Hush Little Girl

if she knew of anyone we could call—family or friends—and she said, ‘Pax is a friend.’”
“Pax?” Josie repeated.
“Yes. P-A-X. That’s what she said. When we asked who he was, she said that he was a friend her mother helped. She also said that his dad didn’t like him coming to their house. We asked her if she had seen him today. She said no.”
Marcie smiled. “I’ll see if I can get more information from her about this Pax person.”
“Thank you,” Josie said. “As soon as I talk with my team, we’ll see if we can locate him and his father.”
Marcie disappeared into the room and the doctor moved on to other patients, leaving Josie alone in the hallway once more. Moments later, the sound of heavy footsteps on tile drew her attention. She looked up to see Noah striding down the hall. Her relief was so profound, she thought she might buckle. He had changed into regular clothes: jeans, a black T-shirt under a light jacket, and boots. In his hands he carried a burgundy-colored cloth tote bag that said, “Harper’s Peak” on it in elaborate script.
His smile made her knees go weak. “You brought a change of clothes for me,” she said.
He stopped before her and kissed her lips. “And your phone, your weapon, and I went by the house to get your laptop.”
“Thank you.”
“The band is still playing at Harper’s Peak,” he told her. “Misty and Harris took Trout home with them. Your grandmother, parents, brother, Trinity and Drake are staying the night at the hotel. So are my sister and brother. Celeste and Tom weren’t thrilled about any of this, but Adam was very accommodating.”
Josie laughed. “So everyone’s having our wedding without us.”
“This time,” he said.
“Have you heard anything?” Josie asked, taking the bag from him.
“No one on the staff at Harper’s Peak remembers ever seeing Holly Mitchell before—alive or dead. They’ve got no cameras out in the gardens or at the overlooks. They do have cameras in all the parking lots. I went through all the footage, but didn’t see anyone getting a body out of their car. I looked at the footage from cameras overlooking the staff parking lots and cameras at the exteriors of all the buildings, thinking maybe Holly came there alive with someone, was killed in one of the buildings and then carried to the overlook, but there’s nothing on any of the footage to suggest that.”
Josie said, “There was clearly a confrontation of some kind at the house. I think she was probably killed there.”
“Me too,” Noah said. “But we have to cover all the bases so we don’t miss anything. Celeste has Tom hard at work getting our team access to everyone on the premises. Mett was questioning guests when I left. He was hoping maybe one of the guests saw the killer on the grounds but didn’t realize it at the time. He wasn’t having much luck, though. It looks like no one saw anything. We think whoever brought her body there came through the woods.”
“Lorelei’s house is a couple of miles from Harper’s Peak. That’s a long trek.”
Noah said, “Unless Holly escaped the house and the killer caught up with her in the woods, murdered her, and carried her to the church.”
Josie thought about the pinecone doll and how Emily had said that it meant “he” was sorry. Had the killer not meant to kill Holly? Or was he just sorry that he had? Was that the significance of the doll placed on her body? Did the church itself have some significance? “Her body was staged at the church,” she told Noah. “It has meaning. He didn’t move Lorelei’s body.”
“When Gretchen called Mett, she said you two had discussed the possibility that this was a domestic situation. If that was the case, he probably wasn’t sorry he killed Lorelei. It would make more sense that perhaps he chased Holly into the woods. Maybe he never intended to kill her, but he’d gone too far and felt remorse for her death.”
“He left her somewhere beautiful,” Josie added. “Somewhere she would be found.”
“And he left her body in a dignified way.”
“True,” said Josie.
“Mett got a few more people to come in and search the woods near Harper’s Peak. Chief approved the overtime.”
“That’s great,” Josie said. She held up the bag. “I need to get changed. Then I want to see what I can find out about Lorelei’s background. But I need help getting out of this dress.”

Ten
Twenty minutes later they emerged from an unused room in the basement of the hospital. Josie’s skin was flushed. She looked over at Noah to see that his was as well. She could still feel his mouth on her throat and his hands on her hips as the wedding dress fell to the floor and Noah kicked it aside. She couldn’t remember them being so hungry for one another, not even at the beginning of their relationship, but she had needed him the same way she used to need several shots of Wild Turkey whenever life’s darkest moments threatened to overtake her. It was clear from the second his fingers brushed over the buttons of her dress that Noah had needed her just as badly. As they stepped into the empty hallway with its jaundiced walls and grimy tile floor, Josie tucked loose strands of hair behind her ears and adjusted the gun holster at her waist. She slung the bag with the laptop over her shoulder and looked back at Noah, who held her wedding dress over one arm. Strands of his thick, brown hair jutted out wildly. Josie reached up to smooth them down, still feeling remnants of the wild electricity crackling between them.
Softly, Noah said, “Maybe we should almost get married more often.”
Before Josie could respond, another voice came from down the hall. “Hey, lovebirds. I’ve been looking for you—either of you, actually.”
They turned to see Dr. Feist standing outside the doors to the city morgue, dressed in her signature