Midnight Crossing (Josie Gray Mysteries #5)(85)

She pulled her phone out of her sweatshirt pocket and checked the time. It was 10:11 p.m., too late to politely call, but she couldn’t wait until morning.

She dialed Smokey Blessings, who had given the opening address at the water meeting, and then introduced the speakers throughout the night. He answered on the second ring.

“Smokey, it’s Josie. I apologize for calling you so late at night.”

“It’s no problem. Everything okay?”

“I’m not sure. I’m trying to piece together a timeline, and I’m hoping you can help me.”

“Sure.”

“Remember back to the night of the water usage meeting?”

“How could I forget?”

“I’m trying to think back to the speakers that evening and I don’t remember Mayor Moss being there that night.”

“Hell, no, he wasn’t there. Why do you think I had to mediate that meeting? I sure as hell didn’t want to. I hate public speaking.”

“Why didn’t he do it? It seems like he’d have wanted to be there.”

“He was supposed to. We’d been planning that event for weeks. And he was going to lead it. Then he calls me at about one o’clock that afternoon and says he and Caroline have to leave for El Paso. Like, right then. Some kind of family emergency came up. He asked me to lead it—despite knowing I hate that kind of thing.”

Josie was quiet for a second, taking in the information. She was certain that she’d seen Caroline’s phone calls for the night of the murder, and they had been placed locally. “Thanks, Smokey. I appreciate it.”

“Sure.”

“And I appreciate you making things right with the media, about my suspension. It meant more to me than you can probably imagine.”

“We’re not done with the mayor,” he said. “But I suspect this conversation may lead to further developments, so we’ll hang tight.”

“I think that’s a wise decision.”

This time, when Josie got Chester situated on his rug, and she flipped the bedside lamp off, she fell asleep within minutes of laying her head on the pillow.

*

Josie was in the shower at five the next morning, anxious to get to work. When she arrived she fired up her computer and went back to the same phone records she and Marta had left on the conference table the night before. Josie found Caroline’s records and saw that she had placed one call from her cell phone to Mayor Moss’s cell phone the night of the murder at 9:52 p.m., and received one from him at 9:59 p.m. Both calls were listed on the phone record as “voicemail” calls. If they had traveled to El Paso together for a family emergency, wouldn’t they most likely have been together, instead of leaving each other voicemails? She had to find some way to confirm whether the trip to El Paso was a sham.

Josie kept a close eye on her watch, and at exactly seven a.m. she called a representative with West Texas Mobile whom she knew only as Janet. But she knew Janet well enough to know that she worked the seven-to-three-thirty shift, on a Monday-through-Friday schedule.

As the only carrier with a significant number of towers in one of the most remote parts of the country, West Texas Mobile had a monopoly on phone service in Artemis and Arroyo County. It made accessing phone records for local investigations a much easier task to accomplish. And several times in the past, Janet had provided quick access to phone records before a subpoena could be issued and granted. Josie was careful not to abuse the favor the woman provided, but an unsolved homicide was justifiable in Josie’s mind.

“This is Janet. How can I help?”

“Good morning. This is Police Chief Josie Gray. How are you this morning?”

“I’m fine, Chief Gray! And how are you?”

“I’m doing well. I’m actually calling with a question for you.”

“Certainly.”

“I have subpoenaed phone records for three individuals with West Texas Mobile accounts. I’ll be submitting a request for one more set of records today. I wouldn’t ask for your help, but this is involving a murder suspect and we’re closing in on the case.”

“Go ahead.”

“I’m wondering if I can give you a phone number, and ask you to tell me what calls were placed during a sixteen-hour period of time.”

“I think I can do that.” Her voice had lowered to just above a whisper.

Josie read off Mayor Moss’s cell phone number and gave her the date and asked for calls between one p.m., the time that the mayor was supposed to have left for El Paso, and six a.m. the next morning.

Janet placed Josie on hold and a few minutes later read her a list of five phone calls that the mayor placed between those hours. Josie wrote down the list of numbers and immediately recognized both Caroline and Josh Mooney’s cell phone numbers.

“Okay. Now for the bigger question. Can you tell me the location of the tower where each of those five calls were placed?”

“Mmmm. I can do that. I’ll need to place you on hold for a bit.” She paused. “And you’re just looking for a verbal. Right? No printed documents?”

“Just a verbal. I need to know where the person was when those calls were placed.”

“Okay. Hang tight.”

Fifteen minutes later Janet came back on the phone. “I’m so sorry to keep you waiting so long. Sometimes these computers act like they don’t want to wake up in the morning.”