Firebreak: A Mystery (31 page)

“All right. I’ll cut Hank free and you finish up with her.”

*   *   *

When Josie entered the conference room the vibe was considerably different. Turner had lost her hard edge and had taken on a thoughtful look. Josie wondered what secrets Brenda had confided to her attorney.

Josie sat down across from Brenda and said, “Let’s go back to the drive to Austin.”

“What about it?”

“Tell me about your trip back to the house to pick up Billy before you went to the Hell-Bent.”

“There’s nothing really to tell. I pulled up in the driveway and Billy came outside and we left.”

“You didn’t walk into the house?” Josie asked.
And see a dead man lying on your couch,
Josie thought.

“No.”

“What did Billy tell you when he got into the car?”

She looked confused. “About what?”

“He’d just killed a man. He didn’t explain anything to you?”

“Of course not! I didn’t know anything about it. He was a mess. I drove. He just laid down in the backseat and slept.”

Josie narrowed her eyes. “You say things like that, Brenda, and it makes me not believe you. If you’d just tell the truth, you’d be so much better off in the end.”

“I don’t know what you’re implying, but I don’t like your tone of voice.”

Josie nodded. “Okay. Here’s the problem. Hank explained to us that you went into town so Billy could end the relationship with Ferris. The same man who had basically destroyed your life. Billy ends the relationship, and he gets in the car and doesn’t explain anything to you? He just lays down in the backseat and takes a thirty-minute nap on the drive to the Hell-Bent? You didn’t ask him how the conversation went? You didn’t ask him how Ferris took the news? Because I’m sure you were worried that Ferris would tell the world Billy was gay. That he would blackmail you and your husband. I think you had a lot to discuss on the drive to the Hell-Bent.”

Brenda looked like a cat trapped in the corner of a room, with her eyes wide and her body tense. “He may have ended things with Ferris, but he never said anything to me.”

Turner raised both her hands in the air to indicate that her response made perfect sense.

“Come on, Brenda. He’s your husband. You got no sense that something went bad?”

Brenda glared at Josie. “None.”

Turner held a hand up. “Okay, Chief, I think we’re done here. You’ve put this woman through enough hell for one day. Don’t bother calling us again until you have something worth coming in for.”

Josie said nothing.
Worth coming in for,
she thought. Brenda had just discovered that one of her closest friends helped her husband commit suicide
after
her husband killed his lover. If that wasn’t worth coming in for, Josie couldn’t imagine what would be.

TWENTY-THREE

Tuesday morning, before leaving for work, Josie opened her freezer to scout out the contents. She found one package of freezer-burnt chicken, and hamburger patties that were an odd shade of purple. If Nick was going to cook supper that night he’d have to bring something with him. She sent a quick text that read:
Looking forward to dinner! Please bring meat or we’ll have to eat canned corn
. It wasn’t very accommodating, but she hoped things were about to break open on the case, and grocery shopping wasn’t on her to-do list for the afternoon.

Josie and Otto started the day at their office conference table to talk through the details of the investigation one more time. She felt like the key players were in place, but they hadn’t made the right connections yet.

“What bothers you the most about the case?” she asked.

“Why would Billy confess all of those details to Hank?” Otto said.

“Because he felt guilty. Because he was drunk.”

Otto looked skeptical. “Billy was beyond drunk. Comatose comes to mind. Does someone that drunk have the mental capacity to remember the kind of details Hank told us about? Turning the clocks forward? Why would Billy share that?”

Josie nodded. “That one got me too. Especially if it was a crime of passion.”

“And I just don’t see Billy as that calculating. He supposedly cared for Ferris to the point he put his marriage and career in serious jeopardy,” he said.

“The story Hank told us was of a person who had decided to end a longtime affair, and then got into a fight that turned deadly.”

“But planting a syringe, turning the clocks ahead, setting his house on fire, getting the timeline just right? Those are calculated moves,” Otto said. “Those aren’t the actions of someone caught up in an argument that turns deadly.”

“Agreed. And I still have a problem with the inconsistencies between Hank’s story and Brenda’s. In the beginning, Brenda told us Ferris wasn’t staying at their house. Then she changed her story somewhat. She said Billy had told Ferris they were leaving because of the evacuation. She knew Ferris was at their home and Billy was talking to him.”

