Firebreak: A Mystery

by Tricia Fields

  Otto frowned and nodded. “She was embarrassed. She didn’t want to admit the relationship.”

  “But why did Brenda lie to us?”

  “Because she knew Billy killed Ferris, and she was trying to protect him,” Otto said.

  Josie was quiet. There was a detail she was missing, a connection that was right in front of her. “Let’s go back to what we know about the day of the evacuation. Once more on the time frame.”

  Otto went to the back of the office to pour them each a cup of coffee. He walked back slowly, piecing together the puzzle out loud for his own benefit as much as for hers. “We’re assuming Ferris was staying at their house. According to Hank, after Billy killed Ferris, Brenda drove home and picked Billy up and they went to the Hell-Bent to get his guitar. He said she knew nothing about Ferris’s death. She said the same. Their plan was to drive to Austin and book a few gigs.” Otto paused and Josie watched him arranging his thoughts in his head.

  She picked it up. “At some point, after Billy talked to Angela at the Hell-Bent, he drove back to his home and set it on fire, staging the scene to make it look like Ferris OD’d on their couch and burnt up in the fire.”

  Then it clicked. Josie felt like she’d been sucker punched. She flipped through her steno pad with her interview notes. She went back to her interview with the bartender, Angela Stamos.

  “Angela said she talked to Billy for a while in the dressing room. He was torn up over leaving. He got his guitar and then couldn’t find Brenda.” Josie thumbed through her notes and found what she was looking for. “Angela said, ‘I think he ended up talking to John Lummin for a while.’”

  Josie looked up at Otto. “No one could remember who Brenda sat with. Hank even mentioned that he didn’t know who she talked to. He remembered Billy getting his guitar, but not who Brenda sat with. That’s because she wasn’t there. I don’t think Ferris was dead. I think she drove to the house and killed Ferris while Billy chatted with Lummin.”

  “Hang on. Remember at the first interview with the Nixes, Brenda said she talked with Yvonne Ferrario. Did you ever get ahold of her?”

  “I tried once and couldn’t get through,” Josie said. She flipped back through her notes and found the phone number she’d jotted on her notes. Josie dialed the number on her cell phone, and it went directly to voicemail.

  “Yvonne. This is Josie Gray. I need you to call me as soon as possible. I have an urgent question to ask you in regard to a current investigation.” Josie provided her phone number at the PD and her cell phone number and hung up.

  Otto resumed their conversation. “You think the story about Brenda leaving and Billy fighting with Ferris and killing him is bogus?”

  She nodded. “I think something happened that afternoon between Billy, Ferris, and Brenda at the house. I think Brenda and Billy left to get his guitar, planning on leaving town. Something happened on the car ride to the Hell-Bent, and Brenda drove back to the house and killed Ferris.”

  “You think Billy knew?”

  Josie shook her head. “After all the interviews, ‘sad and confused’ seems to be about the best description of him. I can buy the suicide a lot easier than I can him murdering Ferris,” she said.

  “Would he have let Brenda kill Ferris?” he said.

  “Maybe he didn’t know until it was too late.”

  “So why would he tell Hank a monstrous lie as he’s committing suicide?” he asked.

  “Maybe he was trying to protect Brenda. He’d driven his own wife to murder, so he tried to pin it on himself and then he committed suicide.”

  Otto nodded, conceding the point. “Brenda had plenty of motive. Not only was Ferris destroying her marriage, but he was destroying Billy’s career. Her ‘meal ticket.’ Who called him that?”

  “Angela said that.”

  “What about timing?” Otto asked. “Could Brenda have pulled this off?”

  “In all the commotion with the evacuation, she could have easily left the bar and drove back to the house to deal with Ferris. Afterwards, she could have convinced Billy they didn’t need to go back home after all. They had supposedly already given Ferris the keys to the truck so he could leave.”

  Otto nodded. “I like it. She could have called Ferris. Told him that she needed to talk to him before he left town. Maybe she said she wanted to make things right between them. Mend fences.”

