Vanishing Girls (Detective Josie Quinn #1)(9)
Josie looked beyond her to the street but the WYEP van was not in sight. She knew from experience that sometimes Trinity purposely had the cameraman park the van around the corner so that the people she wanted to talk to wouldn’t get spooked by it and scatter. Trinity was as sneaky as she was desperate. Two years earlier she had been on the fast track to a major morning news show when a bad source gave her a false story. She went on air with it. Later, when it came out that the entire story was a lie, she had taken the fall. The scandal made national headlines. Disgraced, she had returned to central Pennsylvania and landed a job as a roving reporter for the small news station that covered the central part of the state. Josie suspected Trinity was looking for the story that would put her back in the good graces of the major markets and the viewing public. She wasn’t going to find it here, Josie thought.
“I wasn’t breaking in,” Josie said, pulling the key out of the lock and waving it in Trinity’s face.
“You know Dirk Spencer?”
“Sort of,” Josie answered. She moved to walk past Trinity, but she moved with her.
“Either you know him, or you don’t. So, which is it? I know you’re not here on official police business.”
“Get out of my way,” Josie said. “I don’t have to talk to you.”
A cell phone appeared, as if by magic, in Trinity’s hand. Her eyes narrowed. “Do you want to wait here while I call your chief and ask him why I found the detective he suspended coming out of Dirk Spencer’s house hours after he was nearly killed in a gang-related shootout on the interstate?”
Josie stared into her smug, overly made-up face with ice in her eyes. She could have slapped her, but that was exactly the sort of thing that had gotten her in trouble in the first place. She wondered how much force she could use to push Trinity out of her way before it became assault. Trinity’s cameraman was probably hidden somewhere behind the rhododendron across the street, taping this entire exchange. There was no shoving her way out of this, so she got right to the point. “What do you want?”
Slowly, Trinity lowered her cell phone. “I want a comment about the woman you assaulted. Tell me your side of the story.”
Josie sighed. “You know I can’t talk about that, not while the investigation is pending.”
Trinity rolled her eyes. “That’s public relations bullshit. Don’t you want your side of the story told?”
Josie didn’t. She had no desire to hash the whole thing out in any type of public forum. What she really wanted was to move on with her life. Get back to work and find Isabelle Coleman, or find out why Dirk Spencer had been shot. She said, “It doesn’t matter what I want. I can’t discuss it.”
Trinity placed a well-manicured hand on her hip. “What about this morning? You were a witness. Surely you can talk about that?”
“If I talk to you about this morning, will you back off?”
Trinity bit her lower lip briefly. “Until the investigation into your excessive force charge is complete. I can’t promise you anything once that happens. Our viewers will want to know what happened.”
“I’m not going on camera.”
“Then I’m not backing off.”
“Giving you an on-camera interview isn’t necessarily a decision I can make on my own. I have superiors to answer to, you know that.”
Trinity said, “I have superiors too. They’re going to want an interview. So, what’s it going to be? Am I calling your chief right now or are we going to have a conversation about this morning?”
Josie was furious with herself for getting caught at Dirk Spencer’s house. There was no explanation that would satisfy her chief, so she lied. “Fine. I’ll give you an exclusive on the excessive force thing once the investigation is over. But I do not go on camera today. I’ll talk to you about this morning, but you never saw me here.”
Josie thought she saw the tiniest flicker of satisfaction pass over Trinity’s face. “You have a deal.”
Chapter Seven
Josie kept it brief, discussing only the basic facts of what she had seen that morning and nothing else. She figured she couldn’t possibly get herself in trouble by merely describing what a half dozen other Stop and Go patrons had also seen. She left Trinity pouting and drove down the mountain, still cursing herself for having gotten snagged in Trinity’s web. She was going to be furious when she realized that Josie had no intention of giving her an exclusive interview about the investigation involving the allegation against her, or anything else for that matter.
She slowed the car as she came to the turn-off to the Colemans’ home and made the left into the driveway. Halfway to the house she found a Denton police cruiser. In it, his head lolling, eyes closed, sat patrol officer Noah Fraley. Josie pulled up behind him and got out, her lower back protesting and her leg throbbing as she put weight on it again. As she approached, she could hear Noah snoring.
Leaning into the car window, the flutter of yellow crime scene tape in the tree line caught her eye. So, he was there to guard the scene. Gently, Josie nudged his shoulder and he jolted awake, confusion blanketing his face momentarily. As he registered her presence, a crimson flush stained his cheeks. “Jos— Detective Quinn,” he stammered. “What’re you doing here?”