Midnight Crossing (31 page)

Ten minutes later Lou called her.

“Good news. Phone records just arrived. I’ve got the document in my email. You and I were both copied.”

“Thanks, Lou.”

Josie opened the documents on her computer and sighed. “This is huge, Otto. This could take days.”

Otto looked over her shoulder as she scrolled through page after page of phone numbers, sent and received, for each person’s records.

“Break it down. Print off the records for the past month and we’ll start there.”

Josie printed the past four weeks of phone calls and laid the piles on the conference table. Josh and Big Ben had used throwaway phones to conduct their illegal business, but both men’s phones had been seized during their arrests. Josie had found that the foolproof methods criminals used to cover their tracks often sealed the cases against them.

“Okay. We’ve got six sets of records for the past four weeks, leading up to the murder of Renata. We’ve got Caroline Moss’s home phone. And we have the records for the contact in Big Ben’s phone named Lilith, which we assume is Caroline too.”

“Is the number from the Lilith contact registered to a specific person?” Otto asked.

“It’s a throwaway phone, so all we have is the call log, not who it’s registered to. We also have Josh and Macey Mooney’s cell phone records, as well as Ryan’s.” Josie held up another piece of paper she pulled off her desk. “And more good news. Townie faxed this to me today. It’s phone records for the past year for Big Ben. We can start with the past month for him too.”

“Do we actually have proof each of these phones is linked to each person?” he said.

“We seized Josh and Macey’s throwaway phones, so their numbers are confirmed. Ryan’s cell phone was registered in his name because his parents pay for the bill. And Big Ben’s phone was seized. The only phone there’s any question about is Lilith’s, who we think is Caroline.” Josie groaned and reached back to rub her neck. “Basically, it’s a big tangled mess of numbers, but it’s a start.”

Otto pitched a pad of paper on the conference table and used a marker to begin writing down key phone numbers they were looking for. They made a list of known phone numbers for the following people:

Caroline Moss (home phone and cell—registered)

Lilith (cell—throwaway)

Josh Mooney (cell—throwaway)

Macey Mooney (cell—throwaway)

Ryan Needleman (cell—throwaway)

Benjamin Dominguez (Big Ben) (cell—throwaway)

“I’ll export the phone numbers into Excel and search and find the phone numbers over the past year. I’ll highlight the numbers and we’ll get a quick look at who’s calling who. We’ll see if we can connect Lilith to Big Ben for each of the seven trips,” Josie said.

“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.”

He grinned. “Or not.”

“Let’s go home and get some sleep.”

*   *   *

At five o’clock the next evening Holder reached Josie on her cell phone as she was driving back to the police department from a child welfare call. A mother had scalded her little girl’s hands as punishment for eating candy when she’d been told not to. Josie was angry and she had a headache.

“Yes, sir?” she answered when his number showed on her cell phone.

“I’ve got an update on Caroline Moss.”

“I hope it’s good news,” she said. “I could use some.”

“It depends on how you look at it.”

“Hmm. Go ahead,” Josie said, knowing already that it wouldn’t be good news.

“I’m turning the case over to the FBI.”

“Now?”

“Josie. Think about the case. This isn’t just a human trafficking case taking place in Artemis. Not only does it cross an international border, but it now crosses into New Mexico and Oklahoma. This is a federal crime. They can help us track down the phone connection between Caroline and Lilith. This isn’t something for local law enforcement to handle.”

She bristled at the comment but said nothing.

“Obviously it’s not that you haven’t done an excellent job with the investigation, but we’ve got three different states involved, as well as Mexico and Guatemala. I don’t need to tell you what kind of hell goes into working with two foreign countries during a criminal investigation. This goes beyond me. We need help. And I don’t want to screw this up. Agreed?”

Josie unclenched her jaw and forced a reply. “That’s fine. Just let me know what I need to do on my end.”

“Good enough. I appreciate it. I’ll be in touch.”

Josie hung up and banged the steering wheel. She called Otto.

“We lost the case,” she said.

