Firebreak (Josie Gray Mysteries #4)(47)
Josie played it off as nothing. “That’s the problem with cops. You’re too suspicious. I’ll be right back.”
She went downstairs and saw Pete waiting by the front desk of the PD, chatting with Lou.
“Hey, Josie! I wanted to stop in before we take off.”
Josie smiled and pointed outside, not wanting to have a personal conversation in front of Lou. They walked outside and Josie saw the two vans that the smoke jumpers had traveled in parked in front of the courthouse across the street.
Pete’s face was animated, his big brown eyes wide. “We just got a call to head back to Montana. Just wanted to stop and say bye.”
“I owe you one, Pete. The skydiving was amazing. I think you have a winner with the jump therapy.”
He grinned. “See? Old Pete’s not as crazy as everybody thought all those years.”
“You’re as sane as anyone I know. You be safe out there,” she said.
Josie reached out and they hugged for a long moment. He finally pulled away and ran for the van. She watched as they pulled out and the driver blasted the horn in a final good-bye.
*
When Josie reached the top of the stairs she heard Otto talking on the phone. By the time she entered the office he was hanging up, his forehead creased with worry lines.
“Susan just called back,” Otto said. “She was talking about Ferris to one of the other young deputies in the office who knew Ferris from hanging out at the bars. She told him that there was a victim burned in the fire and that we were concerned that it might be Ferris. Susan mentioned getting a warrant for the apartment and so on. Anyway, the deputy starts telling Susan about Ferris. He said Ferris was always telling stories about his life, most of which the guy figured were lies. Ferris told the deputy he was in the army right after high school and the deputy told Ferris he wasn’t tough enough for the army. Ferris opened up his mouth and showed his teeth. Said the U.S. Army capped five of his back teeth with silver crowns. The deputy remembers him saying, who else but Uncle Sam would screw up somebody’s mouth like this? The deputy brought it up thinking it might help ID the body.”
Josie raised her eyebrows in recognition. “Good! We can check the fire victim’s teeth for identification.”
“Better than good. Remember I said Cowan checked out the victim’s teeth to get a basic estimate on his age?”
“We may have just identified our victim,” she said.
Otto rolled his chair around to face his desk and called Cowan. After a brief conversation he hung up and turned back to Josie with a smile. “Get this. I asked him if there was anything unusual he noticed when he examined the victim’s teeth. Cowan said, ‘Somebody butchered the guy’s mouth. He’s got five crowns.’”
“Excellent. Will you follow up with Susan to get contact information for Ferris’s family? And can you get started on a full search warrant for his house and a subpoena for his medical records?”
“We could confirm his identity by tomorrow with dental records,” he said.
Josie pointed to the laptop sitting on the table. “Okay. Walk through this with me. Let’s suppose Ferris is HIV positive. He’s staying the night at the Nixes’ house. Maybe one of them sees his medication. Brenda hates him. She’s searching through his bag for something to convince Billy that Ferris is bad news. Instead, she finds drugs she’s never heard of. She goes on the Internet and discovers Ferris is being treated for HIV and reads up on it. She starts thinking about the band’s big recording contract and decides this kid is trouble. He’s terrible for the band’s image.”
“Let’s go back to the idea that Billy and Ferris are having an affair. We’ve heard from several sources that Ferris is infatuated with Billy. Maybe Billy was infatuated too. Maybe Brenda began to suspect that Billy and Ferris had something going on. She wanted Ferris out of the equation before he ruined their marriage.”
Otto said, “There’s a fire raging through West Texas and she thinks, This is my chance. She convinces Billy to go get his guitar at the Hell-Bent to set their alibi. They go back to the house where they’ve told Ferris to wait. Maybe they told him to wait there and they’d come back and pick him up after they ran their errands.”
Josie took the story back up. “Brenda convinces Billy that Ferris has to die before he ruins their marriage and Billy’s plan for becoming a star. They get into the house and Brenda uses the stun gun on him. He drops to the floor and Billy kills him. Strangles him? He’s big enough to choke a man out. Then they lay him on the couch, start the fire, and take off for Austin. Let him burn to death to make it look accidental.”
“That works. There’s motive, means, and opportunity,” he said, ticking each word off on his fingers. “I’m not sure how plausible it is, but it works.”
“We need the dental records. We need to know for sure how he was killed. And we need to know how the fire was started.” Josie sat down at her desk. “I’d sure like to talk to the Nixes. Think there’s any chance we could get them in here again?”
Otto looked doubtful. “Unless you’re ready to file charges, I can’t imagine Turner would allow it.”
“I think our best bet is through Billy.” She pulled her cell phone out of her shirt pocket and found Billy’s number. She dialed and received no answer. She tried Brenda, who answered on the first ring.