Firebreak: A Mystery (32 page)

Josie took her cell phone out of her pocket and took a picture of the bathroom, the cabinet, and then the pill bottle that clearly stated Brenda’s name. Hank had invited them freely into his home, and he had given her permission to enter his bathroom. She wasn’t sure the photograph of Brenda’s pills would be admissible in court, but it was worth the effort. It might be enough to coerce something out of Hank.

Josie quickly washed her hands and then appeared back in the living room, indicating to Otto that she was ready to leave.

“Hank, we appreciate you talking with us again. I’d like you to keep this conversation quiet. Don’t mention this to Brenda. She’s not a suspect. We just wanted to clear her name, get through one final set of questions before we put this case to bed.” She put her hand out and Hank stood to shake it.

They walked outside and when they got into Josie’s jeep, Otto said, “What the hell was that all about?”

“Guess who’s shacking up with Hank?”

Otto frowned, then his eyes widened in realization. “Brenda?”

TWENTY-FOUR

Time was not on their side. Hank would contact Brenda as soon as Josie and Otto left. They drove back to the PD and put together a rough outline of their case to present to the prosecutor. It wasn’t a requirement, but Josie had found spending the extra time often helped her ensure she had key details mapped out before making an arrest. Realistically, if the prosecutor wouldn’t support her, the arrest wouldn’t stick.

Josie and Otto walked across the street to the courthouse, where Tyler Holder, the forty-one-year-old county prosecutor, had his office. He had been at the job a little over a year, and so far, local law enforcement were pleased with his efforts. No prosecutor would make every cop happy; but at least Holder appeared motivated by justice rather than the political career ladder.

He wasn’t in his office but Josie and Otto found him in the courtroom, where he sat at the prosecutor’s table taking notes.

He stood and motioned for them to join him.

“They throw you out of your office?” Otto asked.

Holder smiled. He wore a distinguished gray suit, a white shirt, and a red paisley tie. Josie suspected the high-dollar clothes were leftovers from his days as a lawyer for the Houston Oilers—before his new wife convinced him to leave fame and fortune for love and a desert speck of a town sorely in need of a new prosecutor.

“I like the solemn atmosphere. Gets me grounded before the first day of a trial.” He pitched his pen onto the table and turned his full attention to Josie and Otto. “What’s on your mind?”

“Ferris Sinclair and Billy Nix.”

“Ah. It all wrapped up a little too conveniently, didn’t it? Billy kills Ferris, then commits suicide?” Holder said.

Josie smiled. “There’s been a twist. Here’s the short version. Billy Nix had been screwing around with Ferris Sinclair, a kid who was obsessed with him and the fame that went with Billy. Brenda found out, but wasn’t able to stop things for fear that Ferris would go public with the affair and ruin Billy’s chance at fame and fortune as an outlaw country singer.”

“Outlaw?”

“Country outlaw singer. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle?”

Holder smirked and nodded. “Ah, outlaw. Like Willie Nelson getting busted for pot all over Texas.”

“You get the idea. They’re tough guys. You can’t be a gay country outlaw singer. Your music wouldn’t sell. Especially if your career hasn’t taken off yet. So Brenda has been sitting by for the past six months watching her husband get led astray by this man who is not only ruining her marriage, but who is derailing her husband’s career.”

Otto put a finger up. “A career that Brenda has devoted her life to. She had a record deal close to signed before all this happened.”

“To top it off, when Mitchell Cowan performed the autopsy, he discovered Ferris was HIV positive. We believe Billy just discovered this fact. The day before the fire, we found Internet searches on the Nixes’ home computer that dealt with HIV/AIDS. When I informed Brenda, she appeared to know nothing about it.”

“I think Brenda’s a better actor than she is a singer,” said Otto.

“Are you telling me Brenda Nix killed Ferris?” he asked.

Josie glanced at Otto. “We believe so.” She sighed, dreading what was to come.

Holder narrowed his eyes at her. “You don’t have anything that ties her to the dead body, do you?”

“We believe she left the Hell-Bent—”

Holder shook his head back and forth and cut his hands through the air to stop her. “‘We believe’ doesn’t work. Do you have a gun, something more than an empty syringe?”

