Wrecked (Josie Gray Mysteries #3)(20)
Two years ago, one of Mexico’s most prominent drug cartels, the Medranos, had begun using Artemis as an illegal port of entry into the United States. Artemis was a convenient entry point because of its isolated location and easy access across a low point in the Rio Grande. The battle with the cartel had ended with several high-ranking members arrested and several others killed, including the Medranos’ patriarch. Josie now feared that her involvement in the killing of cartel members may have led to Dillon’s abduction. The cartel may have decided they could also get access to the records of Dillon’s wealthy clients. It would be a double score: easy money and revenge against Josie at the same time. The thought of Dillon bound and gagged, tossed into a stash house, fearing for his life, was torture. Worse yet was the fear that no call would ever come, that Dillon had already been killed to show Josie that the Medranos’ power was greater than her own.
Otto entered the office with the same stoic expression Josie had left him with earlier in the day.
“Anything?” he asked.
“We’ve narrowed down the time for Christina’s killing. We’ve got a few minor leads,” Josie said.
He pointed to the conference table and Josie and Marta took a seat with him. “Roy and I took a few good prints from the office. Some hair and fiber samples.”
Josie noted that his voice sounded weary, not the tone of a man convinced he had a lead.
“What about the files?” Marta asked.
Otto explained that files with client names starting with the letters A through G, and L and T were missing, assuming he had clients whose names ended in all those letters. “We have one piece of information that supports Josie’s theory of a kidnapping.” He described Junior Daggy’s description of a dark-colored SUV found behind the building.
“It was parked behind Christina’s car last night around ten P.M.,” he said.
“Were the lights on in the building?” Josie asked.
“He said he saw lights on in the front of the building.”
“When I arrived at seven this morning the lights were off,” Josie said. “So we have the cargo van in the Driftriver neighborhood around six, and the SUV at the office at ten. I confirmed a cell phone call, off the record, for Christina last night at eight forty-five.”
Otto flipped through the pages of his notes and found the entry he was searching for. “One of the state troopers talked to Christina’s landlord, Debby Williams. Debby confirmed she saw Christina arrive home sometime between five and six, but she didn’t notice her car after that. None of the other neighbors remember seeing her car last night, but it’s a quiet neighborhood. People keep to themselves.”
“Anyone other than Junior see anything around the office last night?”
Otto shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Then we can establish her time of death between eight forty-five P.M. and seven this morning when I arrived.” Josie rubbed at her temples. “It doesn’t make sense that Dillon was taken at six.”
Otto finished her thought. “And they waited to kill Christina until after eight. The kidnappers should have been long gone by that point.”
Marta said, “I’m waiting on the cell phone company to tell us what tower Dillon’s text message was sent from last night. That should help narrow the area, but that information takes longer to track down.”
“Why kill Christina? Why kidnap Dillon? What’s the motive?” Josie asked.
Otto sighed in frustration. “The only experience I have with kidnapping cases involved a ransom, not information. If they kidnapped Dillon for banking information, then we may not receive contact from them. No phone calls or letters to help us find him.”
Josie listened to Otto and knew she had been right to relinquish command of the investigation. Working a typical case in the early stages was exciting on some level; determining how best to pull the seemingly unrelated pieces together into a coherent whole was a challenge. But now she felt none of that. She felt heavy and exhausted, like her limbs were operating underwater.
“Something else to consider. We rule this a kidnapping and the feds come in and take over,” Otto said.
“I still have a gut feeling the Medranos are involved in this,” Josie said.
Otto shook his head. “I’m not so certain. Cowan called and confirmed the gunshot came from the right side of Christina’s body. One .38 caliber bullet. He said the shot nicked the heart, the ascending aorta. With the angle of the shot, Cowan said she stood a chance of surviving if she’d received medical attention. She just bled out. The cartel wouldn’t lure her to the office with the intent to kill her, and then take a potshot.”
Marta nodded in agreement. “She’d have been full of bullets if it were a cartel job.”
Josie said nothing. Her face flushed red with shame and guilt. Christina bled out. If Josie had followed her instincts, checked the office like Dell had encouraged her to do, Christina might be alive right now. And, they might have gotten information from her to save Dillon.
“But if she wasn’t dead when she was first shot, why doesn’t it look like she tried to move, to fight for herself?” Marta asked.
“Cowan said it was a debilitating shot. The shock and loss of blood would have caused her to lose consciousness, but it probably wasn’t instant death,” he said.