Chapter 39
THIRTY-NINE
Josie’s heart thundered in her chest at the prospect of a viable lead. She tried not to look as eager as she felt. As she attempted to maintain her professional mask, Noah took the lead.
“Who is it?”
Milo touched Reina’s belly. Softening his voice, he said, “He wouldn’t, which is exactly why it won’t matter if we tell them.”
“I don’t want to drag him into anything,” she complained. “You saw how upset he was when he was here.”
“Whoever it is,” Josie assured her, finding her equilibrium, “if you give us his name, we’ll be able to rule out any involvement very quickly with just a few questions.”
Though the tingle in her gut told her that the person they were talking about wasn’t going to be ruled out at all.
Reina kept her eyes glued to her husband’s face. Clearly, she wasn’t going to give up the name of the person they were whispering about.
With a heavy sigh, Milo said, “Reina’s brother, Griffin. Griff. He’s minority owner in the business, but he has no involvement in day-to-day operations. Technically, he has access to everything we do.”
“But he’s never even around,” Reina said quickly. “He hasn’t worked here since he was in college. He travels a lot.”
“For work?” Noah prompted.
Reina nodded. “He’s a pharmaceutical rep for Quarmark. He travels all over central Pennsylvania to different medical offices.”
Electricity zinged through Josie’s veins.
A pharmaceutical sales representative would be a frequent visitor to medical office buildings.
It would give him ample opportunity to meet women like Dani and Maxine.
They could subpoena records from his employer to see if they could place him at the office buildings both women worked in as well as the building in which Dani worked when she lived in Alden.
“What’s his last name?” Josie asked.
When Reina didn’t offer it, Milo said, “Holt.”
“When did you last see him?” said Noah.
Milo answered again. “About a month ago, give or take a week or two.”
It was after Maxine had started acting strangely, claiming she had a stalker, but right around the time that Cassidy claimed to have seen a man following her.
With a huff, Reina pushed to her feet, wobbling until Milo pressed a hand to her lower back, helping her stand up straight. “I have to use the restroom.”
She didn’t give them a chance to respond, instead disappearing down the path.
Milo curled forward, elbows on his knees, covering his face with both hands. He sighed heavily before looking back up at them. “I’m sorry. My wife is… protective of Griff. It’s just the two of them now that their parents are both gone. They’ve always been close.”
“We both have siblings,” Josie said. “We get it.”
“Is Griffin younger than her?” Noah asked.
“Older,” Milo said. “By two years. He’s a good guy, good to Reina and to me. Every bit as protective of her as she is of him.”
“Sounds like there’s a but at the end of that sentence,” Noah said.
Milo folded his hands and rested his chin on them.
“But I think he’s just spent so much of his life focusing on her, making sure she’s safe and healthy, that she has everything she wants and needs, he’s neglected his own life.
There were a few years after their dad died when one of the men who worked here, a good friend of their dad’s, kind of took advantage of Liora’s grief.
From what Griff and Reina said, he seemed like he was after the business.
Tried to exploit Liora’s vulnerability. The three of them were pretty devastated after Mr. Holt died.
Not prepared to deal with a guy like that.
He died a few years after Mr. Holt, but I think while he was in their lives, things were pretty ugly. ”
He fell silent, staring straight at them but not seeing them.
Josie knew the look. He was either reliving something or dredging up some painful subject and deciding whether or not to talk about it.
She said nothing, not wanting to do anything that might make him shut down.
Clearly, Reina wasn’t going to share information about her brother, which meant their only source was Milo.
Noah seemed to have the same thought, waiting patiently for Milo to come out of his reverie.
When he did, he rubbed the sides of his face and groaned. “That guy? The one who took over their lives after Mr. Holt died? God, I don’t even know how to say this.”
Josie and Noah stayed still and quiet again as Milo gathered his words.
“He wasn’t after the business so much as he wanted Reina.
The business was a bonus. Liora ran it, which meant he wouldn’t have to do any work, but he could collect all the money and he’d have access to Reina. She was just a kid.”
