Wrecked (Josie Gray Mysteries #3)(11)

As Josie got closer she saw that blood had soaked the skirt’s brown tweed fabric. Josie covered her mouth with her hand and closed her eyes for a moment, struggling to process what she was looking at. She had a sudden vision of Dillon sitting at his own desk and she moaned at the thought.

*

She ran down the hallway to his office. His desk chair was knocked over on its side. All four sets of filing cabinets were open and files were scattered across the floor. She ran behind his desk to make sure he wasn’t on the floor, then did a quick search of the bathroom and the two closets in the building. Her relief was short-lived: if Dillon wasn’t here, where was he?

As she ran to the back entrance she heard a siren approaching the front. She snapped a picture of the back door, with the deadbolt secured, and used her gloved hand to twist the lock and push the door open. Christina’s was the only car in the alley, and a cursory look through its windows showed nothing suspicious.

She heard Otto call her name and she ran back into the building. He was standing in the front room staring at Christina.

“Where’s Dillon?” he said.

“He’s not in his office or out back. Her car is the only vehicle in the alley.” She turned away from Christina’s body. She could feel her heart pounding against her chest and knew that she had to lower her heart rate. She was suddenly hot and the periphery of her vision grew black and fuzzy. Guilt washed through her body like a poison. She had ignored her instincts and allowed petty insecurities to keep her from checking on Dillon last night.

Otto grabbed her arm and led her over to a wooden chair backed against a window. He gently pushed her down into the seat.

Two other sheriff cars pulled up outside the office and a moment later Sheriff Roy Martínez entered the building, dressed in the brown sheriff’s uniform. He was a burly ex-marine with a thick head of black hair and a bushy mustache.

He glanced at the body in front of the computer and said, “You have a perimeter set up outside?”

“I just got here a minute ago,” Otto said. “Nothing’s been done.”

Roy turned and gave brief instructions to Deputy Scott Jones, who had arrived at the same time. Roy told him to cordon off the street and run crime-scene tape around the building and the realty office next door. All officers were to remain outside until further notice to keep contamination of the office as minimal as possible during the early investigation.

“Tell me what you know,” Otto said. He kneeled down on the floor to be eye to eye with Josie.

With her thoughts a scattered mess, she struggled to keep his face in focus. She was afraid she might be sick.

He put a hand on her arm and squeezed gently. “What happened here, Josie?”

She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, forcing the lump in her throat to settle. Roy came back inside and stood beside them.

She stared at Otto’s hand on her arm and told the two men about her plans with Dillon the night before. She explained that Dillon had not shown up at Dell’s or answered his phone all evening.

“When was the last time you had contact with him?” Otto asked.

“Yesterday morning at about seven forty-five. He left my place. I called him just before eight A.M. and left him a message, reminding him to stop at Dell’s to help out.” She pulled her cell phone out of her uniform shirt pocket. “He never showed up. After a dozen phone calls and messages and texts from me last night, he finally left this text at eight fifty P.M.”

Otto took the phone and read the text aloud to Roy. “Can’t make it.” Otto frowned. “That’s pretty abrupt. Does that read like a typical text from him?”

She shook her head, too ashamed to admit she had second-guessed herself the night before.

“You didn’t talk to Dillon or Christina at any time yesterday after that morning phone call?” Roy asked.

“No. He had a full day. He was going to meet this client at six for a quick meeting, then come out to Dell’s to help with the fence by six thirty. I remember him saying the meeting was at the client’s house, on Driftriver Drive. It was on the way, out to my place.”

“Is that customary? For him to meet a client at their house?” Roy asked.

Josie gave him an uncertain look. “I don’t really know.”

“Do you have the address of the meeting?” Otto asked.

She shook her head.

“We need to get someone out there to look for his car.”

Otto walked away and called Lou Hagerty, the daytime dispatcher who’d just come on duty, and gave her a summary of what they’d found. “Call Marta at home and brief her. Ask her to scout out Driftriver Drive for Dillon’s car, then report here. And let me know how soon the coroner can get here.” Once he finished, Otto returned and laid his hand on Josie’s back. “We need to get the lead investigator set.”

The thought hadn’t even crossed her mind yet. She was still trying to process what she was seeing.

“It’s your call to make,” Otto said.

Josie took a deep breath, summoning up a resolve she didn’t feel. She knew Otto was asking her to make the correct ethical and tactical decision, but it was a decision that would effectively take her out of the command role in terms of the investigation into Christina’s murder and Dillon’s disappearance. She would not be making the key decisions. But she had to admit that it would be almost impossible for her to remain impartial, to ask the tough questions required in a murder investigation.