Midnight Crossing (Josie Gray Mysteries #5)(75)
Mayor Moss made a noise behind her, almost a whimper, the noise he might make while having a nightmare.
Josie pressed a button on her cell phone and held it up toward Moss. He knocked her hand away but said nothing. “I’ve since learned that Caroline’s mom’s name is Lilith. I might not have made that connection, but when I looked at the phone number and recognized the West Texas area code, I found the obituary online for Caroline’s mother.”
Caroline again called out for Josie to stop. Josie turned in her chair to face the mayor. “This is over. There’s too much evidence for you to pretend this isn’t happening.”
Moss had grown quiet behind her, no longer yelling for Josie to leave. She scooted her chair back, bumping against him as she stood from the table. “I want my badge and my gun delivered to the police department by three o’clock today.”
Josie opened the French doors and walked through the house the way she had entered, leaving the Mosses to sort through the shrapnel from the bomb she had just exploded on their patio. But she damn sure knew the first step he had better make was to revoke her suspension.
*
Driving home with the windows down, she did not feel pleased or vindicated by the altercation at the mayor’s house. It was unsettling to think that someone in a position of power, a woman she knew well as a community leader, could turn such a blind eye to others’ suffering. Josie wondered if it had all started out as something positive but had somehow gone terribly wrong. But hard as she tried, she couldn’t escape the fact that Caroline Moss was making money off the plight of people who believed she was going to take care of them. And they had been brutalized while Caroline looked the other way.
Josie didn’t call Otto on her way home. She showered, dressed in her uniform, and drove to the police department. Lou smiled when she walked in.
“Welcome back,” Lou said.
Josie shook her head in amazement. “The news has already spread?”
Lou held up Josie’s gun in one hand and her badge in the other. “Helen brought these over about two minutes ago. She carried them in a paper bag and dropped them on the counter. She said the mayor asked her to make a delivery. That’s all she said. What did you do to piss Helen off so bad?”
“I made her boss mad.”
“So the drama’s over?” Lou asked.
“It hasn’t even started. But at least I’m back on the job. Let me know if you hear anything on the radio about it. Hopefully the mayor will make some sort of announcement.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” Lou said. “Otto doesn’t know yet. He’ll be glad to see you. He’s been a grouch ever since this happened.”
“Is he upstairs?”
“Yes, ma’am.” She smiled and handed Josie her badge and gun. “Good to have you back, Chief.”
*
Josie walked upstairs and held up her equipment as she entered the office. Otto turned away from his desk looking shocked. “How did that happen?”
They sat together at the conference table and Josie explained her visit with Caroline and the mayor.
“You were right not to tell me. I’d have told you to quit being foolish.” He gestured to her gun lying on the table. “And now this. Good for you.”
“I have to talk to Holder. I have no idea what kind of charges he might bring against her.”
“Maybe none, since this is still circumstantial. The only physical evidence that ties her to trafficking, other than Ryan’s admission, is the Visa payment to set up the Web site four years ago. The name Lilith doesn’t exactly make the case.”
“Understood. But a jury will love it.”
“You know she won’t do jail time,” he said. “She’ll get a high-dollar attorney who’ll claim she was framed.”
“We also have an unsolved murder. Who says she’s not involved?”
“Speaking of the murder, Cowan called this morning. The lab ran the mouth swab from Josh Mooney. They were able to collect DNA off Renata’s underwear that was still intact. It matched the DNA collected from Mooney.”
Josie put a fist in the air. “Excellent. I hope that bastard pays like hell for what he did.”
Otto studied her for a moment. “Let’s go back to Caroline. To our former Citizen of the Year. What’s your opinion?”
Josie raised a hand to dismiss his question. “That’s why we have judges and juries. I just arrest them. I don’t have to decide guilt.”
“Come on. Don’t be such a cop. I’m asking your personal opinion about what Caroline did.”
Josie had thought about little else for days. “Okay, then. She used her humanitarian work to cover up something illegal. To me, that makes what she did even worse.” Josie walked to the back of the office to look out the window. She finally turned back to Otto. “But this goes deeper than that. It reminds me of one of those companies that make their money on the backs of the little people, with no regard for their safety. As long as they make their money, and they get away with their crimes, they can look the other way and get rich. Pretend what they’re doing is helping society. Until someone catches them. That’s what I think Caroline did. She didn’t care what was happening to those women. She didn’t bother to check on their safety because she didn’t want to know. That’s not just irresponsible, it’s criminal.”