She grinned and held a hand up in the air to stop him. “If the principal gives you grief, you tell me and I’ll talk to her. Agreed?”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“What can you tell me about Billy and Brenda?”
“I got ten minutes, not ten hours.”
“Give me the short version.”
“He’s a musician. She’s a wannabe. She couldn’t make it in Nashville on her own, so she’s using Billy to get there.”
“She’s a musician too?”
“Hell no!” Jim blew air out slowly and then drew more in through his nose as if he were conducting a deep-breathing exercise. Josie assumed he was trying to control his temper. Finally, he said, “Okay. Here’s Brenda’s deal. She comes from a long line of Nashville royalty. But here’s the kicker, she has no musical talent herself. Zip, zero, nada. Her daddy was a famous bluegrass fiddler. Ever heard of the Netham Sisters?”
Josie nodded.
“That’s Brenda’s sisters.”
“No kidding?”
“Kid you not. Better than that? Her own sisters kicked her out of the band. Brenda left home to make a name for herself as a solo singer and couldn’t do it.”
“You think she’s using Billy to make up for own failure in country music?”
“You said it. Billy, bless his dumbass self, is too stupid to believe it. And he’s been told. Multiple times. By yours truly.”
“I hear she’s negotiating a record deal. She can’t be all that bad, right? The band would benefit as well.”
He laughed. “You give her way too much credit. She’d sell us out in a heartbeat. Billy’s her concern. Not us. If it suits the record company that Billy’s band comes with him, then we’re gold. But if they want us gone?” He shrugged.
Josie saw the kids wandering back outside from the air-conditioned school, their ten minutes dwindling. Before she left she asked, “Can you imagine anyone wanting to cause trouble for either one of them?”
He looked taken aback at the question. Jim wasn’t the type of person to be at a loss for words, but he wrinkled his forehead. “Why would you ask me that? Come to think of it, why are you asking me any of this?”
“Do they have any enemies? Somebody who would want to end Billy’s career before it got started? Somebody who would want to frame Brenda to cause her grief?”
His eyebrows furrowed and his expression turned dark. “What’s this about?”
“There’s been some trouble. I can’t get into it at this point. I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough from Billy, but for now, I’m trying to understand who’s connected to the Nixes.”
The kids were quietly pulling their drum carriers back over their heads, obviously trying to catch the conversation. Jim motioned Josie away from them and Josie followed him into the parking lot. He turned to her, his expression earnest.
“Look. You know what it’s like out here. Two-hour drive to the closest Walmart? This is a great big pond with a lot of little fishes trying to get noticed. Everybody wants their big break. And finally, our band’s close. There’s some jealousy out there. If we make it to Nashville, that means somebody else doesn’t.”
“Who specifically is jealous?”
He turned from her in frustration. “Come on, man. Don’t go there.”
“It’s a fair question. I’m sure it’s no big secret.”
“The Calloway Boys. They talk smack. They’re a Tex-Mex band with a hotshot guitar player and a singer who thinks he’s God’s gift to the world. Problem is, nobody outside of the locals is interested in their alternative country.” Jim rolled his eyes and made a face to show he wasn’t impressed, whatever “alternative country” meant to him.
“So there’s some competition between the local bands?”
“I wouldn’t call it competition. Here’s what it is. They like to bash Billy and the Outlaws like we’re commercial and they’re some authentic piece of art.” He rolled his eyes again and looked back at the kids. Josie noticed the band director crossing the parking lot toward them, probably making sure Jim wasn’t in hot water with the police.
“Damn. I gotta go,” he said.
Josie chatted with the band director to assure him that Jim wasn’t in trouble and left the school. She had one more stop before going home for the night. Doug Free had left a message on her phone asking her to call or stop by before she went off duty.
