Firebreak (Josie Gray Mysteries #4)(81)

Josie nodded. “That one got me too. Especially if it was a crime of passion.”

“And I just don’t see Billy as that calculating. He supposedly cared for Ferris to the point he put his marriage and career in serious jeopardy,” he said.

“The story Hank told us was of a person who had decided to end a longtime affair, and then got into a fight that turned deadly.”

“But planting a syringe, turning the clocks ahead, setting his house on fire, getting the timeline just right? Those are calculated moves,” Otto said. “Those aren’t the actions of someone caught up in an argument that turns deadly.”

“Agreed. And I still have a problem with the inconsistencies between Hank’s story and Brenda’s. In the beginning, Brenda told us Ferris wasn’t staying at their house. Then she changed her story somewhat. She said Billy had told Ferris they were leaving because of the evacuation. She knew Ferris was at their home and Billy was talking to him.”

“How did Ferris get there?”

“Hank said Ferris was going to take the Nixes’ pickup truck. My guess is, he’d been staying there, maybe a few days. Why did she keep saying he never stayed at their house?”

Otto frowned and nodded. “She was embarrassed. She didn’t want to admit the relationship.”

“But why did Brenda lie to us?”

“Because she knew Billy killed Ferris, and she was trying to protect him,” Otto said.

Josie was quiet. There was a detail she was missing, a connection that was right in front of her. “Let’s go back to what we know about the day of the evacuation. Once more on the time frame.”

Otto went to the back of the office to pour them each a cup of coffee. He walked back slowly, piecing together the puzzle out loud for his own benefit as much as for hers. “We’re assuming Ferris was staying at their house. According to Hank, after Billy killed Ferris, Brenda drove home and picked Billy up and they went to the Hell-Bent to get his guitar. He said she knew nothing about Ferris’s death. She said the same. Their plan was to drive to Austin and book a few gigs.” Otto paused and Josie watched him arranging his thoughts in his head.

She picked it up. “At some point, after Billy talked to Angela at the Hell-Bent, he drove back to his home and set it on fire, staging the scene to make it look like Ferris OD’d on their couch and burnt up in the fire.”

Then it clicked. Josie felt like she’d been sucker punched. She flipped through her steno pad with her interview notes. She went back to her interview with the bartender, Angela Stamos.

“Angela said she talked to Billy for a while in the dressing room. He was torn up over leaving. He got his guitar and then couldn’t find Brenda.” Josie thumbed through her notes and found what she was looking for. “Angela said, ‘I think he ended up talking to John Lummin for a while.’”

Josie looked up at Otto. “No one could remember who Brenda sat with. Hank even mentioned that he didn’t know who she talked to. He remembered Billy getting his guitar, but not who Brenda sat with. That’s because she wasn’t there. I don’t think Ferris was dead. I think she drove to the house and killed Ferris while Billy chatted with Lummin.”

“Hang on. Remember at the first interview with the Nixes, Brenda said she talked with Yvonne Ferrario. Did you ever get ahold of her?”

“I tried once and couldn’t get through,” Josie said. She flipped back through her notes and found the phone number she’d jotted on her notes. Josie dialed the number on her cell phone, and it went directly to voicemail.

“Yvonne. This is Josie Gray. I need you to call me as soon as possible. I have an urgent question to ask you in regard to a current investigation.” Josie provided her phone number at the PD and her cell phone number and hung up.

Otto resumed their conversation. “You think the story about Brenda leaving and Billy fighting with Ferris and killing him is bogus?”

She nodded. “I think something happened that afternoon between Billy, Ferris, and Brenda at the house. I think Brenda and Billy left to get his guitar, planning on leaving town. Something happened on the car ride to the Hell-Bent, and Brenda drove back to the house and killed Ferris.”

“You think Billy knew?”

Josie shook her head. “After all the interviews, ‘sad and confused’ seems to be about the best description of him. I can buy the suicide a lot easier than I can him murdering Ferris,” she said.

“Would he have let Brenda kill Ferris?” he said.

“Maybe he didn’t know until it was too late.”

“So why would he tell Hank a monstrous lie as he’s committing suicide?” he asked.

“Maybe he was trying to protect Brenda. He’d driven his own wife to murder, so he tried to pin it on himself and then he committed suicide.”

Otto nodded, conceding the point. “Brenda had plenty of motive. Not only was Ferris destroying her marriage, but he was destroying Billy’s career. Her ‘meal ticket.’ Who called him that?”

“Angela said that.”

“What about timing?” Otto asked. “Could Brenda have pulled this off?”

“In all the commotion with the evacuation, she could have easily left the bar and drove back to the house to deal with Ferris. Afterwards, she could have convinced Billy they didn’t need to go back home after all. They had supposedly already given Ferris the keys to the truck so he could leave.”