Josie hadn’t realized he knew about the syringe. She had kept him up to date to this point, and she hadn’t mentioned it. She was impressed. “We’re not relying on the syringe. It doesn’t help the case. We have the Zaner stun gun, registered to her, that was discharged the night of the murder. And we have eyewitnesses that placed her at the bar, but then lost sight of her during the time when we believe she drove home, stunned and murdered Ferris Sinclair.”

“You know this won’t work. I’m not sure why you’re here. You have nothing that indicates to me with any certainty that she killed Ferris. I’ve no doubt she wanted him dead, but I need proof.”

“If we don’t bring her in now she will leave. Her house was destroyed from the fire. It’s hard telling where she’ll go.”

“Josie. If you bring her in, you can’t keep her. No charges would stick. I won’t support this.”

“I also found a bottle of Xanax in Hank Wild’s medicine cabinet. Brenda’s bottle,” Josie said.

Holder considered her and pursed his lips. “I won’t even ask what you were doing in Hank Wild’s medicine cabinet. But again, so what? She was screwing Hank while her husband was screwing Ferris. It’s a screwed-up world. But that doesn’t put a murder weapon in her hand.”

“Why not charge her and see if she breaks?” Josie said, feeling the heat in her face.

“There’s nothing to charge her with!”

“Thanks for your time,” Josie said, angry at his unwillingness to help. “We’ll be back.”

*   *   *

“You can’t be that surprised,” said Otto. They stopped on the sidewalk outside of the courthouse.

“She’ll leave town.” Josie checked her watch. Two hours had passed since they talked to Hank. “I want to talk to Patty Netham, Brenda’s sister. I’m going over to the motel to ask Patty to take a walk with me. While I do that, can you go talk to John Lummin about the timeline? He was the one who sat and talked to Billy at the Hell-Bent when he couldn’t find Brenda. Maybe John can connect us with someone who saw Brenda leave the bar.”

Otto walked back to the PD to get his jeep while Josie walked a block over to Manny’s. She knocked on the door for Room 5, but no one answered. The drapes were closed and she didn’t hear any movement inside. She walked down to the office and found Manny inside the office washing his front window with spray cleaner and a wad of newspaper.

“Hey, Manny.”

“Josie! Good to see you.”

“I’m looking for Brenda and her sister.”

“You just missed them. They left maybe a half hour ago. Packed up and moved out.”

Josie felt the flush in her face. She was furious. They were going to let a murderer drive away to a new life.

“I need you to tell me exactly what was said. Every detail.”

Manny lost his pleasant smile and looked worried. “Okay, let me think. She gave me the key and paid with a check. She seemed like she was in a hurry so I didn’t chat much. You can tell when someone doesn’t want to chat. I asked if she would need the room again. And she said, no, she and her sister needed to get away. She said—” Manny closed his eyes and put a hand over them as if trying to replay the conversation. “I think her exact words were, ‘I just can’t take all the sadness. I have to get away from here for a while.’” He opened his eyes again, searching Josie’s face for some clue to her questioning.

“What kind of car was Patty driving?”

“A white one. A newer Honda Accord.”

“You have a license-plate number?”

He screwed up his face like he’d made a mistake. “No. I didn’t bother.”

“Thanks, Manny. If you hear anything from Brenda or her sister, you call me immediately.”

Josie jogged back to the department and found Otto on the phone. He hung up and said, “John told me he talked to Billy for almost half an hour. He said Billy kept looking around the room. He seemed irritated that he couldn’t find Brenda.”

“Did John see Brenda?”

“He saw them when they walked in, and that was it. He said Billy left their table to go find Brenda, and that was the last time John saw him.”

“Brenda and her sister are gone. They packed up and left about a half hour ago. She told Manny she needed to leave the sadness. He doesn’t know where she was headed.” Josie stood up and leaned over the table, fed up with sitting and talking. “Let’s go pick her up. I want a confession.”

“Holder’s going to be pissed.”

“Not if we get a confession. If it doesn’t work, we cut her loose. What can it hurt?”

“Well there’s three basic ways out of town. They’d either take FM-170 toward Big Bend, or head to Presidio to catch 67 north to Fort Davis, or more likely, 67 all the way up to the I-10.”

“We’ve lost a half an hour. You take 170 and I’ll take 67. They could have made it to Presidio by now. Grab your car and I’ll call you after I talk to Susan.”

