Josie nodded. “You know that the mayor and I don’t have a great relationship,” she said.
He choked out a laugh. “An understatement.”
“So I’m not sure about the interview. What would get the confession? Me getting him so angry that he blurts out a confession? Or Otto, who could offer sound advice. Man-to-man,” she said. “Maybe Otto could coax it out of him.”
“What’s your opinion?” Holder said.
“I think Otto should start. If he doesn’t get anywhere, then I can go in and mess with him. See if I can get him so angry he cracks.”
Holder nodded and turned to Otto. “I like it. How close are we to finishing up here?”
“They’re finished upstairs, and on the first floor. They haven’t found anything. They’re headed to the basement. We’ll get back in there and should be done within the hour.”
“I’m headed back to the office. Keep me posted.”
*
After the search was completed, Josie headed outside with the other officers while Otto asked the mayor to come to the jail to talk about the situation. The mayor asked if he was being charged and Otto assured him that he wasn’t, but that there was important information they needed to discuss. He agreed, no doubt hoping a deal was in the works, probably hoping he could hang Josh Mooney out to dry while he skated free. That would be the mayor’s mentality, thought Josie, and they would use it to their advantage.
An hour later, when the mayor arrived at the jail, Otto led him into the interrogation room. Josie was next door in the observation room, watching on a computer monitor via a camera feed.
The mayor had changed into jeans and a button-down shirt and looked relaxed and in control. Josie was certain that he figured, with no gun, the police had nothing. He was about to get the shock of his life.
Otto patiently explained the phone records, how they connected the mayor and his wife to the key players in the trafficking scheme, and the fact that his phone had pinged off a tower beside Josie’s house when he had said he was going to be in El Paso. The mayor had obviously already heard the same information from his wife, and he’d formulated his explanation like a pro.
Josie watched him smile and tip his head as if he expected Otto to know him better than to assume something as sinister as Otto was implying.
“Look. You know what a mess Josh made of Caroline’s attempt to help those women. She finally came to me asking for help, and I knew I had to step in and take control. She needed help, and she’s my wife. Of course I stepped in. I had to cancel my speaking engagement and go talk to the kid before he did something stupid. I called and tried to talk him down several times. He said the only way out of the mess he’d made was to shoot both of those women and take their bodies to Mexico.” The mayor shook his head and frowned, like, Can you believe that? “I said, Josh. Get a grip, man. That’s no solution. You can’t kill those women because you’ve got yourself in a mess.”
The mayor rambled on and on about the fatherly words he offered Josh, and the good counsel he provided, and about the fact that Josh just wouldn’t listen.
“He finally convinced me to drive out there with him to see if I could convince the girls to finish the trip. That was the only way I could talk him out of doing something stupid. So Josh drove and I rode passenger. We drove slowly by the pasture. I rolled the window down and called for them but we couldn’t find them. And we left. Josh drove me back to town and I got in my truck and drove home. End of story. I have no idea how that poor woman ended up dead.”
“Do you think Josh went back and shot Renata after he dropped you off?” Otto asked, playing the part of the patient friend.
“I have no idea what he did.”
“Did he have a gun in his car when you were with him?”
“No idea. If he did, he didn’t show me.”
“Did he ask you for a gun?”
“Hell, no. He knew I wouldn’t give him a gun.”
“Did he ever have access to your house or vehicles? Maybe you invited him over to your house and he could have borrowed a gun or taken one?”
Josie watched on the computer monitor with Sheriff Martinez, who’d stepped in the room to view with her. “Nice job,” Josie whispered. “He’s making sure the mayor can’t later say that Josh was in his truck and stole the gun to shoot Renata.”
“Come on, Otto. You make it sound like Josh and I were drinking buddies. The guy is a freak. He didn’t come to my house or drive my cars. I rode with him one time because I thought I was going to save a woman’s life. It obviously didn’t work.”
Josie noted that he said he went to save one woman’s life. Hadn’t he been going to save two women?
“I appreciate the information,” Otto said. “Can I get you a cup of coffee, Mayor?”
Josie stood and gathered her papers. That was her signal that Otto was ready to turn it over.
Martinez slapped her on the back. “Go get him.”