Firebreak (Josie Gray Mysteries #4)(87)
“I hope you’re able to find peace, Brenda. You’ve been through a terrible ordeal,” Josie said, wishing she had something more to offer than empty words.
“You know what hurts the most?” she said. “I was trying to save my marriage. When the fire came raging through the county, Billy and I talked about losing our home, losing our town, like everyone was doing at the time. When we left for Austin, Billy agreed to turn his phone off, to leave Ferris behind for the weekend. I wanted so much to make it work. I wanted us to get away from Ferris and from the gossips at the Hell-Bent who thrilled at the stories of Billy’s undoing. As much as people wanted to see him succeed, they also loved the idea of him failing.” Brenda’s face clouded up and she looked briefly at her sister, who was standing quietly, watching her. “When Billy found out about Ferris’s death, I could see in his eyes, he thought I had killed Ferris. As did you.” She considered Josie for a moment as if she were still trying to make sense of it all. “How could I be so completely misunderstood, when what I wanted was so simple?”
*
Josie got home from work at 5:45. She taped a note on the front of the door that said, “Use your code. I’ll be ready in a minute.” She took a quick shower, pulled her hair up in a ponytail, and dressed in jeans and a pale-yellow tank top. When she stepped from her bedroom at quarter after six she found Nick standing on her back porch laying a steak on the grill. In a pair of jeans and a Fender guitar T-shirt and loafers, he looked completely at ease. She opened the kitchen door and stepped outside into the early-evening heat.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said.
He pointed a pair of tongs at her before picking up the other steak off a plate. “Forgiven. But we need to talk.”
Josie stood beside him as he sprinkled seasoning on the steaks.
“Here’s the deal. I know how to cook meat. But the sides? If you want vegetables? That’s all you.”
“That’s what you wanted to talk about?”
“That’s it.”
She went inside, smiling, and found a can of baked beans and two potatoes to microwave. In half an hour they were eating at Josie’s kitchen table as if they’d been fixing dinner together for years, discussing work, hanging out like old friends.
On the darkest edges of her thoughts, she acknowledged that this was way too easy. Whenever life flowed along too easily, it typically signaled looming disaster. Josie had confided this feeling to Otto one day and he’d told her, “Most people view their glass as either half full or half empty. You view yours as broken.” He had hurt her feelings at the time, but she thought of his words often and tried to reframe her thinking. She reminded herself now—enjoy the moment.
*
After they ate and washed the dishes, Nick suggested a drive. “I want to show you something. Grab your hiking boots.”
They drove Nick’s SUV, a black armored vehicle with chrome, black leather, and an onboard GPS tracking system that would rival anything the military could devise. He headed south on River Road. Just five minutes from her house he pulled off onto the side of the road and pointed toward the Rio Grande. “Do you scout this area on a regular basis?”
“You mean search for signs of crossing?” she said.
He nodded. “I’ll show you.”
They locked up the SUV and took off walking through the sandy desert scrub toward the water. The temperature was still in the upper nineties, but with sundown, the heat’s edge had softened. Josie felt herself taking the role of student as she walked beside Nick, who obviously had a purpose for bringing her here. As chief of police, and a rather dominant partner in a relationship that had lasted several years, she did not find this a comfortable role to play.
Nick pointed toward the river. “You have one of the most influential cartels in Mexico right across the border from your home. You need to scout this area for signs on a regular basis.”
“Are you serious? We barely have the manpower to take regular calls. Then we have something like the Ferris Sinclair murder and we put everything else on hold. Right now I have two burglary calls I’ve barely responded to. I don’t have the time or manpower to prowl the river.”
They hiked a quarter mile and then walked down a ten-foot rocky slope that dropped off and led to a sandy bank and the river below it. Nick pointed to the left and Josie saw two kayaks across the river on the Mexican side that had been hidden from view. The sight made her instantly furious.
“Five minutes from your house, Josie.” He gestured behind them. “This place doesn’t make sense as a crossing. The mountainous terrain in this area would add days of dangerous travel to an illegal’s passage into Texas. Ten miles south of here they could cross with no detection, and a flat stretch would lead them north without the mountains. Drug smuggling makes even less sense. They would have checked out the area. They would have known a cop lived within a few miles of here.”
She nodded.
“If you plan on staying here, you need to keep a constant vigil. They’re watching you. Watch your back, or move elsewhere.”
She was a cop. She didn’t need a safety sermon. They stood for several minutes along the edge of the river, scanning the bank for prints, and she had to acknowledge Nick was right. Just a few short months after the terror subsided, she had let her guard down.
They walked along the bank in the direction of the kayaks across the river. On the U.S. side, they found an area along the bank where the Mexicans had obviously ported and climbed the ten-foot sand rise.