“I’m guessing one in your vicinity?”
Josie took a moment to respond, still so shaken by the realization of what the information meant that she could barely acknowledge it. “The mayor was by my house during the time that Renata was murdered. And he made cell phone contact with Josh Mooney multiple times leading up to that.”
Otto shook his head for some time before responding. “Did Josh make any calls that night that we can trace?”
“No. Nothing. Based on these calls, and what Smokey told me, I think the mayor saw the town meeting about the water tower as his chance to go to my house and take care of the problem of the two women. He knew from Caroline what a mess she was in, so he called Josh Mooney and convinced him to go with him to take care of the job.”
“The question is, who pulled the trigger?” Otto said.
*
Tyler Holder was driving to San Antonio for a preliminary meeting with the FBI when Josie reached him and explained the latest developments.
“Son of a bitch.”
“Caroline called the mayor at a little before ten the night of the murder. She left a voicemail. He called her back seven minutes later and left a return voicemail for her. That seems odd to me. If she knew a murder was about to take place, would she really have communicated by voicemail?”
“Damn, Josie. Hang on. I’m halfway to San Antonio. I’m turning around.”
“I want to go visit Caroline.”
“Hang on,” he said. “Can you give me a minute to process this?”
“I want to know why she called him. Did she tell him to murder the girl? Did she tell the mayor to go get Josh to help take care of business? Or was she trying to call him off?”
Holder made a noise. “But you said the mayor had talked to Josh several times earlier that day.”
“Maybe the mayor was trying to talk Josh out of doing something rash,” Josie said.
Holder took a second to respond. “I don’t think so. If you were in Josh’s place, if the mayor told you even once to forget it, to let the girls go? You’d do it in a heartbeat.”
“What might take some convincing, and several phone calls, was if the mayor was convincing Josh that he needed to help him catch, or murder, Renata and Isabella.”
“That makes sense to me,” Holder said.
“I want to talk to Caroline. I have a hunch. I saw the look on her face when I confronted her with this. She was overwhelmed with emotion. The mayor was pissed.” Josie thought about the conversation she’d had with Otto and his take on the events. “Maybe she really had convinced herself she was offering a service. Maybe not quite legal, but she’d rationalized for herself that she was doing a good thing. And when things went bad, the mayor tried to fix the problem.”
“And created one hell of a mess.”
“Does this mean I can go grab Caroline?”
“Now hang on. You’re talking about Moss’s phone records. He wasn’t part of the subpoena.”
“That’s true. This is based on a phone call with West Texas Mobile.”
“All right. I’ll get the judge on the phone and get those records ASAP. As soon as I get the approval from him, you get your contact and get those records. Once we have proof his phone was in the vicinity of the murder the night it took place, I’ll submit a search warrant for the gun. I want that done today.”
“That’s great. Now hear me out on Caroline. After seeing her reaction the day I confronted her at home, I suspect she started this mess and lost control. I don’t think I have anything to lose by going and talking to her.”
He didn’t respond and she continued. “The chance of flight for the Mosses is about zero. They’re too public.”
“This is sketchy,” Holder said. “This investigation has been turned over to the FBI. It’s a federal case.”
“But the murder is local. The FBI is investigating a human trafficking case. We’re looking at a murder.”
Holder cursed and Josie heard him bang on something repeatedly. He finally relented. “What are you going to do if the mayor is there?”
“He should be at work. If he’s at home, I’ll ask to speak with her in private. I’ll just take it one step at a time.”
Holder was silent for a minute. “You take another officer with you. And you let me know the minute you’re done with her.”
*
Josie hung up and saw Otto staring at her intently. “I heard,” he said. He walked to the back of the office and looked out the window to the spot where the mayor parked his pickup truck every day and gave Josie a thumbs-up. “He’s here.”
“Let’s go.”
Otto drove and they said little on their way to the Mosses’ house. When they pulled into the driveway she said, “I think I should talk to her alone. You can stay here and watch for the mayor. If you see him headed this way, come on inside. I feel like she’d open up easier to me, so it doesn’t feel like an ambush.”
Otto nodded. “Agreed. I’ll post outside the front door where I’ve got a good view of the road.”