Josie saw his truck parked in front of the fire department and pulled in behind it. She found him in the training room, sitting behind his desk with a fan blowing hot air directly on him. The police department wasn’t fancy, but at least it had air-conditioning. Doug looked up from his paperwork and smiled when he saw her.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
“I’ve sure had better weeks.”
“You get any sleep yet?”
“A few hours. I’m about ready to check out for the night.” He stood and gestured toward a folding chair in front of his desk and they both sat. “Otto called and filled me in on the conversation he had with my spotter, Derek Lanman. The timing’s off.”
“That’s what we were afraid of.”
“I met with Otto today and made a copy of the records he took as evidence,” Doug said. “I combined that log with everything else I’ve got here. Assuming the victim’s watch was correct, and he died at seven thirty-eight, that fire was set intentionally.”
“Otto found another analog clock in the kitchen stopped at seven forty. I think we have our time of death.”
Doug raised a finger. “Department of Public Safety’s sending us a helicopter in the morning. We’ll fly out at seven. We’ll be doing a damage assessment, but first area we fly over is the Nixes’ house. I want to see the burn patterns. You game?”
“Absolutely. I appreciate the offer.”
“I’ll see you at the Marfa airport at six thirty tomorrow morning.”
* * *
It was after seven o’clock before Josie arrived home. A year ago Dillon would have had supper waiting for her; he would have been putting the final touches on some dish and pouring himself a glass of the perfect wine to pair with the meal. He would have been doing all of the things that she knew nothing about. Without him, her dinner consisted of ramen soup and a bagel, or takeout from the Hot Tamale, or a frozen dinner zapped in the microwave.
She parked her jeep and walked inside, where she fed Chester and then microwaved a bag of popcorn. Even after two months she missed Dillon: sharing her day with him, talking through a quirk in a case she was working on, hearing about his day at the office. She thought about her conversation with Dell, but she was still surprised Dillon had not returned her call about the fire, and she wondered if he’d received it. She was certain he’d be concerned about the town—at least about his friends and former neighbors.
Sitting at the kitchen table, she stared at her phone for a while before mustering the courage to call. He answered on the third ring.
“How are you?” she asked.
“I’m doing okay, how about you?”
“It’s been crazy. I thought you might want an update on the fire. I saw Arroyo County made the news on CNN, so I thought you might be worried.”
“Yeah, I’ve been following it on the news. Sorry I didn’t get back with you.” His tone of voice was friendly, but detached.
“The fire came through the mudflats. That area got hit hard.”
“How about Smokey and Vie?” he asked.
“They lost the house.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Josie talked a little about the Billy Nix case, but when Dillon wasn’t responding she stopped and changed the subject. “Any plans yet on your business?” Her voice felt cheery and false and she wished she hadn’t called.
“Not yet. I’m looking at options.”
“Okay, well, I’ll let you go. I just thought you might want an update.”
“Josie, it’s not that I don’t care. I’m sure this seems callous to you
, like I’ve given up on everyone.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain.”
“Please, hear me out. I have nightmares about what happened. I still love you on some level, and I always will, but I can’t maintain a relationship with you anymore. It’s too hard right now.”
She tried to focus on what he was saying, but the only words that stuck were on some level.
“Dillon, you know that what I want more than anything is for you to be happy and to get your life back again. If it’s too hard to talk to me right now, then I will respect that. You focus on getting better, and someday down the road if you want to talk, you give me a call.”
They ended the conversation and Josie stared at her phone. Was this just part of the healing process? she wondered. There was no rulebook. No one had said, This is how long a person should suffer after a major trauma. These are the steps you should take to help bring that person around: tough love, words of encouragement, silence. What was the right response? She had no idea. The counselor had wanted her to talk about her own feelings, but the experience had felt false, and she’d left feeling worse.
Josie walked back into the bedroom, where she took off her uniform and hung it in the closet. She needed out. She grabbed a pair of running shorts and a T-shirt from her dresser drawer, slipped them on along with a pair of flip-flops, and walked out the back door.
