“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.