Wrecked (Josie Gray Mysteries #3)(15)

Cowan turned and surveyed the scene before moving on to the body. The room basically had two spaces. The area on the left was a waiting room with comfortable couches in earthy shades of brown and red and yellow. The other side of the room was the secretary’s area, now cluttered with file folders and other materials. Maple furniture complemented the old redbrick walls, and framed black-and-white Japanese etchings were clustered on end tables around the waiting room and hung in small groupings on the walls.

Cowan sighed and turned his attention to the body. It had taken on the awkward pose of death, with the stiff unnatural angle to the limbs. He felt eyes on him and looked up to find Josie staring at him intently from across the room.

Josie stood on the edge of a conversation between Otto and Roy. They were a fine group of officers, competent and friendly enough, but conversation had never been easy for Cowan.

He approached Josie and extended his hand. “I’m terribly sorry about all this.”

She shook his hand and thanked him.

“Any indication what happened?”

“No sign of a break-in. It looks as if the office was closed between five and six o’clock. Sometime before ten o’clock Christina came back to the office.”

Josie turned and they walked toward the front of the desk so that Cowan could get a better look.

“Okay, take me through your observations,” he said.

“We pulled her body forward slightly,” Josie said. “The bullet, or bullets, did not exit her body. It looks as if she was shot while sitting in the chair. The blood splatter on the wall to her left makes it look as if someone shot her from over there.” Josie pointed toward the front door.

“So she was shot from the side, not from the front. Either a lucky shot to the heart, or a damned good one.”

“My guess is lucky,” she said. “I can’t imagine a skilled shooter taking a chance with this shot. Too much room for error.”

He turned to Josie. “When Lou called, she filled me in on Dillon’s disappearance. Any word yet?”

“Nothing.” She started to say something else and then stopped, unable to continue.

“That’ll be all for now then. Thank you for the help.” He paused, struggling for the right words. “I’m sorry about all this. I’ll do everything I can.”

*

Josie found Otto and Martínez in Dillon’s office, both on their hands and knees, looking at the mess of file folders on the floor. They both looked up when she entered.

“You find anything?” she asked.

“We’re getting the files in alphabetical order. We’ll know more in a few minutes. Cowan here?”

She nodded. “He just got started on the preliminary.”

“Good.” He nodded and smoothed the hair down over his head. “Marta’s outside. She drove through the Driftriver Drive neighborhood and found no sign of Dillon’s car. I was hoping to find the exact location for the meeting somewhere in the office.”

“We don’t have the address,” Josie said. “The desk calendars are gone, so are the computers.”

“All right. Why don’t you ride with Marta, interview everyone in the neighborhood.” He paused and considered her for a moment. “Do you have keys to Dillon’s house?”

“Yes.” She patted her front pants pocket. “I have them with me. I walked through his house this morning on my way in to work.”

Josie and Otto exchanged a look. In hindsight, she regretted entering the house, which was now part of the investigation, but she could have never predicted what they were dealing with.

“I’ll do an initial sweep of the house. If anything’s out of place, I’ll go back with a search warrant.”

Josie nodded.

“I’ll get prints on the exterior doors.” He paused and she picked up the unease in his expression. “I don’t want you back at his house. If this case ends up at trial, the last thing we want is you spending time in his house alone.”

He kept his eyes on her, waiting for a reply. All she could manage was a nod. There was also a spare key hidden underneath a rock in Dillon’s backyard, but she said nothing.

“Call me when you’re finished on Driftriver. I need you and Marta back at the PD pulling records. First thing, ask Marta to see if they can ping that cell phone text. See what tower the message was sent from. Hopefully we’ll get a general area where Dillon was located when the text was sent last night.”

“All right.”

“I’d like Marta to focus on Dillon’s information. You take Christina’s. Pull credit cards, bank accounts, cell phone activity, anything you can get access to,” he said. “We need to keep this clean, for your sake as well as mine.”

Josie hesitated and pulled Dillon’s house key out of her pocket and placed it in Otto’s hand. For a beat too long Otto stared at her, and Josie wondered if he was weighing his role as the lead investigator against their friendship. A look passed between them, and Josie was certain that Otto’s role as investigator would remain the priority: their friendship would no doubt be tested.

*

Outside the office, Josie saw sheriff’s deputies Jones and Phillips talking with the EMT driver across the street. They tipped their heads at Josie, but said nothing. She was living a cop’s worst nightmare.