“How about when Vera got pregnant? Do you remember that?”
“Very vaguely, yes.”
“Sara Venuto says several of Vera’s clients threw her a baby shower. Were you in that group?”
“No, I was not. Like I said, we were friendly, not friends.”
“What do you remember about Vera?” Josie asked.
Tara placed a manicured hand on the table and leaned forward. “Nothing except what I just told you. She was my stylist. We had a glass of wine once or twice. She had a daughter named Beverly. That’s all.”
“You had Vera over to your house when you had your glasses of wine?” Josie asked.
“Yes.”
“Had you ever been to her home, either before she moved into the house on Hempstead Road or after?”
“Of course not.”
“When is the last time you were in contact with Vera?”
“Detective Quinn, it was so long ago that I couldn’t even tell you. Decades.”
“Where were you yesterday morning at seven a.m.?”
“Oh please. You can’t really think— I was in my office in City Hall, meeting with my campaign manager and some aides. At least a half dozen people can confirm that.”
Josie appraised her, wondering exactly what it was that Tara was trying to hide. There had to be something. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have come to the police station and demanded to see Josie alone. “You know I’ve got to tell my team about this, right?”
Tara sighed. “I don’t see any reason to tell anyone. I’ve just told you everything I know, and all of it is completely irrelevant to a murder case that took place in 2004.”
“What about a murder case that took place yesterday?” Josie asked.
“Still irrelevant. By the time Beverly was killed, I hadn’t spoken to Vera in nearly ten years. Really, Detective. I know we’ve had our… issues over the years, but I would appreciate your discretion in this matter.”
“My discretion?” Josie laughed. “You’re joking, right? You’ve been trying to get rid of me from day one. What is your angle here? Are you trying to protect yourself or are you trying to set me up for something?”
Tara glared at her.
Slowly, Josie picked up her coffee cup and took a long sip, never taking her eyes from Tara. She placed the cup back on the table and said, “Mayor Charleston, you know how these investigations work. You should also know me to some degree by now. Under no circumstances am I keeping secrets from my team. There is no amount of influence you can exert to make me dishonest.”
“Don’t be so dramatic, Detective Quinn. I’m not asking you to be dishonest. I’m simply saying that any investigation into me so far as it relates to Vera Urban is a dead end. I’m asking you to treat it as such.”
“The fact that you’re asking me to treat it as such is the very thing that makes me think you have something to hide. Why don’t you just tell me what it is that you don’t want people finding out?”
A tense moment unfolded between them. With each second that passed, Tara’s face grew ruddier. Josie waited her out, content to let the silence in the room build the pressure. “Fine,” Tara spat, finally. “If you must know, Vera was a drug dealer. Okay? Are you happy now?”
Josie leaned in with interest. “What are you talking about?”
“What did I just say? Vera Urban dealt drugs. I found out what she was doing, and I distanced myself from her, okay? I never took anything from her or bought anything from her.”
“What kinds of drugs was she dealing?” Josie asked.
“Painkillers. Sometimes marijuana but almost always painkillers.”
“Where did she get them?”
Tara threw her arms in the air. “How the hell should I know? Wherever dealers get their drugs.”
“Okay, okay,” Josie said, raising her hands to indicate for Tara to calm down. “How do you know she was a drug dealer?”
“Because I saw her sell drugs to the other clients at the salon. You have to understand, back then I was newly married to a surgeon. A doctor. Do you understand? I couldn’t be associated with someone who was selling prescription drugs to people!”
“Because they might think your husband had a hand in supplying her with them,” Josie filled in.
“Yes,” Tara said. She sighed and pulled out the chair before her, flopping into it.
Josie said, “Why wouldn’t you just lead with that?”
Tara let out a long breath. “Because I know you don’t trust me.”
“Was your husband helping to supply Vera with prescription drugs?”
“Of course not.”
“I had to ask. Where else did she sell them or was it just in the salon?”
Tara sighed. “I don’t know. I think mostly at social events—I think some of her clients invited her to their houses to hang out not because they wanted to spend time with her but because they were buying painkillers from her. I never purchased any from her. I just… knew about it.”
Josie said, “We can keep this out of the press as long as neither you nor your husband had anything to do with Beverly or Vera’s murders. That’s the only thing that I can promise you. I have to tell my team. As long as everything you’ve told me is the truth, then you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Tara raised a brow. “Your Chief isn’t exactly my biggest fan right now. How do I know he’s not going to use this as leverage to get the upper hand in the Quail Hollow situation?”
Josie rolled her eyes. “I can’t speak to that. That is between you and the Chief. My job is to find whoever killed Vera and Beverly and bring them to justice. That’s it.”
“So you won’t help me with the Chief?”
Josie laughed. She walked to the door and pulled it open. Before she left, she looked over her shoulder and said, “You’re the one who hired him.”
Thirty-One
2004
Josie had only been sitting on one of the hard metal chairs in the Wellspring Clinic’s waiting room for ten minutes, and her ass already ached. Really, if they were going to make patients wait so long for their appointments, they ought to have more comfortable chairs. What was taking so long anyway? she wondered. She was the only person in the waiting room. Just as the thought crossed her mind, the front door swung open.
They’d better not see this person before me, Josie thought. She was only there for a physical for her lifeguard job. She’d be in and out of there in fifteen minutes.
Beverly Urban stepped through the door. Josie stared at her, open-mouthed. It was bad luck, pure and simple. Josie looked away from Beverly and picked up a magazine, spreading the pages and pretending to read. A few seconds later, the door swooshed again. She looked up. Beverly was gone.
Josie turned her head and looked out the window, watching Beverly run across the street. She ran along the safety fence in front of the construction site where Ray worked. He was over there now. Josie was going to try to see him after her appointment. What the hell was Beverly doing? Maybe she was just walking past it.
But she wasn’t. She stopped at the entry gate where Josie had picked Ray up only a couple of weeks earlier. Josie watched as she had a conversation with the man behind the fence.