Firebreak (Josie Gray Mysteries #4)(58)

Tim smiled. “I was sitting there too. The best part was, Brenda rolled her eyes and walked away. She didn’t even wait around for her drink.”

“You guys ever hear any rumors about Ferris having HIV?” she asked.

“No shit?” Craig said.

Josie remained quiet. She scooted her chair so that she could see Mick, who was standing next to the cabinets behind her. She raised her eyes at him as if waiting for his input.

“It’s just people talking smack,” Mick said.

Josie kept her attention on Mick. “I’ve heard Ferris was promiscuous, that he was probably bisexual. You ever hear that? Maybe who some of his other partners might be?”

“Just because you’re bi doesn’t mean you’re promiscuous,” Mick said.

“That wasn’t what I said. Was Ferris promiscuous with people of either sex?”

Mick nodded. “That’d be my guess.”

“He ever hit on you?”

Craig laughed. “He hit on everybody.”

“There’s a strong possibility that Ferris is HIV positive.” Josie looked at the three guys but saw little change in their expressions.

Craig said, “Then I’d say the trauma center better stock up on HIV tests.”

*

While Josie spoke with the band, Otto pulled Hank aside to talk to Slim Jim. Hank had obviously already been clued in to the drama and had already decided the show would go on that night.

Hank put a hand on Slim Jim’s shoulder. “As much as I’d like to keep the bar open for Billy’s fans tonight, I can’t cancel a show last minute. We’ll have a memorial service tomorrow, starting at four p.m. We can let it go as late as people want. I’ll let everyone know here in a while. Mick’s just gonna have to skip the practice this morning. It’s a compromise.”

Slim Jim put a hand in the air to acknowledge he understood and started to walk away.

Otto said, “Quick question before you go. Can you tell me what time Billy called you the night he died?”

Slim paused and his expression changed from anger to confusion. “Why?”

“I’m just clearing up some loose ends.”

“It was about two in the morning.”

Otto looked at Hank and he nodded his head in agreement. “That’s when he called me.”

Slim turned and walked toward the back of the bar.

“A lot of drama,” Otto said.

Hank watched Slim Jim walk away and open the back door of the bar. White light surrounded his silhouette as he walked out of the building and into the sunlight. “I feel for him. This has hit him awful hard.”

Otto nodded and pointed backstage to where Josie was meeting with the other band. “Mick’s got a temper, doesn’t he?”

“Mick’s okay. He’s got a chip on his shoulder. He’s one of those guys that figures everybody else has it easier than he does. In his eyes, Mick’s the only one in town that had to scrape through life to get anything good.”

“You think that’s true?”

Hank made a dismissive noise. “He’s got a good band, a good job that pays the bills, a nice house to live in. I don’t think he has it too bad.”

Otto glanced around him and pointed toward a place at the end of the bar where there weren’t any people standing around. “I want to ask you a question,” he said.

When they reached the quieter spot Otto said, “I guess you heard that Billy died from an overdose of alcohol and pills.”

Hank nodded.

“Did that surprise you, that he would take pills?”

Hank leaned back against the wall and nodded his head toward the dance floor where over a hundred people were milling about on a Friday workday. “Nothing would surprise me anymore. I think if a guy wanted to score a bag of weed, or a bag of pills, or any other kind of drug you could name, all he’d have to do is walk through that crowd and start asking some questions. I hate to say that about my own bar, but that’s the truth of it.”

“You aren’t surprised Billy would take pills?”

Hank looked at Otto like he was crazy. “Billy? He was a bundle of nerves. All the time. I’m sure he’s taken his share of pills to calm down before a big show.”

“Brenda claims Billy’s never taken any drugs.”

Hank’s mouth turned down and he looked away as if pained by the thought. “Brenda believed the best about him. She thought he could be a star. I doubt Billy ever believed it.”

*

After a quick lunch with Josie at the Hot Tamale, Otto left to meet with the principal at the elementary school. Chris Conroy had called and said a teacher in his building had found a bottle of Vicodin in a fourth-grade student’s backpack when she was searching for a missing permission slip. While Otto interviewed the student and the boy’s mother, Josie drove to the trauma center to meet Glenda Crosley, the nurse who had been working the night Billy died in the park behind the building.

Josie entered the trauma center through the emergency room door and found a flurry of activity. A receptionist was checking in several patients, and the nurse that Josie had come to see had just entered the waiting room to retrieve a patient. She saw Josie and glanced at the clock on the wall. She put both hands in the air and mouthed the words Ten minutes. Josie gave her a thumbs-up and the woman disappeared.