Midnight Crossing (Josie Gray Mysteries #5)(79)

Josh rolled his eyes and tipped his head back so far that Otto thought he was passing out. He finally snapped his head forward and said, “All that crap is Macey Jane’s. She’s the one that drags all that crap home. I just have to find a place to put it.”

“Are the police going to find the murder weapon when they search?”

He frowned. “No. Because I didn’t kill anyone. I don’t know where the gun is, but it’s not in our apartment. All you’re going to do is freak out Macey for no reason.”

“So clear this up for me. Who shot Renata?”

“No clue.”

“To my knowledge the only two people who drove out to search for her were you and your driving buddy, Ryan. Is that true?”

“Obviously not! The night I didn’t drive out there somebody else did. And somebody else shot her.”

“But who? Nobody else has the motivation. You’re the only person who gains by killing her.”

“Uh, no. Not so.” He rubbed his hands up and down his arms to warm up. “Can you get me a cigarette?”

“I’ll make a deal with you. Tell me who killed Renata, and I’ll personally go buy you a carton.”

Josh shuddered all over. “Look. I’m not stupid. I didn’t kill her. I don’t have the weapon because I didn’t do it. So you got nothing to tie me to the murder. I keep my mouth shut and I get out of here. That’s how it works.”

“What about your boss? Caroline Moss? Does she know anything about the murder? Maybe she asked you to get rid of Renata before things spun even more out of control. You owed her something, right? You screwed up the operation. You raped five women you were transporting.”

Oliver interrupted, for the sake of the recording. “Officer Podowski, that’s conjecture. There’s nothing tangible that links Josh to the rape of those women.”

“Actually, there is now. We have DNA from Josh that matches DNA found on one of the women’s underwear.”

Josh looked offended. “That doesn’t mean I raped her!”

Otto felt the questions going off track and tried to redirect to his point. “The fact is that Caroline Moss had all kinds of reasons for wanting you to murder those women. Both of them were hiding out at Chief Gray’s house, and you weren’t able to capture them. If she asked you to kill those women? To solve the problem for her? Then that takes some of the burden off you. Puts it on her. You get what I mean?”

Josh pointed his finger at Oliver and jabbed it into his arm, causing him to flinch. “My attorney told me, keep your mouth shut, and I’ll get you out of here. So that’s what I’m doing.”

“Even though fingering someone else could get you off the hook?”

“My attorney told me, keep your mouth shut, and I’ll get you out of here.”

*

When Macey Mooney opened her apartment door, she had the same sweaty, winded appearance that she’d had the last time Josie visited. Macey was wearing black jeans and a black hoodie that looked completely at odds with her bleach-blond pigtails and big innocent-looking eyes. She stepped back about a foot and allowed Josie to move just inside the doorway.

Josie sensed things were different in the apartment—not cleaner, just different. She noticed the collection of snow globes and ashtrays that had been on the bookshelf to the right of the entrance was gone. The shelves were still there, but the ashtrays and snow globes had been replaced with four shelves of empty jars. Not useful canning jars, just a collection of empty pickle and jelly jars. She glanced around the apartment and thought more shelves had been added since the last visit, and then she noticed a box of ashtrays on the floor by the kitchen table. The organized chaos put Josie on edge.

“I been cleaning since last time you were here,” Macey said. “I’ve seen those shows where the police come in and make a person leave because of their stuff.”

“You mean the hoarding shows?” Josie asked.

“Call it what you want. But I been cleaning. Getting things systematized. When Josh gets back we’re gonna get a new place in the country. This place ain’t big enough for our stuff.” Macey gave Josie a quick sideways glance, as if gauging her reaction. She could imagine Macey maniacally moving junk from one location in the house to another while her brother was in county lockup facing murder charges.

“Josh has his eye on a place out by the river. It’s a trailer with a shed and a carport.”

“I’m not here to talk about your apartment. I want to talk about Josh and what’s going on with him.”

Macey flinched as if Josie had lifted a hand toward her.

“Let’s sit down and have a talk. Your brother’s in a lot of trouble. He probably won’t be coming home from jail for quite a while.”

“Leave Josh alone. I got cleaning to do.”

“Macey, your brother is in jail for rape. Doesn’t that bother you?”

“Yeah, it does. Because it’s not true!”

“How do you know?”

“’Cause he’s the sweetest person I know. And he would not do that to me or to anybody else.”

Josie thought about Ryan’s description of Macey being the more intelligent of the brother-and-sister team, but Josie wasn’t seeing it. The woman had the mannerisms and verbal skills of a preteen. But she also seemed more immature since the last time Josie had spoken with her. Josie figured it was either an act to keep out of trouble, or she was doped up.