eye line,” Josie corrected. “You have to stay where we can see you and you can see us.”
Harris glanced at the arcade again, searching for his friend. His shoulders slumped when he couldn’t find him. Noah tousled his hair. “Why don’t I go with you? You need a game card anyway, right?”
Harris’s eyes lit up when Noah produced one from his pocket. Then they were off. Misty sighed and picked at her pizza. “Noah is so good to him.”
Josie felt a pleasant warmth in the pit of her stomach. She moved her hand over it.
Misty said, “Any luck?”
Without looking at her, Josie shook her head.
Aware of a strange silence filling the place, they both looked toward the door where two adults and a young girl had just walked in. Whispering, Misty asked, “Oh my. Is that that family? The Patchetts?”
Shelly and Dave kept their heads down while Savannah skipped toward the counter, blissfully unaware of the stares directed toward them.
“Yes,” Josie said, tearing her gaze from them.
It had been two months since Kayleigh Patchett and Henry Thomas were taken into custody and charged with a slew of felonies, including three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Amanda Chavez, Sara McArthur, and Felicia Evans. Still, Kayleigh was the talk of the city. Josie had seen the endless questions and lambasting of the Patchett parents on social media with every update on the case, whether the post came from WYEP, Denton PD, the state police, or the prosecutors’ offices.
How did they not know? There’s no way they didn’t know she was so sick in the head!
What did they do to her that made her that way?
Those freaks shouldn’t be allowed to raise any more kids. Look how their first one turned out—a cold-blooded killer.