“How did Ferris get there?”

“Hank said Ferris was going to take the Nixes’ pickup truck. My guess is, he’d been staying there, maybe a few days. Why did she keep saying he never stayed at their house?”

Otto frowned and nodded. “She was embarrassed. She didn’t want to admit the relationship.”

“But why did Brenda lie to us?”

“Because she knew Billy killed Ferris, and she was trying to protect him,” Otto said.

Josie was quiet. There was a detail she was missing, a connection that was right in front of her. “Let’s go back to what we know about the day of the evacuation. Once more on the time frame.”

Otto went to the back of the office to pour them each a cup of coffee. He walked back slowly, piecing together the puzzle out loud for his own benefit as much as for hers. “We’re assuming Ferris was staying at their house. According to Hank, after Billy killed Ferris, Brenda drove home and picked Billy up and they went to the Hell-Bent to get his guitar. He said she knew nothing about Ferris’s death. She said the same. Their plan was to drive to Austin and book a few gigs.” Otto paused and Josie watched him arranging his thoughts in his head.

She picked it up. “At some point, after Billy talked to Angela at the Hell-Bent, he drove back to his home and set it on fire, staging the scene to make it look like Ferris OD’d on their couch and burnt up in the fire.”

Then it clicked. Josie felt like she’d been sucker punched. She flipped through her steno pad with her interview notes. She went back to her interview with the bartender, Angela Stamos.

“Angela said she talked to Billy for a while in the dressing room. He was torn up over leaving. He got his guitar and then couldn’t find Brenda.” Josie thumbed through her notes and found what she was looking for. “Angela said, ‘I think he ended up talking to John Lummin for a while.’”

Josie looked up at Otto. “No one could remember who Brenda sat with. Hank even mentioned that he didn’t know who she talked to. He remembered Billy getting his guitar, but not who Brenda sat with. That’s because she wasn’t there. I don’t think Ferris was dead. I think she drove to the house and killed Ferris while Billy chatted with Lummin.”

“Hang on. Remember at the first interview with the Nixes, Brenda said she talked with Yvonne Ferrario. Did you ever get ahold of her?”

“I tried once and couldn’t get through,” Josie said. She flipped back through her notes and found the phone number she’d jotted on her notes. Josie dialed the number on her cell phone, and it went directly to voicemail.

“Yvonne. This is Josie Gray. I need you to call me as soon as possible. I have an urgent question to ask you in regard to a current investigation.” Josie provided her phone number at the PD and her cell phone number and hung up.

Otto resumed their conversation. “You think the story about Brenda leaving and Billy fighting with Ferris and killing him is bogus?”

She nodded. “I think something happened that afternoon between Billy, Ferris, and Brenda at the house. I think Brenda and Billy left to get his guitar, planning on leaving town. Something happened on the car ride to the Hell-Bent, and Brenda drove back to the house and killed Ferris.”

“You think Billy knew?”

Josie shook her head. “After all the interviews, ‘sad and confused’ seems to be about the best description of him. I can buy the suicide a lot easier than I can him murdering Ferris,” she said.

“Would he have let Brenda kill Ferris?” he said.

“Maybe he didn’t know until it was too late.”

“So why would he tell Hank a monstrous lie as he’s committing suicide?” he asked.

“Maybe he was trying to protect Brenda. He’d driven his own wife to murder, so he tried to pin it on himself and then he committed suicide.”

Otto nodded, conceding the point. “Brenda had plenty of motive. Not only was Ferris destroying her marriage, but he was destroying Billy’s career. Her ‘meal ticket.’ Who called him that?”

“Angela said that.”

“What about timing?” Otto asked. “Could Brenda have pulled this off?”

“In all the commotion with the evacuation, she could have easily left the bar and drove back to the house to deal with Ferris. Afterwards, she could have convinced Billy they didn’t need to go back home after all. They had supposedly already given Ferris the keys to the truck so he could leave.”

Otto nodded. “I like it. She could have called Ferris. Told him that she needed to talk to him before he left town. Maybe she said she wanted to make things right between them. Mend fences.”

