Scratchgravel Road (Josie Gray Mysteries #2)(71)
“Let’s not cloud your murder investigation with what appears to be your bigger issue.” He nodded his head toward the barrels. “I’m not sure what you expect here. Over two billion pounds of waste were my inheritance when I took over cleanup. Two billion pounds. That’s not waste you can take to a landfill. You can’t burn it. You can’t dump it in the ocean or bury it. So what do you do? People expect companies like Beacon to come in and clean things up with a broom and dustpan, but this is what I was left with.” He nodded again toward the barrels. “It doesn’t help when the police and media snoop around trying to find conspiracy when there is none. I’m not trying to hide anything here, Chief Gray. I’m trying to safely and effectively process this waste so you and I can raise our grandkids on this land without worry.”
“I didn’t go looking for a conspiracy theory. Juan Santiago showed up in the desert with open wounds on his body.” She paused to gauge his response. His face remained impassive. “Preliminary findings are consistent with some form of radiation poisoning. He didn’t have cancer. That leaves one rational explanation.”
Diego crossed his arms over his chest and smiled slightly, as if her explanation was amusing. “If this happened anywhere but here you wouldn’t even consider radiation. It would seem like a ridiculous idea.”
“But it did happen here.” Josie could feel Dillon tense beside her and hoped he would remain out of the conversation.
“There are a million different reasons a person might have open sores on his arms.”
Josie caught his response. She had said Santiago’s sores were on his body. Diego obviously knew about the sores.
“I have a few follow-up questions. Mind if I ask them now?”
He said nothing but didn’t turn to leave, so Josie continued.
“I’m wondering about worker safety. When workers go home at night, do they leave their work clothes here at the plant?”
“Of course. We have strict safety guidelines. You’ll find Beacon’s safety record to be the best in the business. We have lockers where workers change into coveralls when they arrive. They wear something similar to a Geiger counter while here, and it is monitored by staff at the plant. They don’t leave before changing back into their civvies.”
“But when we found Santiago’s body, he was wearing your company boots.” She paused for a moment. Diego said nothing. “It means his dead body was either carried out of the plant, or the safety rules aren’t followed as carefully as you imagine.”
EIGHTEEN
Friday morning Josie woke early. She lay on her side, staring at her open closet door in the moon’s predawn light, trying to find the detail that would connect the Santiago case. Finally, at a little before six she took a quick shower, dressed in her uniform, sent Chester out the kitchen door to lope back to Dell’s house, and left for work by 6:45. Sprawling gray clouds covered the sky and blocked out all traces of the morning sunrise. It was a dismal day, and Josie intended to make good use of it.
When she arrived at the station, Brian Moore, the part-time night dispatcher, was hunched over a thick college-level textbook at the dispatcher station. He looked up with bleary red eyes and gave her a feeble smile. Brian had finished his law degree last year and was studying to take the bar exam for the second time. He had huge college debt and was working two part-time jobs to clear it. He was a nice guy who deserved a break.
She smiled and pointed at the page. “There’s more yellow than white. Aren’t you supposed to narrow that down some?”
His smile disappeared. “This will be the death of me yet. How do you highlight when every detail is important to the case?”
Josie nodded. “Wish I could answer that myself. Any action last night?”
“Nope. All’s quiet.”
“Good news. Can you hand me the evidence key?”
Brian fished the key out of the drawer in front of him and passed it across the desk to Josie. She wished him luck and headed for the evidence locker, where she signed her name on the clipboard hanging to the right of the door and flipped on the fluorescent lights. She found the Juan Santiago/Cassidy Harper document box on the shelves labeled 2012–2014. She left the larger box with the bowling ball and college textbooks on the shelf, and carried the shoebox-sized container over to the examination table.
She looked at the paltry evidence through the plastic bags, fingering the wallet, the loose change, and the Case knife. She finally sat down at the table and aimed the desk lamp on the official inventory sheet that she had typed up. It listed all the items that were associated with the crime scene and that were either stored in the evidence room or were currently quarantined. She noted the clothing, the boots, the items in Santiago’s pocket, and tried to find anything amiss. She considered the wallet found in Cassidy’s car with no identification, but twenty-four dollars left behind. Had anything else been taken from him before he was left for dead?
And then it hit her like a bump to the head. He had no keys. Otto had told her he picked up the keys to Santiago’s apartment from Junior Daggy. Otto had said the door was locked and the partial fingerprints he collected from the apartment all matched the set Josie had taken from the dead body. So, where were Santiago’s keys? Did Cassidy Harper have the keys, same as she had his wallet?
Josie quickly packed the box back up, replaced it on the evidence shelf, and signed out on the log-in clipboard. Otto was just walking inside the front door of the department as Josie was giving the keys back to Brian.