Midnight Crossing (Josie Gray Mysteries #5)(55)

He tilted his head and smiled like he’d just heard an absurd joke. “This is bizarre, Josie. Even from you. It’s just absurd.”

“Ryan explained that Caroline was trying to help these women. He said she was helping them come to the U.S. so she could find them jobs and help them get citizenship.”

Moss looked at Josie as if she’d lost her mind. “What the hell is wrong with you? This is my wife you’re talking about! You just attended her charity dinner, and now you bring me this?”

Josie laid a paper that contained a screenshot of the Web site from Jobs Without Borders on his desk and pushed it toward him. “We’ve traced this Web site back to Caroline. We believe she is behind the trafficking organization. I wanted to tell you first before I go to the prosecutor with this. I didn’t want you to hear it on the radio.”

He stood suddenly, knocking his chair over behind him. “I don’t give a good goddamn what you believe, Chief Gray. You are completely out of line!” He placed his fists on the desk and leaned forward toward Josie. “You’re going to take the word of a kid who got thrown out of college this fall over the work of a woman who has shown herself to be a pillar of this community? Is that seriously what you’re doing right now?”

Josie stood, intending to walk out. Talking the situation through was obviously not an option at this point.

“Give me your badge and your gun,” he said. He spoke so quietly that she barely heard his words.

It was Josie’s turn to look shocked. “Excuse me?”

He tapped his desk with his fingertip. “Right here. I want your badge, and I want your gun. You are officially on administrative leave until further notice.”

“You’re making a mistake,” she said.

He threw his arm out and pointed toward the door. “I will have your job over this. Now get the hell out of my office!”

Josie glanced down, unclasped the badge that was pinned above the pocket of her uniform, and pitched it onto his desk. She pulled the gun from her holster, checked the safety, and placed it on his desk, averting her eyes from him. Without another word, she walked out of his office and past Helen, who was standing in the hallway with a hand over her mouth.





THIRTEEN

Lou started to speak and then stopped after seeing Josie’s clenched jaw as she stepped into the PD. She walked into the office and found Otto typing on his computer. He turned when he heard her enter and sighed when he saw her expression.

“Damn it, Josie. You went to talk to him, didn’t you?” He noticed the bare spot above her breast pocket and his eyebrows rose in shock. “Did he strip you of your badge?”

“I’ve been suspended until further notice.”

“Damn it. I told you not to talk to him!”

“That’s not helpful right now.”

He stood and pointed to the conference table. “I’m sorry. Sit down.”

Josie sat and Otto went to the back of the office and poured them both a mug of coffee.

“I’ll go talk to him,” he said, sliding the mug across the table to her.

“Why? So we can all be suspended together?” She sipped the coffee and considered him for a long time. “He’s wrong, Otto. I know it. Caroline is guilty. I was trying to give him a heads-up so that he wasn’t blindsided when this breaks open.”

“Guilty people walk free every day. If we can’t tie her to the crime that took place? You’re screwed. I’m sorry, but it’s a fact you need to face.”

“She’s the one who paid for the Web site! She founded the group that transported those five women to Artemis,” she said. “One of the transporters not only fingered her, but is a close family friend.”

“Big deal! Just because she paid a bill for a Web site doesn’t mean that she knew it was to be used for human trafficking. Any defense attorney could prove that. And it doesn’t mean Caroline killed that woman. It doesn’t mean she had any knowledge of the rapes. Even if she paid Ryan to go pick those women up, unless there’s physical proof, a check or paperwork, it’s his word against hers. And once she gets ahold of him, you think he’ll stick with the story he told us?” Otto made a face. “Not a chance. We got nothing, Josie.”

Lou appeared in the door of the office. She rarely left the front office unattended; instead she would push the conference button and call upstairs if she needed someone. But here she was, standing at the door, obviously shaken.

“What happened over in the mayor’s office?” Lou said.

“What do you mean?” Otto asked.

“I just got a news release emailed to me saying that Chief Gray has been suspended without pay until further notice for breach of contract. What’s going on?”

Blood rushed to Josie’s face.

“This just happened ten minutes ago!” Otto said.

Josie rose and moved to the back of the office. It would be all over Artemis in a matter of hours. Suspended. She heard Otto’s words replay in her head. We got nothing.

Josie heard Otto sigh and a chair scoot across the floor behind her. “Have a seat,” he told Lou.

Josie’s chest tightened as she listened to Otto recount their conversation with Ryan Needleman, and Josie’s decision to tell the mayor about his wife before going to the prosecutor.