smiling. Lana looked like something out of a magazine, long blonde hair flowing in the wind, tanned skin, her blue eyes bright. Josie closed out Facebook and logged into one of the police databases, finding Kelly’s address in town immediately. Lana’s list of addresses was long, but her most current address was in Denton.
Josie didn’t relish having to talk with either woman. She was content to leave her memories of high school in the past, but there was little choice now. Someone had murdered her high school bully, and it was her job to find that person and put him or her away.
The sound of two cell phones ringing at once startled her. Noah and Harris paused in the foyer. Noah took his phone from his back jeans pocket. “It’s Mettner,” he said.
Josie picked hers up from the coffee table. “I’ve got the Chief,” she said.
Noah sighed. “This can’t be good.”
He swiped to answer the call and Josie did the same on her own phone. Chief Chitwood barked into her ear. “Quinn. I need someone down at the shopping district in South Denton. We got looters. Lots of ’em. Patrol rounded them up, but they need to be processed.”
“I thought South Denton was under two feet of water,” she said.
“Apparently, looters don’t mind all that,” Chitwood said.
He hung up. Josie looked at Noah, who had just hung up with Mettner. “I’ll go,” he said. “Mett’s already on his way there.”
Josie thought about arguing, but she was exhausted. She smiled at him. “I’ll take the next call.”
Thirteen
Noah slipped into bed beside Josie sometime in the middle of the night. Trout, who had taken Noah’s spot in his absence, groaned as Noah nudged him. He stood up and went to Josie’s feet, circling and dropping back down, his furry back soft and warm against her shins. She opened her eyes and could just make out Noah’s form in the dim light cast by the green numbers on their alarm clocks. “How was it?” she asked.
“Sad,” he told her. “The liquor store, the Spur Mobile store, that little clothing boutique, the pharmacy, all cleaned out. Everything gone except for the bookstore. Guess criminals don’t read.”
“That sucks,” Josie replied. “Did you get them all?”
“Five of them,” he told her. “They’ll probably be released in the next two days once they’re arraigned. Most of them were East Bridgers displaced by the flooding.”
There were two bridges in Denton, one in the south and one to the east. The area beneath the eastern bridge had long been a gathering place for the city’s homeless and drug trade.
Josie felt sleep pulling her back under and let her eyes drift closed. Noah touched her cheek. “Josie?”
She opened her eyes once more, blinking to bring him into focus. “Get some sleep,” she told him. “It’s after three. We have to be back at the station in a few hours.”
“I just—” he began, but the sound of Josie’s cell phone trilling stopped them. She rolled toward her nightstand and looked at it. “It’s dispatch,” she said.
Flicking on her lamp, Josie snatched the phone up and swiped answer. “Quinn.”
“Detective Quinn?” said a male voice. “It’s Officer Hiller. Sorry to bother you so late. We’ve got a woman on the line who wants to talk to you directly.”
“Are you kidding me?” she said. “It’s the middle of the night. You couldn’t take a message?”
There was a beat of silence. Then, “I thought you’d want to talk to her. She knew the name of the Hempstead victim.”
Josie sat up. Trout poked his head up from the foot of the bed, his ears perfect steeples. Noah patted the bedcovers next to him and Trout scampered over, settling against Noah’s stomach. Josie asked, “What exactly did she say?”
“She called in and said that she needed to talk to Detective Josie Quinn about the Beverly Urban murder.”
Josie’s hand tightened around the phone. Beverly Urban’s name hadn’t been released to the press, nor had the fact that she was a homicide victim. The only people who knew her name and manner of death were Dr. Feist, members of Josie’s team, and Calvin Plummer and his secretary. It couldn’t be Tammy calling, could it?
“Did she give her name?” Josie asked. She glanced back at Noah, but his eyelids were heavy. He’d be asleep in moments.
“She would only give us the name Alice. That’s it.”
Josie stood up and padded quietly out to the hall and downstairs to the kitchen. “Put her through and text me the number she called from