  “The Zaner was another detail that bothered me,” said Josie. “Billy’s a big guy. If he wanted to stop Ferris from walking down the hallway, he hardly needed to stun the kid. But Brenda would have needed it.”

  “After it was all over with, Billy couldn’t take the guilt. He found out his wife killed Ferris and allowed him to burn in a fire. Not only had he lost his lover, but he’d driven his own wife to murder. Billy’s life was over so he asked Hank to help him end it for good.” Otto banged his fist on the table. “We got this.”

  “Let’s talk to Hank one more time. See if we can cement a few details before we go to the prosecutor,” Josie said.

  * * *

  They arrived at the Hell-Bent at a little after nine that morning but it wasn’t yet open for business. They drove a quarter of a mile down the lane and found Hank at home, watching ESPN, eating a bowl of cereal in the living room. He invited them inside and they sat down in the living room as they had done the last time they visited his home. While Hank carried his bowl into the kitchen Josie noticed a pair of women’s beige dress shoes lying on the floor, underneath a chair that was pushed against the wall in the kitchen. She hadn’t noticed them the last time they visited. The shoes looked as if they might have been shoved under the chair and forgotten about. Josie averted her eyes as he returned so that Hank wouldn’t realize she had seen them.

  “Hank, we have some follow-up questions to ask you about Billy. You’re free to call an attorney, but we’re just here to follow up.”

  Given their last conversation, Josie expected the guarded look he gave her. He studied her a moment and finally said, “Okay, go ahead.”

  “We’re still struggling with the story Billy told you. It doesn’t make sense for several reasons.”

  He gave her a puzzled look. “Why would Billy lie to me before ending his life?”

  Josie wondered at his choice of words. She hadn’t said Billy had lied, just that his story didn’t make sense.

  “I think Billy lied because he was trying to protect his wife,” she said.

  “Protect her from what?”

  “The day after the evacuations, do you remember me coming into the Hell-Bent to talk to you about the Nixes leaving town?”

  “Sure.”

  “Do you remember me asking you about the timing? What time they arrived, what time Billy got into the dressing room?”

  “Yeah, I told you to talk to Angela. She said you talked to her and she told you he got the guitar at five thirty.”

  “Where was Brenda during that time?” Josie asked.

  He frowned. “I don’t know. She was in the bar.”

  “Did you see her sitting with someone?”

  His eyes darted from Josie to Otto. “Sure. Everybody was talking in groups, walking around.”

  “Specifically, who did you see her sitting with?” she asked.

  “I can’t name a specific person.”

  “That’s funny. Because people gave us the names of people Billy talked to. Angela said that when they were done in the dressing room Billy looked for his wife and couldn’t find her. He sat down and talked to John Lummin because he couldn’t find Brenda.”

  Hank wrinkled his forehead. “What are you getting at?”

  “I think Billy made up that big story because he was covering for his wife. He drove his wife to murder and couldn’t handle the guilt.”

  “That’s ridiculous! She’s not a killer! Look at the hell that woman’s been through, and now you’re calling her a murderer on top of it all?”

  “Think back to that day in the bar, Hank. Who did she talk to? Who did you s
ee her with?”

  He frowned and looked exasperated with the questions. “I told you. The bar was chaos that day. I can’t remember all the people I talked to, let alone somebody else.”

  Josie put a hand up in a gesture meant to calm the tension. “I’m not trying to be confrontational. We have to make sure we have the right person before we close the case. We’re just sorting through the specifics.”

  He nodded. “Sure. I get that. I just know you’re barking up the wrong tree with Brenda.”

  Josie gave Hank an embarrassed look. “I hate to do this, but we’ve been out of the office all morning. Would you mind if I used your restroom before we take off?” Josie asked.

  He pointed behind him down a dark hallway. “First door on your right.”

  Josie walked by Otto, knowing he would keep up the conversation for a few minutes. She decided to follow up on a hunch.

