Josie opened a closet door in the office and called Otto over. Two shotguns were propped in the corner of the closet.
“Let’s get some photos.” Josie used her digital camera to take the photos but neither officer touched the shotguns. The casing that had been found in the pasture near Renata’s body had obviously not come from a shotgun. Also in the closet was a filing cabinet with nothing but paper files.
Josie dragged a desk chair over to the closet and stood on it to examine the one shelf at the top of the closet.
“Otto, check this out.” Josie held up a white box with the company name Ruger imprinted in red. “It’s a Ruger .380. And it was a .380-caliber bullet that killed Renata.”
She shook the box and frowned. She stepped off the chair and opened the box. “No gun.”
Otto sighed. “What do you want to bet the mayor’s gun ends up conveniently stolen?” he said.
Josie laid the box on the desk and opened it, pulling out a lock and extra magazine in a plastic bag that had never been opened. She picked out several pieces of paperwork that came from the gun maker and then stepped away from the box and smiled. “You won’t believe this,” she said, and held up a yellow sealed envelope for Otto to see. “Look what he left behind.”
Otto laughed. “I bet you just solved a murder.”
“I’ll go test your theory on the mayor’s missing gun,” she said. “Can you go check with the other officers and see where they are with the search?”
“You bet.”
Josie walked down the hallway and into the kitchen holding the white Ruger box. The mayor and Caroline were sitting on benches in the breakfast nook, staring at the table and not speaking.
“Mayor Moss, can you tell me where the gun is that belongs with this box?” Josie said. She kept her voice nonconfrontational and hoped her nerves wouldn’t cause the same tremor in her voice that she felt in her stomach.
He stared at her and she wondered if he was going to refuse to answer. She figured what was going through his mind was, It’s none of your damned business where my gun is. But instead, he said, “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know where your gun is located?” she said.
“It used to be in my truck in the glove compartment. About a year ago it disappeared.”
“Did you report it missing?”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you report the theft of a firearm from your truck?” she said.
He clenched his jaw shut before finally speaking. “Because I didn’t know if I had misplaced it, or how long it had been missing. I figured it would show up and then eventually forgot about it.”
Josie glanced at the trooper standing off to the side of the kitchen, who gave her a look that was as good as an eye roll.
Josie left the room and walked outside.
She found Holder standing in the driveway next to his car, talking on his cell phone. He finished his call and she asked, “How familiar are you with purchasing firearms?”
He smiled. “I have my dad’s shotgun in our safe with a box of shells in the cabinet in the laundry room. I’m not even sure I could load it.”
“Okay,” she said, grinning. “I’ll explain what we have. Several states require ballistic fingerprinting for all new firearms. Texas does not require it. Basically, in those states, every new firearm has to be fired and the casing saved and compiled in a state database. When the casing is ejected there are unique markings left by the barrel or chamber of the gun. The casing can then be used like a fingerprint in a crime using that gun.”
“So why don’t all states require it?” Holder asked.
“Because it’s expensive and controversial,” she said.
He put a hand in the air to stop her. “Okay. I have enough controversy. Let’s not go there. Just tell me how this is going to help us,” he said, pointing to the box.
“Though only a few states compile the casings in a database, some gun makers test-fire their new guns anyway and include the test-fired casings in a sealed envelope with the gun. That’s what this is.” She took the yellow envelope out of the box and held it up. “There was no gun in this box. But this is the next best thing. We have a spent casing from this gun in a sealed envelope from the factory. And we have a casing from the murder site. And we have the bullet that killed Renata.”
Holder gave her a skeptical smile, as if her theory sounded too good to be true. “What makes you think the gun that was used to kill her came from this box?”
“We’ve already searched Josh’s apartment. There were no guns.” She paused when the front door of the house opened and Otto walked outside to join them. “We know that a .380-caliber handgun was used to murder Renata. That’s what this gun is. And the mayor says this gun was either stolen or lost about a year ago. He never filed a report, though, because he forgot about it? Come on.”
Holder nodded. “So we submit for ballistics, and take the mayor in for questioning to try for a confession.”