Midnight Crossing (Josie Gray Mysteries #5)(80)

Josie motioned toward the kitchen table. “Let’s sit and talk for a few minutes.”

She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and checked a text from Marta. The warrant for Josh and Macey’s apartment had come through. She texted Marta. Bring it now.

Macey pouted and led the way through a maze of boxes and piles and stacks of flea-market finds over to the table. She sat down and Josie sat in the chair next to her. She was hoping to get everything she could out of Macey before Marta arrived with the search warrant. Macey would be furious and all conversation would certainly stop at that point.

“Tell me about how Josh got involved transporting the girls.”

Macey shrugged.

“Come on, Macey. He’s admitted to all of it. I just want to hear your side of what happened.”

“Why?”

“I’m trying to understand how you and Josh ended up working for Caroline Moss.”

Her eyes shot open. “He told you that?”

Josie nodded. “We know all about it. He told us about the money, about Caroline setting you guys up with Ryan. All of it. I’m just wondering why Caroline Moss picked you and Josh to begin with.”

Macey grinned and slid her hands under her thighs so that she was sitting on them. “He was delivering salt. That’s how he met her.”

Josie sighed and tried not to let her growing impatience show. “What do you mean, ‘delivering salt’?”

Macey squinted at Josie like she’d asked a stupid question. “Working for the co-op. Delivering salt for water softeners.”

“So he was delivering bags of water softener salt to Caroline’s home, and he got to know her that way?”

“Yep. She saw he was a good driver. She said he was dependable and always showed up on time, not like a bunch of the others. So she asked Josh if he wanted to make big money driving all the way to Guatemala.”

“How long has he been driving for her?”

“A long time. The first time was last September, because he was gone on my birthday.”

“Do you know how many times he’s driven for Caroline?”

She turned in her chair and pointed to a wall calendar hanging above the kitchen sink. “I mark it on there. That’s where I mark all his trips.”

Josie felt a surge of relief. This was the information that Holder specifically requested. And she would be able to confirm it against Big Ben’s records for deliveries.

“Can you show me what you mean?”

She lifted a shoulder and looked uncertain, but retrieved the calendar. “These x’s that are in red are the Guatemala trips. I thought Guatemala seemed like a red color.”

Josie asked Macey to flip through the calendar and she identified seven different trips. “Can you tell me how many girls Josh picked up on these trips?”

She frowned and shook her head.

“Do you have any other information on the trips Josh took?”

She pointed to the calendar. “Just that. Why?”

Josie wasn’t sure how to answer, and took a moment to respond. “I’m trying to understand how Caroline’s business works. If you and Josh can help us understand how the transporting of the women worked, it’ll help Josh’s case. The judge will like that Josh helped us.”

Her phone buzzed again and she read Marta’s text back to her. Be there in five.

Macey looked at Josie’s phone, and then at her face, her expression changing from a childish curiosity to suspicion.

“Are you talking about me?” Macey asked, looking at the pocket where Josie had replaced her phone.

“Sorry about that. Just keeping up with police business.” Josie shifted in her seat. With Marta on her way, it was time to hit Macey with the tough questions.

“Did you ever ride with Josh when he was transporting the women?”

Macey narrowed her eyes at Josie. “Are you here to arrest me too?”

“That depends on several things.”

“Like what?”

“Did you meet any of the women that Josh transported this last time?”

Macey said nothing.

“Come on, Macey. Don’t play dumb. I know you did. Because you were with Josh when the police picked you guys up outside of Van Horn. When you made that last attempt to deliver the girls to Albuquerque.”

She sat up straighter in her chair, but remained sitting on her hands. Josie wondered if Macey was stilling the shakes. “The police let me go ’cause I was just riding along with Josh. He just wanted somebody to ride in the van with him for that long drive. So I did.”

“So you convinced the police that you were helping Josh deliver those women legally. They didn’t charge you with anything because Josh took the fall. But I don’t think that’s really true, is it? I think you like to play dumb. You think it keeps you out of trouble.”

Macey reached up and slowly pulled the hood up from her sweatshirt and pulled it down as low as she could over her forehead. She stared into Josie’s eyes in an apparent attempt to intimidate that came across as more bizarre than threatening. Too many fried brain cells.

“Here’s the deal,” Josie said. “The judge has signed a warrant to search your apartment for the weapon used to murder Renata.”

Macey straightened her back again, freeing her hands and forgetting her death stare. “You can’t just come in here and search my things. I’m not in jail, Josh is!”