They ran to their jeeps and each headed south toward Presidio. River Road was the only paved road out of Artemis that led to a highway. Highway 67 was in Presidio, thirty minutes away. It was a two-hour drive to the interstate, so her odds of catching up to them were good. Josie called Deputy Susan Spears, since she was already familiar with the case. Susan was working traffic and took off immediately toward the highway.

Josie called Otto. “We finally caught a break. Susan’s on duty. She’s headed toward 67 now. I’ll head that way too. If they went that way, she’ll be able to overtake them pretty quick with lights and sirens. I’ll be far enough behind that I’ll catch them if they aren’t that far out.”

“Good enough. You want me to stay on 170?”

“I think so. It’s so remote, she may have figured no one would expect her to take that route.”

“Will do.”

“I have Patty’s number in my sent calls. I called her from the hotel, the day we discovered Billy’s body,” Josie said. “I’ll try and get something out of her. Location, direction.”

“You think that’s a good idea? What if you call and it spooks Brenda?”

“Maybe that’s a good thing. She might pull something stupid. Right now, I just want some indication of where they are,” she said. Josie didn’t have time to second-guess. “I need you to call Lou to get the license plate for Patty Netham. Have her put it out over the radio when she gets it.”

Josie hung up and made it to Presidio in half the time it usually took. In Presidio, she weaved between traffic on the busy small-town streets, scanning the road for midsize white cars. She passed one white Accord, but the driver was male. Once she pulled onto Highway 67 and onto a straight shot she scrolled back through her calls and found the number with the Tennessee area code. She pressed send and after what seemed an eternity, Patty answered her phone.

“Hello?”

“Patty. This is an important phone call. This is Chief Gray, but I don’t want you to acknowledge you’re on the phone with me. I believe you could be in danger. I want you to smile and say you’re visiting your sister. You’ll be home in a few days.”

There was hesitation, and then in a halted voice she said, “Yes, I’m visiting my sister. I’ll be home in a day or two.”

“Patty, we believe your sister killed Billy. I need you to pull over at the next exit with a gas station. As soon as you can get away from Brenda you call this number and tell me where you are. You hang on to the keys, tell Brenda you’re sick, and that you need to walk around the parking lot until you feel better. Say something. Smile, say, yes, that’s fine.”

“Oh, yes, that’s fine.”

Josie could hear the tension in her voice and hoped Brenda wasn’t paying attention. “Can you just tell me what road you’re on? As if you’re telling me what route you’re taking home?”

“Oh, sure. We’re taking Interstate 10 home, we’re just outside Alpine.”

Josie heard a voice in the background. “Who are you talking to?”

“Oh,” Patty said, “just a friend.”

“Who are you talking to?” Brenda repeated, her voice louder this time.

Josie said, “Tell her my name’s Pam.”

“Okay, talk more soon.”

The phone went dead. Josie tried to call back and received voicemail. She called Brenda’s number and received voicemail.

She called Susan. “I talked to Patty Netham. They’re just outside of Alpine. I’m guessing forty miles from the interstate. I told her to pull off at the next rest stop. I think Brenda caught on that something was wrong.”

“I’m just coming into Alpine. I’m running ninety-five, so I’ll be on them any minute. How far out are you?”

“I’m fifteen minutes behind you. You have backup that way?”

“No. Call dispatch for me. I’ll let you know as soon as I make contact.”

“Be safe. Her sister could be in danger if Brenda has a weapon.”

Josie recognized Lou Hagerty’s voice as she dispatched the make, model, and license number of Patty Netham’s car. Josie called dispatch to get every car available on 67 outside of Alpine searching for Netham’s car.

Josie called Otto and filled him in. For the next thirty minutes she drove in silence, waiting to hear back from Susan. The hills and beige countryside blurred through her side windows as she whisked around the other cars.

The phone rang. “It’s Susan. I’m behind a white Honda Accord, two females in the front seat. The plates match the number. I’m five miles from I-10.”

“Okay. I’m two miles behind you. Pull her over before we hit the interstate. Wait for me. We’ll approach together.”

Josie’s phone rang again.

“Josie, it’s Lou.”

“We’ve got Brenda. I’ll call you in a few.”

“Hang on. You better hear this. Yvonne Ferrario just returned your call. I told her you wanted to know if Brenda talked to her that day at the Hell-Bent. She said she and Brenda sat out back to talk because the smoke was bothering Yvonne. Yvonne said Brenda went back into the building when they were done, and Yvonne left at about six.”