Her Mother’s Grave

Chapter Thirty-Five

Josie sat in the viewing room at the station house, staring at a large, closed-circuit television that showed one of the teenage boys they had arrested at her house. A mug of coffee sat untouched on the table beside her. She felt numb and exhausted. Her mind kept returning to the havoc they had wreaked on her bedroom, the window they had broken, the thought that strangers had been inside her home and violated her sanctuary. The door creaked open, and Gretchen stepped through it with a newly minted manila file in her hands.

“This one is Austin Jacks. Nineteen. Graduated from Denton East last year, hasn’t been doing a hell of a lot since then. Works part-time at a fast-food place. Got picked up for possession of drug paraphernalia last year, but the charges didn’t stick.”

“No connection to Lloyd Todd?”

“Not that we can find.”

“What about the other one?” Josie asked.

“Ian Colton. He’s a minor. Sixteen. He’s in holding till his parents get here. He’s a junior at Denton East. No record. No arrests. He works with Jacks. That’s how they know one another.”

Josie doubted that they’d be able to get to Ian Colton. The moment his parents showed up, they’d likely demand a lawyer, who would agree to let Josie’s team question the boy but then instruct him not to answer any questions. She saw it all the time.

“Our best bet to find out who else was involved is this kid,” Josie told Gretchen, motioning to the screen. On it, Austin Jacks fidgeted in his seat. His heels bobbed up and down, drumming an uneasy beat on the floor. His teeth tugged at a hangnail on his thumb while his other hand rubbed the top of his head, brushing back and forth over blond hair that was short like peach fuzz.

“Noah’s going in,” Gretchen responded, pulling out a chair and sitting down beside Josie.

They watched the boy squirm, his movements growing more frenetic by the second until Noah sauntered in fifteen minutes later. He slid a crushed pack of cigarettes across the table, and Austin snatched them up. A lighter appeared in Noah’s hand, and he gave the boy a light before pocketing it and leaning against the wall. Austin sucked in several hungry lungfuls of smoke, closing his eyes briefly to enjoy it. The fevered movements slowed a little, but not much.

Noah read him his rights again, and Austin acknowledged that he understood them. He didn’t ask for a lawyer, so Noah plunged right in. “Do you know whose house you were arrested in earlier tonight?”

The boy shrugged. “Don’t know. Some police lady. Don’t care.”

“Why were you there?”

He blew smoke in Noah’s direction. “Why do you think? It don’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.”

“You and Ian were there to rob this police lady, and yet neither one of you had any of her personal property on you when we arrested you. How do you explain that?”

His gaze flicked around the room, looking anywhere but at Noah. “You caught us before we could take anything, man.”

Noah stepped toward the table. “Her jewelry is missing.”

Austin’s knees bounced beneath the table. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Who else was there with you?”

Another shrug. “You know who was there—you got him too.”

Noah placed both palms on the table and leaned in toward the kid. “We know there was a third guy, Austin. He came and took the jewelry and left you and Ian behind to wreck the place. Who is he?”

A tenuous smile flitted across Austin’s face and disappeared. He put out his cigarette in the ashtray Noah had provided and balled his hands up in his lap. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Noah sighed. “Fine. We’ll get prints from the kitchen window. It won’t take long to run them. Unless Ian tells us first and saves us the time. That kid is scared shitless. I’m sure him and his parents will be interested in the reduced charges the DA is offering for information on the third perp—and for throwing your sorry ass under the bus.”

Without hesitation, Noah turned and left the room, leaving Austin’s mouth hanging open, his skin paling beneath his acne.

Ten minutes later he stood beneath the eye of the camera, waving both arms. “Hey man, come back,” he called. “I got something to say.”