Scratchgravel Road (Josie Gray Mysteries #2)(72)

“Morning all,” he called.

“Same to you,” she said.

“Son. You need a bed and a pillow,” Otto said to Brian.

He nodded. “Lou will be here any minute.”

Josie walked beside Otto toward the back stairs. “I studied the evidence list this morning for the Santiago case. We missed something. What about the keys to his apartment?”

“I know. I had to get them from Daggy,” Otto said.

“If the keys are gone, what else might be gone?”

“I didn’t find anything out of place. No stray fingerprints.”

They reached the top of the stairs and Josie unlocked the office door and turned on the lights. She walked to the back of the office to make coffee and continued talking while Otto started his computer. “What was Santiago’s sole motivation for being here?”

“He wanted to get enough money to buy a parcel of land,” Otto said.

“And you didn’t find a dime in his apartment?”

He shook his head. “Not a dime. No checks. No credit cards. Which I considered, but dismissed. He drove his money back home.”

“We need to confirm what we heard from the workers at the Feed Plant. They claimed he made a trip to Mexico once a month to visit and take money home. We need to talk to his wife. How much did he bring home at a time? When was the last time he sent it?” Josie measured two heaping scoops and slid the basket into the coffeepot. “Maybe we’ve been so hung up on the radiation poisoning that we missed the real motivation for his killing. Maybe someone killed him for a shoebox full of money.”

“Doesn’t explain the sores. Or the wallet with twenty-four dollars left in Cassidy’s car,” Otto said.

Josie sat down at her desk and turned her chair toward Otto. “It’s driving me crazy. I feel like we’re missing something. A detail that’s right there.”

“That means we’re close,” he said.

“I had an interesting night last night.”

“Maybe I don’t want to hear this,” he said.

“Dillon and I drove over to the Feed Plant and snooped around.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You get caught?”

“Yep. We found the pilot unit up and running. Men in white suits hard at work behind black-tinted windows. They caught us peeking in the door. They ran us off and we took a side trip to check out the barrels in the back lot. That’s when Paiva showed up on his golf cart to run us off.”

His eyebrows went up again. “That guy must live there.” A smile spread across his face. “Got run off by the big dog. He give you grief?”

She nodded. “He gave me a lecture on their safety record. The precautions they take, like changing into the company uniform when they arrive. Back into civvies before they leave. He acted surprised when I told him about Santiago wearing the company boots. I haven’t told him yet about the plant gates that were both unlocked to anyone wanting entrance.”

Otto looked puzzled. “Hang on. Let’s think about the timeline.”

Josie rolled her chair back over to her desk and found her notebook. She opened it to a blank page, propped it on her lap, and turned back to Otto.

“Let’s work backwards from the time his body was found,” he said.

“The body was found on Monday, the fifteenth. Cowan believes Santiago was killed late Saturday night or early Sunday morning,” she said.

“We have nothing Friday or Saturday. Thursday was the last postmark on the mail I found on his table.”

“Wednesday was the first day he didn’t show up to work.” Josie looked up from her notebook. “And it was the day he visited the nurse.”

They both stared at their notes in silence, formulating their own questions.

“First thing I want to know is Santiago’s work duties on Monday and Tuesday last week. I’ll call Skip and ask him to e-mail a detailed list,” Josie said.

Otto was leaned back in his chair with one arm resting on his stomach, the other elbow resting on his forearm as he rubbed his chin. Josie had seen the pose countless times through her years of watching him puzzle through various cases.

He said, “I want to know what he did on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. When I call his wife about receiving the money, I’ll ask if she knows what he did in his spare time. She said she hadn’t spoken with him for over a week on the phone, but that wasn’t unusual. They each had a disposable cell phone with limited minutes.”

Josie squinted at Otto, trying to remember the details. “What was the situation with his cell phone?”

“We haven’t found his phone, although his wife says he had a throwaway model. She told Lou the minutes were gone on her phone and her grandson took it. He’s now lost it. She claims the whole family is trying to track her phone down. Hoping he left them one last message.”

“I want to visit Cassidy again too. See if she found a spare set of keys.” She stared at her notebook for a moment. She finally said, “I’ll check out Santiago’s place again. Maybe I’ll find a shoebox full of money we can send to his wife. I’ll stop by and see Diego Paiva on my way back. I’m sure he has an earful for me.” Josie stood and picked her jeep keys up off her desk. “Call me if you learn anything.”

*