  She shut the door to the bathroom and scanned the room for anything that would indicate who the female was that wore the beige shoes lying in his kitchen. Sensible heels, not the shoes of one of the waitresses he supposedly chased after. She opened the medicine cabinet that hung over the single basin and found the typical bottles and tubes. She flushed the toilet and scanned the medicine bottles, and she found one prescribed to Brenda Nix. Xanax. Her pill of choice for sleeping while she and Billy traveled: apparently also her pill of choice while sleeping with Hank.

  Josie took her cell phone out of her pocket and took a picture of the bathroom, the cabinet, and then the pill bottle that clearly stated Brenda’s name. Hank had invited them freely into his home, and he had given her permission to enter his bathroom. She wasn’t sure the photograph of Brenda’s pills would be admissible in court, but it was worth the effort. It might be enough to coerce something out of Hank.

  Josie quickly washed her hands and then appeared back in the living room, indicating to Otto that she was ready to leave.

  “Hank, we appreciate you talking with us again. I’d like you to keep this conversation quiet. Don’t mention this to Brenda. She’s not a suspect. We just wanted to clear her name, get through one final set of questions before we put this case to bed.” She put her hand out and Hank stood to shake it.

  They walked outside and when they got into Josie’s jeep, Otto said, “What the hell was that all about?”

  “Guess who’s shacking up with Hank?”

  Otto frowned, then his eyes widened in realization. “Brenda?”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Time was not on their side. Hank would contact Brenda as soon as Josie and Otto left. They drove back to the PD and put together a rough outline of their case to present to the prosecutor. It wasn’t a requirement, but Josie had found spending the extra time often helped her ensure she had key details mapped out before making an arrest. Realistically, if the prosecutor wouldn’t support her, the arrest wouldn’t stick.

  Josie and Otto walked across the street to the courthouse, where Tyler Holder, the forty-one-year-old county prosecutor, had his office. He had been at the job a little over a year, and so far, local law enforcement were pleased with his efforts. No prosecutor would make every cop happy; but at least Holder appeared motivated by justice rather than the political career ladder.

  He wasn’t in his office but Josie and Otto found him in the courtroom, where he sat at the prosecutor’s table taking notes.

  He stood and motioned for them to join him.

  “They throw you out of your office?” Otto asked.

  Holder smiled. He wore a distinguished gray suit, a white shirt, and a red paisley tie. Josie suspected the high-dollar clothes were leftovers from his days as a lawyer for the Houston Oilers—before his new wife convinced him to leave fame and fortune for love and a desert speck of a town sorely in need of a new prosecutor.

  “I like the solemn atmosphere. Gets me grounded before the first day of a trial.” He pitched his pen onto the table and turned his full attention to Josie and Otto. “What’s on your mind?”

  “Ferris Sinclair and Billy Nix.”

  “Ah. It all wrapped up a little too conveniently, didn’t it? Billy kills Ferris, then commits suicide?” Holder said.

  Josie smiled. “There’s been a twist. Here’s the short version. Billy Nix had been screwing around with Ferris Sinclair, a kid who was obsessed with him and the fame that went with Billy. Brenda found out, but wasn’t able to stop things for fear that Ferris would go public with the affair and ruin Billy’s chance at fame and fortune as an outlaw country singer.”

  “Outlaw?”

  “Country outlaw singer. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle?”

  Holder smirked and nodded. “Ah, outlaw. Like Willie Nelson getting busted for pot all over Texas.”

  “You get the idea. They’re tough guys. You can’t be a gay country outlaw singer. Your music wouldn’t sell. Especially if your career hasn’t taken off yet. So Brenda has been sitting by for the past six months watching her husband get led astray by this man who is not only ruining her marriage, but who is derailing her husband’s career.”

  Otto put a finger up. “A career that Brenda has devoted her life to. She had a record deal close to signed before all this happened.”

  “To top it off, when Mitchell Cowan performed the autopsy, he discovered Ferris was HIV positive. We believe Billy just discovered this fact. The day before the fire, we found Internet searches on the Nixes’ home computer that dealt with HIV/AIDS. When I informed Brenda, she appeared to know nothing about it.”

  “I think Brenda’s a better actor than she is a singer,” said Otto.

