Wrecked (Josie Gray Mysteries #3)(79)
TWENTY-THREE
Josie and Otto got back in the car and drove with the windows down, letting the damp evening air blow through the car. Fat raindrops hit the windshield for all of ten seconds, and then evaporated, the clouds taking the much-needed rain elsewhere.
Back at the office, they spent two hours meeting with Agent Omstead. Josie came clean about working with Nick Santos, and Omstead had smiled in response. He said they knew Santos was on the case and staying at her home. He explained the FBI couldn’t use the private sector to circumvent the law to gain information. However, if Josie received key information from a negotiator, the FBI could certainly benefit from the intelligence. Omstead had said that Santos was well respected, and if he provided information that would benefit the case, they would use it. Josie had been surprised, but pleased with his response.
Josie also relayed the information about Wally’s conversations with Hec: Hec telling Wally about Dillon’s kidnapping the same night that it happened, the same night that Christina was murdered. Hector and Wally knew about the kidnapping and murder before the police. They discussed the phone records that had already been subpoenaed. They also explained that the Conroy family was working with Wally Follet to ship the cars directly to the Medranos. With the threat of arrest for obstructing a murder investigation Mrs. Conroy had finally given up the cell phone number for her boss, Emilio. Agent Omstead confirmed what they had learned. He had discovered that Emilio Medrano was one of the contacts for a money-laundering scheme being run out of Piedra Labrada. He took the phone number in hopes of tracing it back to an address in Mexico.
Shortly after Omstead left, Brian Moore buzzed Josie’s office phone.
“The phone company faxed Wally’s phone records that you requested from the warrant. I’ve already checked numbers for you. Wally placed a call to Christina Handley’s cell phone at eight forty-five P.M.”
Josie thanked Brian and turned her chair to face Otto. “You want to place a bet? I think we just identified Christina’s killer.”
“Now we just need to find him.”
*
At nine thirty, once Otto had clocked off to drive Delores to Marfa to visit an ill friend, Josie texted Marta, who was sitting at the river again, this time within earshot of the men camped out behind Wally’s Folly. The lights on timers in Hec’s home seemed to have worked, as the two men along the river’s edge had no idea they were watching an empty trailer, or at least didn’t care.
Josie drove down River Road as the last light of the day slipped below the horizon. The pieces were in place. The connections were finally there. Wally Follet had been tipped off that he was being indicted by the United States government and subsequently stole nine million dollars from the Medrano cartel before slipping off into the dark. It didn’t take long for the Medranos to figure out Wally was the culprit. He had disappeared and Josie was certain that the Conroys made it clear to the Medranos that Wally was the person who stole the money.
Four days after Wally and the nine million dollars had gone missing, the cartel abducted Hec and tried to beat the information out of him. Up until Hec was released by the Medranos and returned home, Hec had not had contact with his father, and Josie believed the boy still didn’t know his whereabouts. After Hec failed to produce Wally, the Medranos kidnapped Dillon in order to get the police to find the money in exchange for Dillon’s life. When the Medranos threatened to kidnap Hector like they had done to Dillon, Hec forwarded the information to his father. For a short period of time after Hec was returned home, Wally would call to check on him. Hec had told Josie that after he told his dad about the kidnapping, his dad quit calling.
Wally then convinced Christina Handley to meet him at Dillon’s office. Josie knew this part was conjecture, but her thinking was that Wally was trying to save Hec from being indicted for their business practices. By refusing to leave town with his dad and the nine million dollars, Hec had left himself vulnerable to the feds’ investigation. So Wally came back to steal the files and shot Christina in the process.
Josie was fairly certain Wally had not fled the country. He was in the area, waiting for the moment he could grab his son and leave town for good. Father and son living the good life as millionaires, somewhere up north, most likely the Canadian outback. It was the reason Hec wouldn’t come all the way clean: he was protecting their getaway. The only part of her theory that she couldn’t reconcile was how Wally could have left Hec to fend for himself with the Medranos. He had to have known that the Medranos would come for his son.
If she could find Wally and the money, the control would be hers. Without the money, she had nothing. The kidnappers hadn’t communicated with her since sending the video, and the lack of contact terrified her. If the Medranos lost faith in her ability to recover their money, Dillon would be killed.
Josie resisted the urge to call Nick. He had promised to call her with anything significant, and told her not to call him unless his services were needed.
After a ten-minute scalding shower left her body slack but her mind still reeling, she dried off and dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, too wound up to sleep. She made her way to the kitchen, staring into the refrigerator’s shelves, which were either empty or filled with condiments.
She shut the refrigerator door and opened the cabinet to the left, considering the half-empty bottle of Old Crow as if it were her last resort. She needed sleep but she was too wired to shut down. Josie considered herself a stable person. It took a great deal to excite her, but for the past several days she’d felt as if she were buzzing on speed, unable to slow her thoughts or sleep more than an hour or two at a time. Her skin ached and was hot to the touch.