The Territory (Josie Gray Mysteries #1)(83)

“This is stupid. I want a lawyer.”

*

After finishing the paperwork with the intake officer, Josie found Otto looking out the door into the lobby area at the front of the jail.

“What’s up?” she asked.

He turned to face Josie, and she couldn’t read his expression. He looked lost. “It’s my wife. Delores is sitting on the bench with Pegasus Winning. She has a box of Kleenex in one hand and the girl’s hand in her other. I’m quite sure my wife has just invited the girl to stay at our house.”

Josie smiled and patted Otto on the back. “You’re a lucky man. Actually, she’s pretty lucky, too.”

“Oh, no. I’m not in the same league as that woman.” He shook his head as if trying to puzzle out how he had ever married a woman that good.

They watched for a few minutes until Pegasus stood, hugged Delores, and left the building by herself. Josie followed Otto into the waiting room.

“Wouldn’t come home with you?” Otto asked his tearful wife.

“I tried. She said she might come to church with us on Sunday. I said we’d be by her house to pick her up at a quarter to ten.”

Josie smiled and hoped Delores’s optimism paid off.

Otto tried to shoo his wife out the door. “Let’s go home. You did what you could.”

Delores ignored Otto and turned to Josie. “What is it with you young women? Is it such a crime to let someone help you every once in a while?”

*

Josie stopped by the gas station on the way home and picked up two cups of diced fruit for a combined supper and breakfast. Standing in her kitchen, she doused the fruit with hot sauce, took two quick shots of bourbon, and ate standing at the sink. By 2 A.M., she decided she was sufficiently tired to try going to bed. She let Chester out to walk the perimeter of the house and then lured him back inside with a dog cookie. She double-locked the front and back doors and stood in her bedroom doorway, debating whether she could do it.

She changed into her nightshirt, washed her face and brushed her teeth, and slid between the clean white sheets with her bedside lamp on. She considered the bourbon again but decided she was stronger than that. She thought of calling Dillon but knew the problem was hers to solve alone. One night, she thought. I’ll take it one night at a time.





EIGHTEEN


The phone rang in the kitchen at nine forty-five in the morning and woke Josie from a sleep so deep, she had to remember where the phone was. She stumbled out of bed and found Sergio Pando on the line calling to check on her.

“Word on the street is that Artemis stopped the Medrano cartel at the border. I wonder if you know what a blow this is to their organization. With the Pope gone, and the Bishop trying to hold together people who no longer believe in his leadership, they are limping along. I hear members are even defecting. Leaving the organization altogether.”

Josie sat down at her kitchen table, her brain still fuzzy with sleep. “That’s good to hear, Sergio.”

“The bad news is, La Bestia has freedom to push forward. They will take advantage of Medrano’s weakness and they will put pressure on the people and businesses in Piedra Labrada.”

“I’m sure the bribes and protection payments will increase,” she said.

“We’ve put together a Piedra contingent to gather those who are left and willing to fight. We’re talking about moving our homes and businesses into a smaller area, arming ourselves to fight back. Maybe we catch a break that way.”

“If we can help in Artemis, band together on both sides of the river, we’ll do it. I’m behind you one hundred percent,” Josie said. It was good to hear optimism from someone living in Piedra. Things had been so grim for such a long time that most had given up hope.

She hung up with Sergio, fixed herself and Chester a half dozen fried eggs, and sat on the back patio and enjoyed the sunny morning. Her body was sore and tired, but she felt the fog clearing from her head and felt her senses sharpening. The pieces and ends of the investigation were weaving together in her mind, and she was ready to log back in to work.

In a moment of self-awareness, maybe pity, she couldn’t be sure of the reason, Josie called her mother to check on her, to make sure she made the trip back to Indiana safely.

Her mother sounded surprised at the call and happy to hear from her at first. “The drive wore me out. Too many flat miles with nothing to look at.”

“A lot of people don’t like all the wide open space. Some people say it makes them nervous,” Josie said.

“Didn’t make me nervous. Just made me tired. All that interstate driving. I should have planned some highway miles.”

“I was surprised you left so soon. I could have helped you plan a route back.”

“So, how did it feel, me leaving you without a word?”

Josie’s face flushed and she closed her eyes to the fight she could already feel coming. “Let’s not do this.”

“Hope it made you think about the way you left me with no word.”

“We left for different reasons.”

“Oh, really? Fill me in, then. ’Cause I don’t know one iota why you left the way you did.”

The energy Josie had felt was turning to weariness like a switch had been flipped off. “I just called to make sure you made it home. I didn’t call for a fight.”