Page 9 of Justice for JoElla

In that moment, Brandon was sorry for every harsh thing he’d ever said to his slightly-older twin. He’d made fun of Landon, called him stupid, irresponsible, an under-achiever, a loser, and criticized his choice of wife. But Landon and Jerrica were happy, and the baby was adorable. It saddened him to think of his little nephew, Sim, and realize he couldn’t remember a time when he’d held the child, much less played with him or spoken to him. He’d seen Sim as just another under-achiever in the family. Of course, he hadn’t been much more engaged with his own kids than he had been with Sim. That was one of his greatest regrets. It took everything he had to say, “Thanks. I think I’ll take you up on it.”

“I’ll talk to Jerrica, but I’m sure it’ll be okay with her. We’re not the enemy, Brandon. We never have been. It was you who didn’t care about us. We’ve always cared about you.”

His heart broke. One of the two people he’d treated worst in the whole world was coming to his aid, and he didn’t deserve it. “I… I’m sorry. I’ve been a shit brother.”

Landon let out a little chuckle. “You have. I won’t sugarcoat it for you. But I’m here if you need me?Jerrica too. Liella and?”

It was Brandon’s turn to chuckle. “Breckin pretty much told me to go fuck myself.”

He heard Landon laugh loudly on the other end of the phone. “Yep! That’s Breckin! He’ll protect Liella with everything he has, and you, my brother, he feels she needs to be protected from. Don’t know that I entirely agree, but I can definitely see why he’d feel that way. So call me tomorrow afternoon and maybe I’ll have something to tell you by then.”

“Sure. Thanks, Landon. I mean… Thanks. Really. I appreciate it. I… I really appreciate it.”

Landon laughed again. “Yeah, love you too, bro. Talk to you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow. Bye.” Brandon hit END on the phone’s screen and dropped it on the stained bedspread in the motel room. Maybe by the next evening he’d be somewhere clean and pleasant with people who cared something about him?the only people in the world who did, people he’d treated horribly.

He’d forever regret that.

* * *

“Bring her up to speed,”Roy instructed his only other detective. “We’ve got to get cracking on this. The community’s up in arms and, frankly, I’m nervous when my wife goes to the grocery, so we’ve got to move.”

“Yes, sir.” The detective motioned for JoElla to take a seat as Roy retreated toward his office. Then the man held out his hand. “MichaelHovekamp. The guys all call me Mick. And you’re JoElla, right?”

“Yeah.” She took his hand and shook it, and she didn’t get the feeling he was the kind of guy who’d blow smoke up somebody’s ass. He honestly didn’t look like he had a spare minute for that. There were piles of files on his desk, and she wondered how backed up they were. “JoEllaTompkins.”

“Glad to have you on board. So here’s where we are. We know who the boyfriend is.” He handed a file folder to her. “AntonWarmuth. All kinds of domestic violence charges for years and years. Been in and out of prison for years. His dad had been too until he was shivved in the state pen in Eddyville. This woman?”

“JosieWiseman,” JoElla interrupted.

“Yeah,” he said and handed her another folder. “She was a worker at the big retail warehouse in Shepherdsville. She had a good job. Two years of community college. Average family. We’re still trying to figure out how the hell she got mixed up with him.”

“And the kid’s father?” JoElla asked.

“Seems like a nice guy. Said they’d been married for about five years when they decided to divorce. No animosity, at least none that I could detect. Just not really into each other anymore. But he spent time with his son. He’s having a very difficult time with all of this. Both families are. And we still don’t know where Josie is.”

JoElla scrutinized Mick’s face. “So why isn’t city handling this?”

“Because she lived outside the city limits, so it’s our investigation.”

“When has that ever stopped them before?” she asked with a snort.

“When the sheriff found out you lived next door to her. He said he wanted you to work on it if he could just convince you to come to work here.”

She had to ask. “So you like working for SheriffBillings?”

“I haven’t met anyone finer. He’s a wonderful man, has a great family, runs a tight ship but allows us to make decisions and doesn’t ding us if they’re off. He’s respectful of us and expects us to be respectful of each other. Encourages us to stick up for each other. If I saw a deputy, city officer, firefighter, anybody, harassing you, I’d be on ‘em like stink on shit. Not kidding. We have each other’s backs here. He trusts us, we trust him, we trust each other. And we trust the process.”

Sounds like a damn sermon, JoElla thought, then shut it down. It was hard to believe anybody was good anymore, but maybe Roy was the real deal. Everything he and Brenda had done for her over the years was hard to ignore when she made her estimation of his honor. “So do we haveanyleads?”

“None. Not a single one. I thought maybe we’d go canvass the neighborhood where Warmuth lived, see if anybody’s seen anything. But I really don’t believe she’d go willingly with a guy who shot and killed her son.”

“Me neither, especially what I saw of her.”

“And what exactlydidyou see of her?”

JoElla spent the next ten minutes telling Mick observations she’d made of Josie and Derek, and the more she talked, the sadder she grew. Josie had to know Derek was dead. How on earth could she stand that? Or stand Warmuth? Incomprehensible, as far as JoElla was concerned.

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