Her accent is messing up his ability to interpret her tone. He can’t tell if she’s interested or annoyed, and already he’s starting to feel a bit stupid asking a seasoned cop these questions after so much time has passed. Still, what has he got to lose, other than a little bit of dignity?
“I’m saying I’m not sure now,” Drew says. “I know it sounds nuts after all this time, but what if she was already dead, and the fire was just a cover-up?”
“What brought this up?”
“Ruby Reyes, Joey’s mother, made parole. I’m doing a podcast series about her and her relationship with her daughter, and I’m trying to fill in some of the gaps in Joey’s life. I just learned that Joey was involved with some shady people back then, which I didn’t know at the time.”
Silence from McKinley. He can only imagine what must be going through her head. She probably thinks it’s crazy, because it really kind of is. Also, it’s a long shot, based on no evidence, just a hunch. Fine, not even a hunch. A tingle.
“Hello?” Drew is holding his breath. “You still there?”
“I’m looking to see if there was an autopsy done on the body. There wasn’t. But I figured it was worth checking.”
He’s relieved she didn’t hang up. “Does it say why they didn’t do one?”
“Because the death wasn’t ruled suspicious. Joelle was found lying on the sofa in front of the fireplace, which is where the fire started. It’s the only point of origin. The theory is she fell asleep, and sometime later, the fire sparked in the chimney. Seems fairly cut-and-dried how it all happened, as long as we’re sticking with the presumption that nobody wanted her dead.” The sergeant pauses again. “Do you now think someone wanted her dead?”
“Earlier today, I went back to the strip club where she worked, and the owner told me that Joey was close friends with another dancer, who went by the name Betty Savage. Betty was selling drugs at the club, which were supplied by her boyfriend, who was in a gang. The night Joey died, he was seen hanging around the club, even though Betty wasn’t there that night.”
A thought occurs to Drew then, and if there’s a limit to how big a dumb theory can get, this might just test it.
“Joey and Betty looked a lot alike,” he says. “They were both Filipino. I know it’s a stretch, but…”
“Go on,” McKinley says. “You’ve come this far.”
“What if the boyfriend killed Joey by mistake? And set the fire to cover it up?”
“Well, where’s Betty now?”
“She’s missing. She disappeared the weekend Joey died.”
“Okay, that is interesting.” A pause. “Then I suppose you need to find Betty, and ask her what she knows about that night.”
Drew exhales. So the sergeant doesn’t think it’s stupid. That’s something, at least. “The problem is, I don’t know her real name. She went by Betty Savage at the club. I put a request in to the city to check for a performer’s license, but the woman who replied to my email won’t give me any information unless I’m an officer of the court.”
“Bloody hell, you’re all over this thing,” McKinley says. “Who’s the person you emailed? And any chance you can send me a photo of Joelle and this Betty?”
He puts her on speaker and uses his phone to snap photos of the pictures Cherry let him keep, then sends the sergeant everything. Five seconds later, he hears her computer ping.
“They really do look alike, don’t they?” McKinley says. “Bollocks, now you’ve got me intrigued. I’ll check missing persons reports around that time. Anything you can tell me about the boyfriend?”
“He was part of a Vietnamese gang called the Blood Brothers. I don’t know his name.” But I might be able to find out.
“Okay, I’ll get back to you. It’s not like I don’t have ten other things I could be doing, but now you’ve put a bug up my arse.” McKinley sighs. “I’ll text when I know something.”
“I get that this is absolutely bonkers,” Drew says. “And I’m not sure it even changes anything, because I’m ninety-nine percent certain the fire was probably an accident.”
“But you were a hundred percent certain before,” McKinley says. “That one percent can eat you alive. Trust me, I know that feeling.”
He appreciates her understanding, because he does need to know. However, finding out the truth might not make him feel any better. He’s been telling himself he’s doing this podcast for Joey, to tell her story and expose Ruby for who she is. But deep down, in the cracks of his soul where he stuffs all the painful thoughts he can’t bear to deal with, he knows he’s doing it to try to alleviate his own guilt. For abandoning her.