Firebreak (Josie Gray Mysteries #4)(80)
“Thanks, Cowan. We owe you one.”
He placed his hands in the pockets of his lab coat and leaned back to study Josie. “And what exactly is the ‘one’ that you keep owing me? At some point I’d like to cash in.”
“She stockpiles her ones,” Otto said. “I wouldn’t hold your breath.”
As Josie and Otto made their way back to the interrogation room, she asked, “What’s the syringe mean for the case? For Brenda and Hank?”
“It confirms Hank’s comment that Billy went back to the house to set it on fire and make it look like Ferris died of an overdose.”
Josie nodded. “The Nixes didn’t have animals. I wonder what Billy was doing with a blunt-tip needle?”
After Maria had buzzed them back through to the interrogation rooms they stopped before entering. Otto said, “What now? We let both of them go? Hank and Brenda both?”
“Let’s watch Hank for the next couple days. There’s pieces to this that don’t feel right.”
“Like what?” he said.
“Like spinning back the clocks based on some cop show. That sounded pretty lame to me. And the inconsistencies between Hank’s version and Brenda’s. I want to know why Hank made it sound like Ferris has been at their house off and on for quite a while. Brenda has made a big deal about Ferris never staying at their house. Remember she said they didn’t run a flophouse?”
“All right. I’ll cut Hank free and you finish up with her.”
*
When Josie entered the conference room the vibe was considerably different. Turner had lost her hard edge and had taken on a thoughtful look. Josie wondered what secrets Brenda had confided to her attorney.
Josie sat down across from Brenda and said, “Let’s go back to the drive to Austin.”
“What about it?”
“Tell me about your trip back to the house to pick up Billy before you went to the Hell-Bent.”
“There’s nothing really to tell. I pulled up in the driveway and Billy came outside and we left.”
“You didn’t walk into the house?” Josie asked. And see a dead man lying on your couch, Josie thought.
“No.”
“What did Billy tell you when he got into the car?”
She looked confused. “About what?”
“He’d just killed a man. He didn’t explain anything to you?”
“Of course not! I didn’t know anything about it. He was a mess. I drove. He just laid down in the backseat and slept.”
Josie narrowed her eyes. “You say things like that, Brenda, and it makes me not believe you. If you’d just tell the truth, you’d be so much better off in the end.”
“I don’t know what you’re implying, but I don’t like your tone of voice.”
Josie nodded. “Okay. Here’s the problem. Hank explained to us that you went into town so Billy could end the relationship with Ferris. The same man who had basically destroyed your life. Billy ends the relationship, and he gets in the car and doesn’t explain anything to you? He just lays down in the backseat and takes a thirty-minute nap on the drive to the Hell-Bent? You didn’t ask him how the conversation went? You didn’t ask him how Ferris took the news? Because I’m sure you were worried that Ferris would tell the world Billy was gay. That he would blackmail you and your husband. I think you had a lot to discuss on the drive to the Hell-Bent.”
Brenda looked like a cat trapped in the corner of a room, with her eyes wide and her body tense. “He may have ended things with Ferris, but he never said anything to me.”
Turner raised both her hands in the air to indicate that her response made perfect sense.
“Come on, Brenda. He’s your husband. You got no sense that something went bad?”
Brenda glared at Josie. “None.”
Turner held a hand up. “Okay, Chief, I think we’re done here. You’ve put this woman through enough hell for one day. Don’t bother calling us again until you have something worth coming in for.”
Josie said nothing. Worth coming in for, she thought. Brenda had just discovered that one of her closest friends helped her husband commit suicide after her husband killed his lover. If that wasn’t worth coming in for, Josie couldn’t imagine what would be.
TWENTY-THREE
Tuesday morning, before leaving for work, Josie opened her freezer to scout out the contents. She found one package of freezer-burnt chicken, and hamburger patties that were an odd shade of purple. If Nick was going to cook supper that night he’d have to bring something with him. She sent a quick text that read: Looking forward to dinner! Please bring meat or we’ll have to eat canned corn. It wasn’t very accommodating, but she hoped things were about to break open on the case, and grocery shopping wasn’t on her to-do list for the afternoon.
Josie and Otto started the day at their office conference table to talk through the details of the investigation one more time. She felt like the key players were in place, but they hadn’t made the right connections yet.
“What bothers you the most about the case?” she asked.
“Why would Billy confess all of those details to Hank?” Otto said.
“Because he felt guilty. Because he was drunk.”
Otto looked skeptical. “Billy was beyond drunk. Comatose comes to mind. Does someone that drunk have the mental capacity to remember the kind of details Hank told us about? Turning the clocks forward? Why would Billy share that?”