* * *
Josie and Chester walked behind the house and up the lane to Dell’s. He was the person she went to for advice when the rest of the world made no sense. Josie’s father had been killed in a line-of-duty accident when she was eight, and her mother had stopped being a parent at that point. After an unsuccessful stint at college, Josie had moved to Texas from Indiana, and she’d never looked back. She had virtually no contact with her family. Instead, she had Dell.
Chester loped up from behind and shoved his muzzle up into her hand as she walked, forcing her to pat his head. Josie stopped and kneeled in the dirt to rub his velvet ears and bury her head in his neck. He was an affectionate dog who seemed aware when things were out of sorts in Josie’s life.
She finally stood and took a long breath. At this time of the evening the creosote and sage opened their pores and the extra moisture in the air caused a pungent, tart smell like no other. The sun was slipping below the horizon line now, trailing a swath of purple and orange across the floor of the desert. It was Josie’s favorite time of the day, when life slowed to nothing, no sound but a few crickets and the wind brushing through the scattered cedar and piñon pine.
She began the quarter-mile walk to Dell’s place, ready to take her mind off Dillon.
As she approached the cabin she saw Dell standing through his sheer living room curtains, most likely ready to settle into his chair with a book for the night. She walked up onto the porch, tapped twice on the door, yelled hello, and stepped inside.
Josie knew immediately that something wasn’t right by the look of shock on Dell’s face. She had entered his home the same way as she had hundreds of times before, with just a quick knock and a yell. As Josie registered his expression she sensed motion and turned to see a woman walking out of Dell’s kitchen carrying two glasses of red wine. The awkward moment was quickly made worse as Chester pushed in behind Josie and rushed the woman, causing her to spill wine down the front of her top and onto the floor.
Josie clapped her hands and yelled for Chester, who was as shocked at the stranger in Dell’s home as Josie was. Dell stood silently watching the two women and the dog fuss around each other.
“I’m so sorry. I’m Josie, Dell’s neighbor. I didn’t realize Dell was having company.” She looked at Dell accusingly, as if irritated that he’d not bothered to tell her of his plans.
“That’s quite all right,” the woman said, setting the glasses on the end table beside the couch. Her eyes were wide and she looked at Dell, who seemed unable to speak. The woman was clearly shocked by Josie’s presence. “I’ll just get some water on this and it will be fine.”
She walked down the hallway into the bathroom and Josie looked at Dell, dumbfounded. She’d lived next to Dell for years, and to her knowledge he had never once invited a woman to his house. And this woman seemed to know her way around Dell’s cabin. Josie realized with a start that he was wearing a new pair of jeans and a button-down shirt that she’d never seen and his cowboy boots were clean. He still said nothing and instead looked down at Chester, who was demanding his attention. He avoided looking at her and Josie realized he was more embarrassed to be caught with this woman in his house than Josie was at barging in.
“I’m sorry. I should have knocked. We’ll get out of your way.” Josie walked toward the door and snapped her fingers for Chester. He lumbered over to her, always ready for a walk outside.
“That’s fine,” Dell said, his tone gruff but, Josie thought, also apologetic. “I’ll talk to you later.”
Josie left with Chester at her heels, hoping to get beyond the door before the woman returned in her wine-stained shirt. Dillon was gone and trying to move on with his life, and she couldn’t accept that. Dell had apparently come out of a thirty-something-year rut, and she wasn’t sure she could accept that. She walked down the lane wondering if the common denominator in her various troubled relationships was her.
TEN
The Marfa airport was located on US-90, about forty-five minutes from her home. When she arrived she found the pilot readying the copter and Doug standing twenty feet away, hands in his pockets, looking anxious to get going. Just a few minutes later the low thump of the rotor started and the pilot beckoned them forward. They boarded, belted into the bench in the back, and adjusted their headsets to allow communication with the pilot.
