Save Her Soul (Detective Josie Quinn #9)(60)

Gretchen said, “That’s about ninety minutes from here.”

“We’ll need warrants,” Josie said. “For the pharmacy records and then for whatever address we find for this Alice Adams. We’ll need to call the local PD there too and let them know what we’re doing.”

“Let’s go,” Gretchen said.





Thirty





At the stationhouse, Gretchen prepared the warrants while Josie called the Colbert PD to coordinate efforts. Within a half hour, Josie was informed that the address that Alice Adams had been residing at was a rental. The Colbert officer gave her the name and phone number of the landlord. He offered to pay the landlord a visit and explain what was going on to pave the way for Josie and Gretchen to execute their search warrant at Alice’s apartment later that day, if possible. “Now we just have to wait for a return call,” she told Gretchen.

Amber, who had been sitting several desks away the entire time, walked over. “I was hoping you could bring me up to speed on all the developments,” she said. “Seems like a lot has happened since yesterday. I know that ‘Alice’ was really Vera Urban and now she’s dead—the Chief told me that—but that’s all he would say. He wouldn’t give me any details. But I heard some of the patrol officers talking about a shoot-out. They said you and Gretchen were there. They said Vera Urban was shot. Can you tell me what happened? Did she have any information for you?”

Gretchen said, “No one else told you anything? The Chief? Lieutenant Fraley? Mett?”

“I haven’t had a chance to talk with anyone. Everyone’s so busy.”

Josie looked up and met her eyes. “How about the Mayor? Have you had a chance to talk with her?”

“No, I— Why would I need to talk with the Mayor?”

Josie went back to typing up a report on her computer. After several awkward moments, Amber plunged in again. “I just have a few questions.”

Josie pushed her chair away from her desk and headed for the stairwell. The stitches in her leg tugged with each step. Amber followed, calling out questions, holding her tablet in one hand and tapping away at it with her other hand as she followed Josie from the great room to the break room. Josie gave monosyllabic answers whenever possible or referred Amber to the Chief. She was more focused on getting coffee than telling Amber a damn thing. She poured herself a mug and went to the refrigerator for the half and half, but Amber stepped in front of her, blocking Josie’s way. “Detective Quinn,” she said, her trademark smile replaced by a look so earnest it bordered on desperation. “If I’m going to do my job, I need to know what you know.”

Josie said, “Please move.”

Amber straightened her posture, standing at least two inches taller than Josie in her four-inch heels. “What is your problem with me?” she blurted out.

Josie squeezed the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. She could feel a headache forming behind her eyes. Folding her arms across her chest, she met Amber’s eyes. “Look, I really don’t have time for this, and you’re standing between me and the half and half. If you want to get along well here, you won’t do that.”

Amber’s chin jutted out stubbornly as she glared at Josie. Her lips formed a straight line, and her blue eyes blinked frenetically, giving away her nervousness. Josie couldn’t help it. She laughed. Amber deflated before her, slinking away from the refrigerator in defeat. “Just a minute,” Josie said before she left the room. Amber stopped in the doorway.

Retrieving the half and half, Josie returned to the table in the center of the room and fixed her coffee. “I understand you have a job to do, but the fact is that the Mayor put you here.”

“I told you,” Amber groused. “I’m not the Mayor’s plant.”

Josie sipped her hot coffee, relishing the taste of it. There was no point in confronting Amber with her suspicions. If Amber was in league with the Mayor, she’d never admit it. If Amber was completely innocent and had been inadvertently feeding the Mayor information, she certainly couldn’t control what the Mayor did with that information. Josie said, “You liaise with the Mayor’s office. That makes you not trustworthy at this particular time. Between the Quail Hollow scandal and—” she stopped herself from saying the words “Vera’s murder,” instead concluding, “It’s a problem. So yes, we’re playing things a little close to our vests on this one.”

Amber sighed loudly and tugged at her hair. “What am I supposed to do?”

“I can’t answer that,” Josie told her. Mug in hand, she walked to the door. Amber didn’t move. “All I can say,” Josie added, “is that trust is earned.”

She slid past the small gap between Amber and the doorframe, brushing up against her. Before she could return to the stairwell, the desk sergeant, Dan Lamay, came shuffling down the first-floor hallway. “Boss,” he called. “There’s something—”

Josie held a hand up to silence him until she heard Amber cross the hall behind her and go back upstairs. “Okay,” she said. “What is it, Dan?”

“The Mayor is here to see you. She’s in the lobby right now.”

“She’s here to see me, specifically?”

“Yeah, she says she wants to speak with you and only you.”