Midnight Crossing (33 page)

“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.”

*   *   *

Caroline answered the door wearing an outfit similar to what she’d worn last time Josie visited, but her appearance was strikingly different. Her hair hung limp around her face, and her eyes flashed anger when she saw it was Josie.

“I have nothing to talk to you about,” she said, and started to shut the door.

Josie put her hand out to stop it. “Caroline, please. Give me five minutes.”

“I’m calling my attorney,” she said, but she stopped short of closing the door.

“Caroline, this is important. I’d like to hear your side of things. You may be able to clear things up before this gets out of hand,” Josie said, knowing that was a lie.

Caroline stared at Josie for a long moment, obviously weighing her options, and finally walked back into the house, leaving the door open for Josie to enter. Caroline didn’t take her outside onto the veranda, or offer drinks; they sat in the front room in club chairs facing each other.

“I need to explain new evidence that we’ve found. Things have turned very serious. For both you and the mayor. We have a clear picture about how your business runs. We understand how the transportation route works, the money, the people involved, and so on. Over the past twenty-four hours we’ve also put together a clear picture about how the murder took place. We have phone records that link the killer to the location of the murder.”

Caroline sat with her arms crossed over her chest, but when Josie mentioned the killer she squeezed her arms even closer to her body.

“The night of the water meeting in town, why did Mayor Moss tell Smokey that you and he had to leave town for El Paso?”

Caroline’s eyebrows drew up in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“The mayor said he couldn’t lead the meeting because you were leaving for El Paso that afternoon. For a family emergency.”

She opened her mouth as if to speak and then closed it again, staring at Josie as if she didn’t know what to say. “I don’t know. It’s been months since we’ve been to El Paso. Steve has a brother there, but he’s fine.”

“You or the mayor didn’t travel to El Paso any time over the past two weeks?”

“No.”

“Can you imagine why the mayor would have told Smokey that?”

“I have no idea. And I don’t understand what you’re saying about the meeting. He was there.”

“The mayor?” Josie asked.

“Yes. He told me he’d be late, but when he wasn’t home by ten o’clock I called to find out when he’d be home.”

“And did you talk to him?” Josie asked.

“No. I left a voice message. He called back a few minutes later and said that he’d be late. That he was getting together with a few ranchers after the meeting to finish the discussion.” She looked lost in thought, as if trying to replay the conversation. “I probably have the message on my phone still. I had left my phone on the bed and gone out to the kitchen to write myself a note, and I missed his call.”

“Why wouldn’t you use your home phone?”

She looked annoyed with the question. “I don’t know. We don’t even need it. We almost always use our cell phones. When I listened to the voice message, he said he was going back to the office after the meeting, and that I shouldn’t wait up for him. So he was definitely at the meeting.”

“He wasn’t at the meeting, Caroline. Mayor Moss called Smokey at one o’clock that afternoon and canceled. I attended. He wasn’t there.”

“I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”

“How much does the mayor know about the transportation of the women from Guatemala? Has he been involved all along, or did he just get involved when the two women disappeared and threatened to expose the trafficking ring?”

“I’m calling my lawyer,” she said. “You shouldn’t even be here.”

“You can either discuss it now with me, or later when this blows up into a nightmare for both of you.” Josie was banking on Caroline’s natural desire to know what the police understood about the case.

“What are you talking about?”

“The mayor called Josh Mooney multiple times the afternoon and evening of the murder.”

A dark look passed over her face but she said nothing.

“When the mayor called you back and left the voice message at just after ten o’clock? His cell phone connected with the tower located just a few miles from my house. If he had been in town, at his office, or at the water meeting like he told you, his signal would have bounced off a different tower.”

Tears filled her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Two people were involved in the murder that took place in the pasture beside my home. Your husband was there, and I believe Josh Mooney was with him. One of them killed a woman that night and tried to track down another woman but lost her.”

