Firebreak (Josie Gray Mysteries #4)(59)

Josie sat down in one of the dozen plastic molded chairs and pulled her cell phone out of her shirt pocket. It was 5:30. It was time to go home. Time to eat dinner. She tried to think of something that sounded good to eat. She was sick of ramen soup, canned chili, and peanut butter sandwiches. Nothing sounded good. She resigned herself to a bag of microwave popcorn and one juice glass of bourbon to settle the demons in her head.

Ten minutes stretched into thirty minutes. Josie watched a young mother come in carrying a baby in a carriage seat, holding the hand of a toddler while she tried not to let a diaper bag and a purse slip down her shoulder. The little girl hopped and then stepped, repeating “Mommy, Mommy” to get her mother to watch her walk while the baby screamed—ear-piercing wails. She gathered the kids and bags around her and sat down in front of the woman at the reception desk. Her face held a combination of worry, irritation, exhaustion, and love, all in one frazzled package, and Josie realized that the combination, that of a parent in the grips of exhausted caregiving, was one she had never experienced. An emptiness gnawed away at the pit of her stomach. One that she thought nothing could fill but her own child.

The nurse, Glenda Crosley, poked her head out of the door that led back into the examination rooms. “Josie?” she called.

Josie stood, suddenly feeling self-conscious, as if her private thoughts had been broadcast throughout the waiting room.

She followed Glenda back into the nurses’ area, a wide-open space that looked a bit like a command center. The nurses’ desk was half-moon-shaped and was large enough behind the counter for five or six medical staff members to work together comfortably. Across from the desk, several patient rooms and other offices and storage rooms fanned out around it.

“I hope you don’t mind sitting back here to talk?” Glenda asked.

“Not at all.”

“Sorry it took so long. We’ve been swamped today. You just never know.”

“No problem. This won’t take long. Before we get started, have you talked to Vie and Smokey since they found out about losing their house?”

Her shoulders slumped. “Isn’t it just horrible? I talked to Vie last night. She’s a mess. You know how Vie is. We call her the governor here at work. She’s always in control. But with the house? It’s like she’s come undone.” The nurse put her hand up as if to stop Josie from saying anything. “Don’t get me wrong, I would be devastated too! It’s just such a shock to see Vie so messed up.”

“Have you talked to Smokey?”

“No. He and Donny were over at the house sifting through the mess, trying to find anything they could salvage. Vie was at the hotel when I talked to her. She said she couldn’t stand to go back. She said Smokey’s already talking about rebuilding but she just can’t think about it.”

Josie sighed. “Do they have temporary housing?”

“That’s the little bit of good news. The Ferrarios have a rental. They’ll start moving in tomorrow.”

“Let me know when they’re ready to start setting up the house. Food and furniture. We’ll all want to pitch in at the police department.”

“I’ll do that. Thanks.”

Josie opened up her notepad and took her pen out of her pocket. “I want to talk for a few minutes about your shift, night before last. The night Billy Nix passed away in the park behind the center?”

“Yeah, of course. Wednesday night. I was the only nurse on duty that night. We had a rotating ER doc on-site too. He’d driven from Fort Stockton after a ten-hour shift at their ER, so he was asleep in one of the patient rooms from about nine o’clock on. We were dead that night. I had two patients come in. One with a bad migraine wanting pain pills, and the other, a man who’d run out of insulin. Both were routine. Billy never came inside the center. I would have remembered. My husband and I watched Outlaws shows every chance we got. So sad.”

“Did you go outside during your shift that night? Notice anything odd at all?”

She frowned and shook her head. “No, I brought my supper with me. I didn’t go anywhere.” Her expression changed slightly. “I did go outside around midnight to get my Diet Coke out of my car. I was tired and figured a shot of caffeine might get me through the last hour.”

“Were you parked behind the building?” The park was just behind the parking lot.

“Yeah. It made me sad to think about it when I heard about Billy. I mean, I got off my shift at one in the morning. If I had known he was there I could have saved his life maybe. Who knows.”

“Were there any other cars parked in the lot when you went outside to get your Diet Coke?”

Glenda made a humming noise as she thought. “I was parked in the back of the lot, right next to the doc’s car. I drive a crappy old minivan and his is a silver Lexus. I know those were the only two in the lot.” She looked at Josie carefully, her eyes squinted in concentration. “But I’m pretty sure there was a pickup truck parked along the street. Just on the other side of the park.”

Josie was quiet, letting her think through the details.

“It’s funny. I didn’t think a thing about it at the time. But there’s no houses across the street. I’m not sure what a truck would have been doing there at that time of night.”

“Do you remember the color?”