Firebreak (Josie Gray Mysteries #4)(84)

Holder considered her and pursed his lips. “I won’t even ask what you were doing in Hank Wild’s medicine cabinet. But again, so what? She was screwing Hank while her husband was screwing Ferris. It’s a screwed-up world. But that doesn’t put a murder weapon in her hand.”

“Why not charge her and see if she breaks?” Josie said, feeling the heat in her face.

“There’s nothing to charge her with!”

“Thanks for your time,” Josie said, angry at his unwillingness to help. “We’ll be back.”

*

“You can’t be that surprised,” said Otto. They stopped on the sidewalk outside of the courthouse.

“She’ll leave town.” Josie checked her watch. Two hours had passed since they talked to Hank. “I want to talk to Patty Netham, Brenda’s sister. I’m going over to the motel to ask Patty to take a walk with me. While I do that, can you go talk to John Lummin about the timeline? He was the one who sat and talked to Billy at the Hell-Bent when he couldn’t find Brenda. Maybe John can connect us with someone who saw Brenda leave the bar.”

Otto walked back to the PD to get his jeep while Josie walked a block over to Manny’s. She knocked on the door for Room 5, but no one answered. The drapes were closed and she didn’t hear any movement inside. She walked down to the office and found Manny inside the office washing his front window with spray cleaner and a wad of newspaper.

“Hey, Manny.”

“Josie! Good to see you.”

“I’m looking for Brenda and her sister.”

“You just missed them. They left maybe a half hour ago. Packed up and moved out.”

Josie felt the flush in her face. She was furious. They were going to let a murderer drive away to a new life.

“I need you to tell me exactly what was said. Every detail.”

Manny lost his pleasant smile and looked worried. “Okay, let me think. She gave me the key and paid with a check. She seemed like she was in a hurry so I didn’t chat much. You can tell when someone doesn’t want to chat. I asked if she would need the room again. And she said, no, she and her sister needed to get away. She said—” Manny closed his eyes and put a hand over them as if trying to replay the conversation. “I think her exact words were, ‘I just can’t take all the sadness. I have to get away from here for a while.’” He opened his eyes again, searching Josie’s face for some clue to her questioning.

“What kind of car was Patty driving?”

“A white one. A newer Honda Accord.”

“You have a license-plate number?”

He screwed up his face like he’d made a mistake. “No. I didn’t bother.”

“Thanks, Manny. If you hear anything from Brenda or her sister, you call me immediately.”

Josie jogged back to the department and found Otto on the phone. He hung up and said, “John told me he talked to Billy for almost half an hour. He said Billy kept looking around the room. He seemed irritated that he couldn’t find Brenda.”

“Did John see Brenda?”

“He saw them when they walked in, and that was it. He said Billy left their table to go find Brenda, and that was the last time John saw him.”

“Brenda and her sister are gone. They packed up and left about a half hour ago. She told Manny she needed to leave the sadness. He doesn’t know where she was headed.” Josie stood up and leaned over the table, fed up with sitting and talking. “Let’s go pick her up. I want a confession.”

“Holder’s going to be pissed.”

“Not if we get a confession. If it doesn’t work, we cut her loose. What can it hurt?”

“Well there’s three basic ways out of town. They’d either take FM-170 toward Big Bend, or head to Presidio to catch 67 north to Fort Davis, or more likely, 67 all the way up to the I-10.”

“We’ve lost a half an hour. You take 170 and I’ll take 67. They could have made it to Presidio by now. Grab your car and I’ll call you after I talk to Susan.”

They ran to their jeeps and each headed south toward Presidio. River Road was the only paved road out of Artemis that led to a highway. Highway 67 was in Presidio, thirty minutes away. It was a two-hour drive to the interstate, so her odds of catching up to them were good. Josie called Deputy Susan Spears, since she was already familiar with the case. Susan was working traffic and took off immediately toward the highway.

Josie called Otto. “We finally caught a break. Susan’s on duty. She’s headed toward 67 now. I’ll head that way too. If they went that way, she’ll be able to overtake them pretty quick with lights and sirens. I’ll be far enough behind that I’ll catch them if they aren’t that far out.”

“Good enough. You want me to stay on 170?”

“I think so. It’s so remote, she may have figured no one would expect her to take that route.”

“Will do.”

“I have Patty’s number in my sent calls. I called her from the hotel, the day we discovered Billy’s body,” Josie said. “I’ll try and get something out of her. Location, direction.”

“You think that’s a good idea? What if you call and it spooks Brenda?”

“Maybe that’s a good thing. She might pull something stupid. Right now, I just want some indication of where they are,” she said. Josie didn’t have time to second-guess. “I need you to call Lou to get the license plate for Patty Netham. Have her put it out over the radio when she gets it.”