Caroline broke down and cried openly. Josie spotted a box of tissues across the room and handed them to her. She sat quietly for several minutes as Caroline cried herself out. “I’ll get you a drink of water,” Josie said.

She walked into the kitchen, found drinking glasses in the cabinet, and filled one from the refrigerator water dispenser. When she handed the glass to Caroline she sipped the water until she had calmed somewhat. Josie sat down and decided to remain quiet for a while to see where Caroline wanted to go with the information she’d just heard. She finally set the glass on the table beside her and leaned back into the chair.

“I’ve spent the last year watching my life transform from a life to be proud of to a hideous mockery. I sit here looking at you now, and I have no idea how to move forward. I would like to say that I have no idea how I got to this point, but I do. I tell you now, I wanted to help. I wanted to come up with a way to help women in terrible situations. But it’s all so twisted and turned so horrible.”

“But you accepted money from women, and then got them a job that’s little better than modern-day slavery. How was that ever good?” Josie asked. She knew she was allowing her personal feelings to interfere, and she took a mental step back to refocus.

“I had to take money! Especially in the beginning. It was an expensive venture, helping those women move across the country, across an international border. And I did my best to connect with reputable employers.”

Josie couldn’t imagine how Big Ben would ever be considered reputable, but she let it slide.

“I understand,” Josie said, nodding, trying to redirect the conversation. “Was the mayor involved with this from the beginning?”

She shook her head no, her expression forceful. “No. I wanted to do this on my own. It was my project.”

“When did he get involved?”

“When things fell apart. The other deliveries went fine. The girls experienced a smooth trip, they had jobs waiting for them when they arrived. Then my lead driver moved to the East Coast unexpectedly, and I was stuck trying to find a new driver. And that put Josh as the lead. Obviously that was a disaster.”

“When did you ask the mayor for help?” Josie asked.

“When Josh called from Piedra Labrada to tell me two of the women had escaped. I had no choice but to ask Steve for help.”

Josie noted her use of the word
escaped
. How could Caroline use that word if she’d viewed what she was doing as humane?

“And how did he help?”

Caroline’s expression changed. She considered Josie again, as if realizing who she was talking to. She took a moment to respond. “I don’t think I should continue this conversation,” she said. Her voice had grown quiet and Josie knew her welcome had just ended.

She stood and placed her business card on the table beside her chair. “My cell phone number is on the card. If you’d like to talk, give me a call.”

TWENTY-TWO

After a morning and afternoon spent coordinating with Sheriff Roy Martinez and two Texas state troopers who served the Arroyo County area, Josie finally received the phone call she’d been waiting for.

“The search warrant is approved,” Holder said. “I just called the mayor’s office and he’s still there. You get your team out to the house. I’m going to tell the mayor in person. That’ll give you a few minutes to get out there and set up with Caroline before the mayor comes in ready to blow. I’ll warn him that we will arrest him for interfering with a lawful investigation if he gives us the slightest provocation. But I’d plan on him giving you grief.”

*   *   *

Josie and Otto rode in her jeep, two sheriff’s cars followed, and two state DPS cars followed them. They filled the mayor’s driveway. Josie and the sheriff approached the front door together and presented Caroline with the documentation and explained that they were there to search for the weapon used in Renata Carrillo’s murder. Caroline looked stunned.

“The mayor isn’t here,” she said, grabbing the doorframe as if she needed help standing. “I’m calling my attorney.”

“Prosecutor Holder is talking with the mayor now,” Josie said. “For now, we’ll ask you to have a seat in the kitchen while we go about our business. You’re welcome to call your attorney from the kitchen.”

They wasted no time. Six officers carried out the search while a sheriff’s deputy remained stationed in the kitchen to keep an eye on Caroline and to watch for the mayor.

Josie and Otto were both in the home office when the mayor arrived. They ignored the raised voices and continued the search, knowing the sheriff’s deputy would take care of the mayor if need be.

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.”