Wrecked (Josie Gray Mysteries #3)(84)
“What the hell are you doing in my house?” His voice was loud and threatening.
Josie put a hand up, palm out, to stop him from moving any farther into the kitchen. “Stop. You need to go back outside. We have a search warrant. You won’t be allowed into the house until the search is complete.”
“What the—”
“That’s enough. Get your ass outside and keep your brothers out too. This ain’t your concern,” Bea said.
“What are you talking about? Use your head, Mom. They can’t be in here without our lawyer!”
“Just shut up and get outside. It’s over with.”
Dumbfounded, Rich looked at Josie as if she might explain this turn of events to him. She motioned him back from the door and shut it. Otto put ten fingers in the air. Ten minutes before backup.
Josie followed Bea down the hallway and into a bedroom. Decorated in rose-and-beige-colored curtains and comforters, with lace doilies on the night tables and a blanket chest at the end of the bed, the room was soft and feminine. The wooden floors were covered in hooked rugs. Bea’s hideaway from the commotion of her family, Josie thought.
Bea walked to an oak dresser with a mirror that ran the length of it. She held on to the top of the dresser for support and bent down to the bottom row of drawers. Josie walked up behind her and put a hand out to stop her from opening the drawer.
“Is the gun located in this drawer?”
Bea nodded but avoided looking at Josie.
“I’ll get it out myself. We need to preserve the fingerprints.”
Bea waved a hand and backed away. Josie noticed Otto standing in the hallway. He held up a plastic evidence bag. She nodded and pulled on the latex gloves she had ready in her back pocket.
“You have to take me out of here with handcuffs on? In front of the boys?”
Josie bent over to open the drawer and struggled to keep her voice level, the image of Christina’s body clearly imprinted in her mind. “You murdered a woman.”
Bea started to speak, but only a moan came out of her mouth. Josie avoided looking at her and slipped a pen into the trigger guard to lift the gun out of the drawer and place it into the baggie. “The computers? The files?” she asked.
Bea pointed to the bedroom closet. Josie found them stuffed into the back next to a laundry basket.
She then read Bea Conroy her Miranda warning. Josie wasn’t surprised when Bea refused an attorney. The woman was worn out, physically and mentally. Still, Josie took the opportunity to question her before the attorneys were inevitably brought into play. She decided to keep the handcuffs off at this point, to keep her more relaxed, more inclined to open up.
“You are under arrest for first-degree murder. You have a chance to tell the truth without lawyers and judges and jurors getting involved. You can tell your story like it really happened.”
There were times when Josie manipulated a suspect through her words and felt the sickening connection with a person as they shared intimate details of their life. It was like bargaining with the devil. All she wanted was to throw the person in a cell and lock the door, but when a criminal was desperate or resigned, it was the bargaining that often paid big dividends at the end of an investigation.
“I don’t give a hang about a lawyer. Those good-for-nothing boys of mine can earn their own keep. Send me off to a women’s jail and let somebody else cook and clean.”
Josie wondered at Bea’s change in attitude toward her family. Was this her attempt to begin the separation she knew was coming? Josie led Bea back into the kitchen and they sat back down at the table across from Leroy.
They heard sirens approaching, and Otto stepped outside to organize the group of officers descending on the property. Until further investigation, Bea would be the only member of the family brought up on murder charges.
“When did you know that Wally had taken off with the load of cash?” Josie asked.
“First we knew something was wrong was from Hec. Daryl called Wally to set up the time to pick up the cars. There’s no changing the date. We been shipping cars for three years now. Never one time missed a shipment. Daryl comes to me out in the machine shop. Says, ‘Mother, we got issues. Hec says Wally’s gone. Cars aren’t loaded. Money’s gone.’ My jaw nearly hit the dirt. ‘The money’s gone’?” She shook her head and stared at Josie for a moment. “You don’t steal nine million dollars from the Medranos, I don’t care who you are! Especially if you’re a dumb shit like Wally Follet!”
“What did you do once you realized he had taken the money?”
“I had to call Emilio and tell him the money’s gone. Then the Medranos showed up at Wally’s place and roughed the kid up, took him over to Mexico. Hec don’t know nothing. Then they come banging on our door. We don’t know nothing. Seven days of hell, phone calls and threats. Wally just vanished.”
“Mr. Reese was your accountant, correct?”
“We’re an honest business. Mr. Reese pays the taxes, keeps the books in order. We ship cars for other people, other than the Medranos, but we got eleven people living in that house. Medrano helped us make a decent living. We’d still be working it today if that dumb shit Wally hadn’t tried to sell stolen cars. Once the feds got involved it all crashed. Wally got word they were coming after him with an indictment and an arrest warrant. He took off with the money.”