Save Her Soul (Detective Josie Quinn #9)(6)

Josie said, “Did you have homeowners’ insurance? You may be able to rebuild.”

Mrs. Bassett shook her head. “That was a rental. It’s just the stuff inside I lost.”

“I’m sorry that you lost all of your possessions,” Josie told her. “We do have a couple of local businesses donating clothing and other things to people who’ve lost everything in the flooding. You’ll be able to get the basics.”

“I’ll make sure she gets what she needs,” Hayes said quickly.

Mrs. Bassett put the ice pack on her lap and grabbed Josie’s wrist. “I lost my husband in a fire fifteen years ago. I’d give up everything I ever owned in my lifetime to have him back. Things can be replaced.”

Josie was stunned by her optimistic attitude. The last week had been straight out of hell, watching members of her beloved community in dire straits. Some had lost their homes altogether and many others had lost most of their possessions. They’d been lucky so far that no one had died in the flooding, but still, people were displaced and devastated. Josie patted Mrs. Bassett’s hand. “I’m sorry about your husband. Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?”

Hayes said, “This isn’t really the time.”

Ignoring him, Josie said to Mrs. Bassett, “How long had you been living in that house?”

“Fifteen years. I moved in right after the fire. I had insurance money to rebuild, but I didn’t want to rebuild a home without my husband. But there was the matter of the land, which I still owned. I wasn’t sure what to do—I needed time to think. I was homeless—we never had children and I had overstayed my welcome with my sister-in-law—so I looked for a rental while I sorted things out. There was a local attorney looking to rent the house. He was nice enough. We went with a month-to-month lease.”

“But you never left,” Josie filled in.

Mrs. Bassett relinquished Josie’s hand and pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. “Things move so fast, don’t they? I did sell the land our house had been on and put that money away. I just never got around to buying something else. My heart wasn’t in it, to tell the truth. It was easier to stay in the rental. Mr. Plummer—that’s the landlord—he always takes care of things. When something breaks, he has it fixed. When an appliance needs replacing, he has one delivered and installed. He takes care of everything, even landscaping and snow removal. He’s always been good to me. I just pay rent and utilities. If I bought my own place, who would I call for all those things?”

“Do you know Mr. Plummer’s first name?” Josie asked.

“Calvin. Calvin Plummer. His office is in South Denton.”

“You said he takes care of things. As long as you’ve been in the house, has he ever done any work or had anyone do any work on the foundation of the house?”

“No, not that I recall.”

“Do you know anything about the item we recovered?”

“Me? No. I didn’t know it was there. Basement was concrete. You saw it break apart,” Mrs. Bassett answered.

“Speaking of the basement,” Josie went on. “Did you ever have any problems down there since you’ve lived in the house?”

“A burst pipe now and then but that was it. Mr. Plummer just had someone come out and fix everything up.”

“Have you lived there by yourself the last fifteen years?”

Mrs. Bassett nodded.

“No relatives stayed with you for any length of time? Roommates?”

“Just me, Detective Quinn.”

“Josie.”

Mrs. Bassett smiled, and Josie smiled back. “Do you know who lived there before you?”

“I don’t. You’d have to ask Mr. Plummer.”

“I will,” Josie told her. “I’d give you a business card, but I don’t have any on me. All my stuff is in the car. If you need anything, you can call the number for the police station and ask for me.”

Josie gave her shoulder a squeeze and walked off toward her car. Rain pelted down on her. Looking to the entrance of the parking lot, she saw reporters converging on Brownlow as he pulled into the lot. Then her view was obscured by the sight of Hayes striding toward her, his blue eyes penetrating. Josie stopped and squared up. Cutting him off at the pass, she said, “Is there a problem?”

“You know damn well there is,” he said as he reached her. “You went expressly against your boat operator’s orders and jumped out of the boat to retrieve… whatever the hell you retrieved.”

“What I retrieved was a dead body, likely a murder victim.”

“What you did was dangerous, irresponsible, and reckless. You endangered all of us out there today, recovering that tarp—”

“Body.”

He gave a frustrated sigh. “Tarp,” he emphasized. “You don’t actually know that it’s a body. My point is that you put yourself in a position where we might have had to rescue you, which would have put the rest of us at risk. The city’s resources are already stretched thin.”

Josie narrowed her eyes at him. “You don’t have to tell me how bad things are, Hayes. When’s the last time the emergency department used city detectives to do water rescues?”

He didn’t answer.