“The Zaner was another detail that bothered me,” said Josie. “Billy’s a big guy. If he wanted to stop Ferris from walking down the hallway, he hardly needed to stun the kid. But Brenda would have needed it.”

“After it was all over with, Billy couldn’t take the guilt. He found out his wife killed Ferris and allowed him to burn in a fire. Not only had he lost his lover, but he’d driven his own wife to murder. Billy’s life was over so he asked Hank to help him end it for good.” Otto banged his fist on the table. “We got this.”

“Let’s talk to Hank one more time. See if we can cement a few details before we go to the prosecutor,” Josie said.

*   *   *

They arrived at the Hell-Bent at a little after nine that morning but it wasn’t yet open for business. They drove a quarter of a mile down the lane and found Hank at home, watching ESPN, eating a bowl of cereal in the living room. He invited them inside and they sat down in the living room as they had done the last time they visited his home. While Hank carried his bowl into the kitchen Josie noticed a pair of women’s beige dress shoes lying on the floor, underneath a chair that was pushed against the wall in the kitchen. She hadn’t noticed them the last time they visited. The shoes looked as if they might have been shoved under the chair and forgotten about. Josie averted her eyes as he returned so that Hank wouldn’t realize she had seen them.

“Hank, we have some follow-up questions to ask you about Billy. You’re free to call an attorney, but we’re just here to follow up.”

Given their last conversation, Josie expected the guarded look he gave her. He studied her a moment and finally said, “Okay, go ahead.”

“We’re still struggling with the story Billy told you. It doesn’t make sense for several reasons.”

He gave her a puzzled look. “Why would Billy lie to me before ending his life?”

Josie wondered at his choice of words. She hadn’t said Billy had lied, just that his story didn’t make sense.

“I think Billy lied because he was trying to protect his wife,” she said.

“Protect her from what?”

“The day after the evacuations, do you remember me coming into the Hell-Bent to talk to you about the Nixes leaving town?”

“Sure.”

“Do you remember me asking you about the timing? What time they arrived, what time Billy got into the dressing room?”

“Yeah, I told you to talk to Angela. She said you talked to her and she told you he got the guitar at five thirty.”

“Where was Brenda during that time?” Josie asked.

He frowned. “I don’t know. She was in the bar.”

“Did you see her sitting with someone?”

His eyes darted from Josie to Otto. “Sure. Everybody was talking in groups, walking around.”

“Specifically, who did you see her sitting with?” she asked.

“I can’t name a specific person.”

“That’s funny. Because people gave us the names of people Billy talked to. Angela said that when they were done in the dressing room Billy looked for his wife and couldn’t find her. He sat down and talked to John Lummin because he couldn’t find Brenda.”

Hank wrinkled his forehead. “What are you getting at?”

“I think Billy made up that big story because he was covering for his wife. He drove his wife to murder and couldn’t handle the guilt.”

“That’s ridiculous! She’s not a killer! Look at the hell that woman’s been through, and now you’re calling her a murderer on top of it all?”

“Think back to that day in the bar, Hank. Who did she talk to? Who did you see her with?”

He frowned and looked exasperated with the questions. “I told you. The bar was chaos that day. I can’t remember all the people I talked to, let alone somebody else.”

Josie put a hand up in a gesture meant to calm the tension. “I’m not trying to be confrontational. We have to make sure we have the right person before we close the case. We’re just sorting through the specifics.”

He nodded. “Sure. I get that. I just know you’re barking up the wrong tree with Brenda.”

Josie gave Hank an embarrassed look. “I hate to do this, but we’ve been out of the office all morning. Would you mind if I used your restroom before we take off?” Josie asked.

He pointed behind him down a dark hallway. “First door on your right.”

Josie walked by Otto, knowing he would keep up the conversation for a few minutes. She decided to follow up on a hunch.

She shut the door to the bathroom and scanned the room for anything that would indicate who the female was that wore the beige shoes lying in his kitchen. Sensible heels, not the shoes of one of the waitresses he supposedly chased after. She opened the medicine cabinet that hung over the single basin and found the typical bottles and tubes. She flushed the toilet and scanned the medicine bottles, and she found one prescribed to Brenda Nix. Xanax. Her pill of choice for sleeping while she and Billy traveled: apparently also her pill of choice while sleeping with Hank.