About five miles into the flight the blackened earth suddenly spread out beneath them like seawater, covering everything in its path. The ash appeared painted with long black brushstrokes. What surprised Josie were the stretches of beige grass dotted with scrub and trees untouched by the fire, tiny island oases in the middle of the ravaged land.
The pilot spoke into the headset and turned his head back to look at Josie. “We’re approaching Prentice Canyon Road directly ahead of us. The chief did an excellent job predicting that firebreak. You can see where the trucks were down below. They fought the fire from the flanks and had it about closed off by the time it reached the road.”
Josie looked out her side window and saw exactly what the pilot was referring to. Small fingers of black burned up to the road along Prentice Canyon, but the fire had obviously burned out there.
Doug spoke into the headset. “The wind finally cut us a break. We had the Bomberos de Piedra Lambrada fire squad out of Mexico giving wind and weather patterns throughout the night. They were a huge help.”
As the pilot flew farther west, Josie noticed the change in the burn pattern below.
“Check that out,” Doug said, sounding anxious even through the headset. “There’s the Nixes’ house, surrounded by black on all sides though the fire had all but died out across the road.”
Josie nodded. The proof was there. She looked at Doug and hoped the photographs he was taking now would tell the story. The land around the Nixes’ house was charred black, the trees burned almost completely down to the ground. A half-mile away from the house, on all sides, the fire damage was minimal.
“It’s a good thing the wind died down or we could have lost the entire western part of the county,” said Doug.
Josie couldn’t help looking farther westward in the direction of her house, directly in the line of fire.
* * *
When the helicopter landed she saw the smoke jumpers standing around by the jump plane. The group of ten or fifteen guys wore rumpled navy-blue Montana Fire and Rescue T-shirts and work boots. They stood around talking, in no hurry to take off. She ran over to check in with Pete. He was standing beside his jumpsuit and a pile of gear, talking with the other guys. He noticed her approaching, waved her over, and gave her a hug.
“I don’t want to keep you,” said Josie. “I just wondered if you’d have an evening free before you head back to Montana.”
“Tonight. I already made plans for us. You free?”
“Oh!”
“We’re working with Doug today, but we’re headed to Big Bend for a practice run with the Mexicans this evening. I want you to come with us.”
“I’d love to watch you guys train. What time are you leaving?”
“Be here at five. Wear jeans and boots. You drive and I’ll ride with you. We’ll follow the van.”
“As long as I can get away from the investigation, I’ll be here.”
* * *
At one o’clock that afternoon Josie and Otto sat in their office, discussing the strategy for the questioning as they waited for Billy and Brenda Nix to arrive. While the two were the prime suspects in the murder investigation, she and Otto decided not to interview them separately during their first meeting. Because the couple came back freely to talk with the police, Josie didn’t have to Mirandize them. Once their rights were read the attorneys would be brought in and the conversation would stop. The goal for now was to get as much information as they could before the Nixes clammed up and requested counsel.
When Lou buzzed the intercom to announce the Nixes, Josie went downstairs to greet them. They stood side by side in the waiting area just inside the front door. Billy wore a plaid Western-style shirt, dark blue jeans, and cowboy boots. Josie thought he looked like the country singer Trace Adkins, with the same large build and good ol’ boy stance. Brenda stood next to him wearing white capri pants and a navy-blue short-sleeved top with a silver necklace and matching earrings. Josie thought she looked like a sturdy woman who could handle tragedy in complete control, doling out instructions and maintaining order. Maybe the outsider status she had within her own family had given her a tough façade.
As Josie approached the waiting area, she noticed the marked difference in the couple’s expressions. Billy had the wide-eyed expectant look of one bracing for terrible news. Brenda’s features looked pinched, her mouth forming a stern frown, her eyes small and determined. Billy was imagining the worst while Brenda was already preparing to take care of the aftermath. Josie wondered how many times this dynamic had played out in their marriage.
Firebreak: A Mystery Page 9