Firebreak (Josie Gray Mysteries #4)(48)

“Brenda, this is Chief Gray.”

“Yes?”

“We have some troubling news, Brenda. We’d like for you and Billy to come in and talk with us.”

“I have to…” Her voice faded off and she paused for a moment. “I have to call our attorney. She said we need to take all this through her now.”

“I understand. That’s typical with the attorneys. I want you to let her know we believe we have the identity of the person who was killed in your home. We’d like to talk with you about it.”

“Who was it?”

“I need to talk about that in person. I can tell you that it’s someone you know. I’d like to give you an opportunity to explain things to us before we look at filing any charges.”

“File charges? Against Billy and me?”

Josie knew she had to draw her in carefully and repeated her statement. “I’d like to give you the opportunity to come in to the department of your own volition to talk with us. I’ll be honest, Brenda. I don’t believe you and Billy committed murder. But right now every bit of evidence we have points your way. Come in and help us make sense of this. If someone is setting you up, then help us figure out who and why.”

She hesitated for several seconds. “We’ll be there at three.” And she hung up the phone.

Josie grinned. “We got ’em.”

*

Josie and Otto walked to the Hot Tamale, the local diner and their favorite lunch spot, to eat and plan their strategy. Lucy Ramone, owner, stood on a ladder outside the restaurant, retouching the sign that hung outside the diner: THE HOT TAMALE: QUICK SERVICE, AUTHENTIC RECIPES, AND THE MOST ACCURATE GOSSIP IN TEXAS.

“How’s my favorite police officers?” She spoke with a paintbrush clenched between her teeth while she cleaned a smudge off the edge of a letter with a towel.

“We’re better now that food is on the horizon,” Otto said.

She took the paintbrush from between her teeth and climbed down. “One minute!” She opened the diner door and yelled, “Nina! For Otto, fresh bologna just came in this morning. Add some kraut and make him up a master sandwich. Give Josie a cold tamale with extra hot sauce.”

Otto patted her on the back and called her a saint. She laughed and went back to her task.

Fortunately, they’d missed the lunch crowd and sat down at the front of the restaurant to plan their afternoon. It was decided that Josie would question Billy, and Otto would take Brenda. They had just begun to generate their list of questions when Josie’s cell phone rang.

“Josie Gray.”

“It’s Lou. You better get back here. Now.”

*

Josie and Otto ran back to the department and entered to find Brenda Nix standing inside, her face in torment. It was 2:10 p.m., almost an hour before she and Billy were supposed to arrive for their interview, yet here she was without her husband. Her attorney wasn’t with her either.

“What can we do for you?” Josie asked.

“I can’t find Billy.” Her face puckered up as if she might cry. Her eyes were already red and swollen.

Josie pointed toward the stairs at the back of the department. “Let’s go upstairs and sit down. We’ll talk this through. Would that be okay?”

Brenda nodded and put her hand over her mouth to stifle a sob.

Once they were upstairs and seated around the conference table, Brenda started talking with no mention of her attorney and no prompting from Josie.

“Billy left the motel room last night at around midnight. I heard him get up and get dressed. I figured he was going out to get a drink. He can’t sleep when we’re away from home. He’ll get up and find a bar to have a drink or two and then come back to bed.”

Josie interrupted her. She turned on the digital recorder and asked Brenda if she wanted to call her attorney before speaking with them.

“I don’t need an attorney right now. I just need Billy.”

“Did he tell you he was leaving?” Josie asked.

“No. He left me a note though.” She passed the note across the desk and Josie read it.

“Is that typical?”

She tilted her head and shrugged. “I guess. Sometimes he’ll sneak out without waking me. Especially if there’s a bar at the hotel. Maybe since there was no bar to go to he thought he should leave a note. I don’t know.”

Josie saw her face starting to crumple and wanted her to keep it together. She changed course. “Has he ever stayed out all night?”

Brenda’s eyes grew wide in what appeared to be an attempt to look sincere. “Never. He has never been gone more than a couple of hours. This is just not like him.”

“Is your vehicle missing?”

“No. It’s parked down the street in front of the motel.”

“Could he be with a friend? Maybe he called a friend last night and they came and got him?”

Brenda teared up again. “Hank called me this morning. From the Hell-Bent?”

“Sure.”

“He said Billy called him last night at about two in the morning. He said Billy was drunk and talking stupid. Hank told him to go back to the room and sleep it off. Billy said he would and hung up. Hank called me this morning to check on him. I was still asleep. That’s when I realized Billy wasn’t in bed.”