Midnight Crossing (Josie Gray Mysteries #5)(82)

“Then we’ll piece them together with a timeline to figure out who was communicating with who.”

It took several hours to search the documents and narrow down the list of numbers. Next, they laid out a piece of butcher-block paper on the table to draw a four-week timeline and a diagram with lines connecting the six numbers of interest. They discovered Macey had only communicated with Josh and Ryan, so they eliminated her from the diagram.

They found that four weeks ago, two days before Josh and Ryan departed for Guatemala, the two of them had communicated frequently by cell phone. They also found one phone call from Lilith to Josh, and two from Lilith to Ryan. There was no more communication from Lilith to Josh or Ryan until two days before the murder, but none after that. Josie placed red stars by Lilith’s calls.

They also discovered two calls that Lilith received the week that Josh and Ryan set off for Guatemala. The calls were from Big Ben’s cell phone. It was the direct link to the transportation ring that they needed.

Josie used the calendar she had taken from Macey Mooney and typed up the list of days that Josh had allegedly driven for Caroline and printed it. They found cell phone communication between Lilith and Big Ben on all seven occasions. Holder had what he needed.





TWENTY

As requested, Tyler Holder walked into the police department office at eight-thirty the next morning. He was wearing khaki pants and a white shirt, unbuttoned at the neck, and was looking much more at ease than the night Josie had slammed him with her theory on Caroline Moss running a human trafficking ring.

“No suit today?” Josie asked.

He smiled. “Closing arguments were yesterday. My wife was ready to throw me out of the house if that trial hadn’t ended soon.”

“You won’t like this any better,” she said.

“Lay it on me.”

Josie and Otto spent the next thirty minutes presenting their case, with dates, times, and a phone chart that detailed all of the known players in the trafficking organization, including those that Townie had confirmed from Albuquerque.

He studied the diagram for some time and finally said, “This is excellent work. I’m really impressed.”

Josie glanced at Otto, who acknowledged the compliment with a nod. It was a huge relief.

“How did you get the dates for the trips?” he asked.

Josie showed him Macey’s calendar with the red x’s, and the matching dates from Big Ben’s office records.

“You don’t have anything else to confirm travel dates? Credit card slips for gas, hotel bills, anything?”

“Not at this point. But we do have the cell phone records to and from Lilith, who we assume is Caroline, to Big Ben in Albuquerque that match those dates.”

“What about a murder charge?” he asked.

“I’m confident the murder is tied to the four people from Artemis we just discussed, but we have no murder weapon, and nothing to tie any of them to the murder site that night,” she said.

“I’m going to place a few phone calls about this one. We’ll end up with national media attention before it’s over with. I want to make sure I have my business in order before I file a warrant for her arrest. Until you hear from me, keep this under wraps. Are we clear?”

“Understood,” she said.

They gave copies of their documentation to Holder, and Josie and Otto sat down at the conference table, exhausted from the late night and early morning.

“What do you think?” Josie asked, rubbing her burning eyes and yawning.

“Personally, I think we did a hell of a job. I’m guessing Holder may take a day or two to sort this all out. He won’t hang his neck out there for a senator’s daughter-slash-mayor’s wife without knowing he’s got a good case to back him up.”

“You realize Moss is my supervisor,” she said.

“That’s crossed my mind many times over the past week.”

“If she isn’t arrested? Or if the charges are dismissed?”

“You’ll lose your job,” he said, finishing her train of thought.

Josie took a gulp of cold coffee and slumped back in her chair, worn out with discussing the case. “My mom is headed back to Indiana today.”

Otto winced. “She get tired of waiting around for you to visit?”

“No, it wasn’t like that. She said she wanted to give me some space to think about her moving here. She’s ready to make the move if I give her the okay.”

“Really?” Otto’s bushy eyebrows rose at the notion. “She’s waiting on an okay?”

Josie grinned. “I know. She’s so much mellower than her last visit. To tell you the truth, I’m a little freaked out by all of it.”

Otto leaned back in his chair as well and crossed his legs out in front him. “You aren’t going to get all philosophical on me, are you?”

“I don’t even know what you mean by that.”

“We don’t have to talk about people changing, or becoming a better person, or any of that, do we? Delores wears me out with that kind of thinking.”

Josie laughed. “I don’t guess I have much control over any of it anyway. Not much point in discussing it.”

“Exactly. Live your life and the rest will fall into place.”

“Or not.”