“How much did you pay her for the four girls?” Townie asked.
Ben turned in his seat and pointed at Josie. “Ask her. She took the envelope.”
Townie had opened the envelope when Josie and Dell had arrived at the police station, and they’d found four one-thousand-dollar bills.
“I’d like to hear it from you,” Townie said.
“A thousand per head.”
“How does she contact you when she has a load ready?”
“She calls me.”
Josie felt the skin prickle on her arms. She hadn’t expected a phone connection. It would be easier to trace.
“On what phone?”
Ben gave Townie a scathing look. “The phone you took from me.”
“This one?”
“That’s it.”
Townie passed it over to him. “Go ahead and pull up Lilith’s contact information. Let me see it.”
Ben scrolled through, found what he was looking for, started to hand the phone back to Townie, and stopped. “Not until I get some guarantees. How do I know you won’t take everything I’ve given you, and then you’ll arrest me anyway?”
Townie laughed and grabbed the phone from him. “Ben. You’re already under arrest. You’re going to jail, pal. We were just providing you an opportunity to come clean before we put you away.”
Ben’s face turned an angry red color. “You told me I’d help my case if I talked to you without an attorney.”
“And you did. We appreciate the information greatly. And so will the prosecutor.”
Big Ben came unhinged, yelling and swearing and demanding his attorney. Josie left the room feeling flattened. They’d finally gotten around to the information she needed and Townie had let the interrogation die out.
Josie stood in the lobby and talked to Dell on the phone while she waited to debrief with Townie. Dell was sitting in his pickup truck outside in the parking lot waiting for her to finish.
Townie finally came out of the booking area holding the phone in the air.
“I know you’re disappointed with the end of that interview, but this’ll make up for it.” Townie powered up the phone. “This is Big Ben’s. Entered as evidence. Guess whose number is in his contacts.”
“Tell me it’s Lilith,” Josie said.
He grinned and handed her the phone. Not only was the name Lilith in his contacts, but she saw that the phone number utilized the area code for Arroyo County. Josie opened her phone and took a photo of the contact information on Big Ben’s phone.
“That what you needed?” Townie asked, smiling, knowing it was.
“The trick will be tying the so-called Lilith to an actual person.” Josie handed him the phone back and shook his hand. “I appreciate you letting me sit in on the interview. It was impressive, the way you worked him over.”
“Slow and steady. Best advice I ever got as a new investigator.”
*
Dell drove the first four-hour stretch to Artemis while Josie spent the time making calls to every law enforcement contact she could think of who might have information that could tie a phone associated to a Lilith to a human trafficking scam associated with Caroline Moss. She realized the name was most likely a fake, but it was a connection she would pursue until it dried up.
After several futile hours Josie opened a search engine on her phone and typed in Lilith + “Caroline Moss.” Surprisingly, several links appeared, and Josie clicked on one that took her to an obituary for Lilith Ann Rockwell, who had lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She scrolled down and read that the woman passed away ten years ago, and was survived by her daughter, Caroline Ann Moss, of Artemis, Texas.
*
After arriving home at three in the morning, Josie fell into a deep sleep that she’d not experienced in days. She woke at ten the next day feeling refreshed and confident. She started her day with a cup of coffee and a phone call to Otto, briefing him on the day’s events.
“So what’s her mom have to do with this?” Otto asked.
“What do you use when you need a security code, or a password, or you want to disguise some piece of information? You use your mom’s name, or your sister’s, or some relative that makes it easy to remember and, you assume, unlikely for anyone else to trace back to you.”
“You think she used her mom’s name as her contact name for when she talked to Big Ben?”
“Exactly. It was easy for her to remember and probably not many people around here know her mom’s name. She lived in Pennsylvania when she died.” Otto was quiet and she added, “How many Liliths do you know? What are the odds this could be anyone other than Caroline?”
“It’s not conclusive, but it’s a hell of a good connection.”
“We’ve got her. I can feel it.”
“What now?” he asked.
“I have a plan,” she said.
“Let’s hear it.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Josie. You know I hate that phrase.”
“As the lead investigator on the case, I don’t think you really want to know my plan.”
“What does that mean?” His voice had turned guarded.