  “Are you telling me Brenda Nix killed Ferris?” he asked.

  Josie glanced at Otto. “We believe so.” She sighed, dreading what was to come.

  Holder narrowed his eyes at her. “You don’t have anything that ties her to the dead body, do you?”

  “We believe she left the Hell-Bent—”

  Holder shook his head back and forth and cut his hands through the air to stop her. “‘We believe’ doesn’t work. Do you have a gun, something more than an empty syringe?”

  Josie hadn’t realized he knew about the syringe. She had kept him up to date to this point, and she hadn’t mentioned it. She was impressed. “We’re not relying on the syringe. It doesn’t help the case. We have the Zaner stun gun, registered to her, that was discharged the night of the murder. And we have eyewitnesses that placed her at the bar, but then lost sight of her during the time when we believe she drove home, stunned and murdered Ferris Sinclair.”

  “You know this won’t work. I’m not sure why you’re here. You have nothing that indicates to me with any certainty that she killed Ferris. I’ve no doubt she wanted him dead, but I need proof.”

  “If we don’t bring her in now she will leave. Her house was destroyed from the fire. It’s hard telling where she’ll go.”

  “Josie. If you bring her in, you can’t keep her. No charges would stick. I won’t support this.”

  “I also found a bottle of Xanax in Hank Wild’s medicine cabinet. Brenda’s bottle,” Josie said.

  Holder considered her and pursed his lips. “I won’t even ask what you were doing in Hank Wild’s medicine cabinet. But again, so what? She was screwing Hank while her husband was screwing Ferris. It’s a screwed-up world. But that doesn’t put a murder weapon in her hand.”

  “Why not charge her and see if she breaks?” Josie said, feeling the heat in her face.

  “There’s nothing to charge her with!”

  “Thanks for your time,” Josie said, angry at his unwillingness to help. “We’ll be back.”

  * * *

  “You can’t be that surprised,” said Otto. They stopped on the sidewalk outside of the courthouse.

  “She’ll leave town.” Josie checked her watch. Two hours had passed since they talked to Hank. “I want to talk to Patty Netham, Brenda’s sister. I’m going over to the motel to ask Patty to take a walk with me. While I do that, can you go talk to John Lummin about the
timeline? He was the one who sat and talked to Billy at the Hell-Bent when he couldn’t find Brenda. Maybe John can connect us with someone who saw Brenda leave the bar.”

  Otto walked back to the PD to get his jeep while Josie walked a block over to Manny’s. She knocked on the door for Room 5, but no one answered. The drapes were closed and she didn’t hear any movement inside. She walked down to the office and found Manny inside the office washing his front window with spray cleaner and a wad of newspaper.

  “Hey, Manny.”

  “Josie! Good to see you.”

  “I’m looking for Brenda and her sister.”

  “You just missed them. They left maybe a half hour ago. Packed up and moved out.”

  Josie felt the flush in her face. She was furious. They were going to let a murderer drive away to a new life.

  “I need you to tell me exactly what was said. Every detail.”

  Manny lost his pleasant smile and looked worried. “Okay, let me think. She gave me the key and paid with a check. She seemed like she was in a hurry so I didn’t chat much. You can tell when someone doesn’t want to chat. I asked if she would need the room again. And she said, no, she and her sister needed to get away. She said—” Manny closed his eyes and put a hand over them as if trying to replay the conversation. “I think her exact words were, ‘I just can’t take all the sadness. I have to get away from here for a while.’” He opened his eyes again, searching Josie’s face for some clue to her questioning.

  “What kind of car was Patty driving?”

  “A white one. A newer Honda Accord.”

  “You have a license-plate number?”

  He screwed up his face like he’d made a mistake. “No. I didn’t bother.”

  “Thanks, Manny. If you hear anything from Brenda or her sister, you call me immediately.”

  Josie jogged back to the department and found Otto on the phone. He hung up and said, “John told me he talked to Billy for almost half an hour. He said Billy kept looking around the room. He seemed irritated that he couldn’t find Brenda.”