“FBI?”

“Holder passed it off.”

“Damn, Josie. I know we saw this coming, but it doesn’t make it any easier to stomach.”

“Yeah, well. I didn’t think we’d lose it this fast. And I’m pissed off. I was suspended from duty over this case, and I don’t even have the satisfaction of bringing it to a close.”

“We’re not done. We have an unsolved murder.”

Josie blew out a rush of air. “I know that, Otto.”

“Okay. Well. It’s after five. I’m tired and you’re grumpy. So I’m going home before Delores threatens mandatory retirement again. Okay?”

“All right. See you in the morning.”

Josie hung up and continued her drive back to the department. Her anger fired her adrenaline, so she maintained her course to the PD. She pulled in front of the department and texted Nick. She’d lost track of his schedule and couldn’t remember if he was going to be at her house that night.

Working late. Where are you?
She paused before she clicked send. It seemed like a pathetic question to ask someone you cared about, but one of the positives with Nick was that he took her for the mess that she was.

Ten seconds later he texted back.
In Mexico. Surveillance tonight. Remember?

Now I do. Love you.

Love you too. Enjoy that warm bed. I’ll be sitting by a trash can in an alley.

She smiled, imagining him crouched down in an alleyway, wearing his black Kevlar and ski mask for disguise and warmth. He could be scary as hell when he wanted to be, and she had to admit, she liked that about him.

Josie waved hello to the night dispatcher, Brian Moore.

He was on the phone, so he passed a stack of mail to Josie as she walked by and mouthed a silent hello. When she got to the office she found Marta working on a case report at her desk.

Josie opened a pull-top can of fruit cocktail and poured it into a bowl. She drank the juice and ate the fruit for her dinner as she filled Marta in on the latest from Holder.

“Sorry to hear that,” Marta said. “Why don’t you go home and give your brain a rest. Get a good night’s sleep and start fresh tomorrow.”

“I can’t. I’m too pissed.”

Josie finished off a package of cheese and peanut butter crackers and spread the phone documents out across the conference table, on top of the phone diagram, and stared at the numbers and the timeline of phone calls for a long time.

She went back to the night of the murder and examined Josh’s calls. He had not placed a call to Lilith that night. And Lilith had not called anyone after three that afternoon. She hadn’t talked to any of the other suspects that day, or since then.

Josh had placed several local calls the day of the murder, and received several from Macey earlier in the day. The last call he received that day had been at 6:37 p.m., from a local number Josie didn’t recognize. Josie typed the number into a search engine but got nothing in return.

Next, she pulled out Big Ben’s phone records and studied them again. He had placed and received hundreds of calls on his cell phone over the past month, most of them with the area code for Albuquerque, New Mexico. Josie ran her finger down the list of area codes and stopped at 432, a West Texas number. She checked the number against Josh’s, Macey’s, Ryan’s, and Caroline’s numbers, but it didn’t match up. That meant Ben had been called by another person in West Texas.

Josie compared that number to the number that had called Josh Mooney at 6:37 p.m. the evening of the murder. The numbers matched.

“Damn. Marta. Come here.”

Josie ran through what she had just discovered and Marta clamped a hand on Josie’s shoulder. “How do we trace that number down?” she asked.

On a whim, Josie pulled her cell phone out and typed the number in to see if it registered as one of her contacts. The contact Mayor Moss appeared.

“Son of a bitch,” she whispered, and held her phone up for Marta to see.

*   *   *

Marta sat down heavily in the chair beside Josie. Her forehead was bunched into worry lines. “The mayor called Big Ben one day before Renata was killed.”

“And that was several days before I went to his office to tell him about Caroline being involved. So he obviously knew about this before I showed up. It’s probably why he took my gun and badge away. He wanted to block the investigation.”

“I just can’t believe this,” Marta said.

Josie went to her daily notes logbook on her desk and flipped through it. “Did I mention to you that Mayor Moss stopped by here before all this broke loose to say the mayor’s office had received a weird voice message?”