Page 25 of Justice for JoElla

Brandon waited, but JoElla didn’t say anything else. Finally, he had to throw out the question that was bugging him. “So why are you telling me all this?”

“Because.” A loud sigh came from her end of the phone. “Because I’m a fucked-up mess, so don’t expect much from me. I don’t do relationships well.”

“You let me be the judge of that, okay?”

“Yeah. Okay. So tomorrow night. See you then.”

“Yes, ma’am. See you then. Goodnight.”

“Night, Brandon.” And the phone went silent.

Brandon sat there, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. Sounded like a royal mess. But it sure beat sitting home alone on a Friday night.

* * *

Evidence.There was way too little of it. JoElla sifted through it again. They hadn’t recovered any shell casings from the murder scene?apparently Warmuth had taken them with him?but they did have the ballistics reports to help, and forensics had entered them into the system almost instantly after receiving them. They had blood spatter evidence, but that wasn’t really necessary. It was pretty obvious what had gone down. They did, however, note that there was no blood from anyone else, so if he’d hurt Josie, there was nothing to show for it. Nothing in the apartment seemed to be out of place and her suitcase was still in the closet, so JoElla had to believe she’d been taken against her will, no matter what her father had said. There had been plenty of fiber and hair samples, but the guy had lived there for a little while, so that was to be expected. And they’d gone over every surface, only to find no odd fingerprints. There were fingerprints from one of the coworkers on the front door knob, since they’d been there and tried to get in, but everything else in the apartment was one of the three people who’d lived there, so there were no other suspects.

Mick had gone to pick up some lunch for them when her phone rang, and she answered it as abruptly as usual. “Tompkins.”

“JoElla? It’s Richard.”

“Yeah. Whaddya got?” she asked their forensics supervisor.

“A hit on the ballistics from that murder scene.” JoElla straightened in her chair. “That gun was used in a murder in SanAntonio, Texas.”

“Got any other information?”

“Sending it to your office email now.”

“Thanks, Richard.”

“You bet. Good luck.”

“I’m gonna need it,” JoElla groused to no one in particular as she hung up the phone. “Let’s see what we’ve got here.”

And there it was. The projectile had been positively matched to one recovered in Texas in the murder of a thirty-one-year-old woman. The registry couldn’t give much detail in the format shown, but it did give some information she could use, so she picked up the desk phone again and dialed the number on the screen.

“SanAntonio Police Department. How may I direct your call?”

“Good afternoon. This is DetectiveJoElla Tompkins with the SpencerCounty Sheriff’s Department in Taylorsville, Kentucky. I have some information here from the national registry and I was hoping to speak to the officer who worked the case.”

“Yes, ma’am. Do you have the file number?”

“I do. It’s…” JoElla read off the information?the file number, the date it was entered, and the officer’s name. She could hear the woman on the other end tapping on a keyboard.

“Okay. Got it. LieutenantQuint Axton was the one who responded to the call. I’ll be glad to ask him to call you. He can direct you to the detectives and forensics personnel who worked the case.”

“That would be great.”

“At the number showing on my caller ID?”

“Yes. That’s my office number. Let me give you my cell too.” JoElla rattled the number off. “Please tell him to call anytime.”

“I’ll do it,” the woman assured her.

“Thanks.”

“You too. Have a great day.”

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