“Fifteen,” Josie said, stomach churning with disgust at the thought of a grown man targeting an innocent, vulnerable, grieving girl.
“Yeah,” Milo said. “It was bad. I think the only reason it stopped was because he died. Car accident. I think Griffin’s always felt guilty about the whole thing.”
“Why’s that?” said Noah.
“He was just a kid too, but I think in his mind, he failed them—Liora and Reina. Didn’t protect them. I’m pretty sure that guy was knocking Griff around too, though. It was a bad situation for all three of them.”
Josie’s blood rushed in her ears, making it difficult to hear anything else.
Griffin Holt was looking more and more like their main suspect with every passing minute.
It wasn’t just about recreating the perfect family.
It was about saving it. Maxine and Haven, Dani and Cassidy—they were surrogates for his own family.
He was still acting out a fantasy, which ended in death if the women didn’t want to be saved.
Milo went on, “Ever since then, Griff has made it his life’s work to watch over Reina. It’s noble and all but he’s never even had a girlfriend. At least, none that he’s ever brought home or even told her about.”
“How long have you and Reina been together?” Noah asked.
“Five years. She didn’t tell him for a long time, which was easy because although he calls and texts her a lot, he doesn’t come around all that often. About two years ago, she finally let him know we were dating.”
“Did he have a problem with it?” asked Josie.
“Not at the time. Like I said, he’s a good guy. We like each other. But I think in his mind, it wasn’t going to last, just like all of her other relationships.”
“Why was he upset the last time you saw him?” Josie said.
Milo’s expression was pained. “Well, for one thing, we’d been having a lot of issues around here with vandalism, theft, then the fire that we never told him about.
Reina didn’t want to worry him. At least, that’s what she said, but I think that was just an excuse.
The thing is that before this last time that Griff came around, we hadn’t seen him in months.
Reina and I got married without telling him.
It was a quick thing at City Hall with a couple of witnesses.
No big affair. No one we worked with even realized it.
We didn’t announce it or anything. She wanted to wait for the right time to tell Griff.
Had she told him about all the stuff going on here, he would have rushed back.
What I think is that she was waiting for the right time for her. ”
“I thought they were close,” Josie said.
“Yeah, well, she thought he would be devastated if she told him we were getting married before we went ahead. That he might try to talk her out of it. I thought she was being ridiculous. He’s a grown man and she’s his sister.
They’re very codependent but it’s not like he can stop her from living her life.
If he really wanted her to be happy—and he does—he’d come around.
No matter how angry or upset he might have gotten, he wouldn’t have abandoned her. ”
“You went along with eloping,” Noah said.
Milo smiled wistfully. “I wanted to marry the love of my life. Didn’t much care how we did it. And no, we didn’t get married because Reina was pregnant. She wanted to start trying immediately after the ceremony. We thought it would take months, but it happened right away.”
“So when Griffin returned for a visit, you two could no longer keep the secret,” Josie said.
“Yeah. She’d started showing.”
“Was he as devastated as she thought he’d be?” asked Noah.
“Maybe more,” Milo said sadly. “A lot of it had to do with her lying to him. They’d talked and texted frequently, and she never mentioned anything.
Some of it had to do with him maybe feeling left behind?
That’s what it seemed like to me. Like he’s been in the same place as when they were teenagers, just watching over her, making sure she has everything she needs, and then she moved on without him.
Without even telling him. Maybe I’m misreading him, but that’s what I thought. ”
“But he didn’t stay here,” Josie said. “Didn’t join her in the family business. You said he travels often.”
Milo nodded. “Yes, but I think that he’s kind of subconsciously stayed… unattached all these years and on standby in case she needed him. And now…”
“She doesn’t need him,” Josie filled in.
It was exactly the type of thing that could trigger someone who might be clinging to delusions, on the cusp of becoming violent.
“It’s not healthy,” Milo said. “I know that, but Griff’s harmless. A little sad, but definitely harmless.”
Josie wasn’t so sure.