Midnight Crossing: A Mystery

by Tricia Fields

  Otto was fairly certain that daily showers were required at the jail, but Josh looked greasier and smelled nastier than the last visit. His hands shook and a sheen of sweat covered his forehead. Otto assumed he was suffering from withdrawal symptoms, but their understaffed jail had little in terms of medical help. Tough it out was about as good as they got in terms of detoxing an inmate.

  Josh crossed his arms over his chest, shivering underneath a layer of sweat, as Otto set up the meeting and got the preliminaries on tape.

  “I just discovered that the judge has granted a search warrant for your apartment. What do you think about that?” Otto asked.

  Josh shrugged.

  “The police will be headed over there this afternoon to pull all that junk off your shelves, searching through all your treasures for the murder weapon.”

  Josh rolled his eyes and tipped his head back so far that Otto thought he was passing out. He finally snapped his head forward and said, “All that crap is Macey Jane’s. She’s the one that drags all that crap home. I just have to find a place to put it.”

  “Are the police going to find the murder weapon when they search?”

  He frowned. “No. Because I didn’t kill anyone. I don’t know where the gun is, but it’s not in our apartment. All you’re going to do is freak out Macey for no reason.”

  “So clear this up for me. Who shot Renata?”

  “No clue.”

  “To my knowledge the only two people who drove out to search for her were you and your driving buddy, Ryan. Is that true?”

  “Obviously not! The night I didn’t drive out there somebody else did. And somebody else shot her.”

  “But who? Nobody else has the motivation. You’re the only person who gains by killing her.”

  “Uh, no. Not so.” He rubbed his hands up and down his arms to warm up. “Can you get me a cigarette?”

  “I’ll make a deal with you. Tell me who killed Renata, and I’ll personally go buy you a carton.”

  Josh shuddered all over. “Look. I’m not stupid. I didn’t kill her. I don’t have the weapon because I didn’t do it. So you got nothing to tie me to the murder. I keep my mouth shut and I get out of here. That’s how it works.”

  “What about your boss? Caroline Moss? Does she know anything about the murder? Maybe she asked you to get rid of Renata before things spun even more out of control. You owed her something, right? You screwed up the operation. You raped five women you were transporting.”

  Oliver interrupted, for the sake of the recording. “Officer Podowski, that’s conjecture. There’s nothing tangible that links Josh to the rape of those women.”

  “Actually, there is now. We have DNA from Josh that matches DNA found on one of the women’s underwear.”

  Josh looked offended. “That doesn’t mean I raped her!”

  Otto felt the questions going off track and tried to redirect to his point. “The fact is that Caroline Moss had all kinds of reasons for wanting you to murder those women. Both of them were hiding out at Chief Gray’s house, and you weren’t able to capture them. If she asked you to kill those women? To solve the problem for her? Then that takes some of the burden off you. Puts it on her. You get what I mean?”

  Josh pointed his finger at Oliver and jabbed it into his arm, causing him to flinch. “My attorney told me, keep your mouth shut, and I’ll get you out of here. So that’s what I’m doing.”

  “Even though fingering someone else could get you off the hook?”

  “My attorney told me, keep your mouth shut, and I’ll get you out of here.”

  * * *

  When Macey Mooney opened her apartment door, she had the same sweaty, winded appearance that she’d had the last time Josie visited. Macey was wearing black jeans and a black hoodie that looked completely at odds with her bleach-blond pigtails and big innocent-looking eyes. She stepped back about a foot and allowed Josie to move just inside the doorway.

  Josie sensed things were different in the apartment—not cleaner, just different. She noticed the collection of snow globes and ashtrays that had been on the bookshelf to the right of the entrance was gone. The shelves were still there, but the ashtrays and snow globes had been replaced with four shelves of empty jars. Not useful canning jars, just a collection of empty pickle and jelly jars. She glanced around the apartment and thought more shelves had been added since the last visit, and then she noticed a box of ashtrays on the floor by the kitchen table. The organized chaos put Josie on edge.

  “I been cleaning since last time you were here,” Macey said. “I’ve seen those shows where the police come in and make a person leave because of their stuff.”

  “You mean the hoarding shows?” Josie asked.

  “Call it what you want. But I been cleaning. Getting things systematized. When Josh gets back we’re gonna get a new place in the country. This place ain’t big enough for our stuff.” Macey gave Josie a quick sideways glance, as if gauging her reaction. She could imagine Macey maniacally moving junk from one location in the house to another while her brother was in county lockup facing murder charges.

  “Josh has his eye on a place out by the river. It’s a trailer with a shed and a carport.”

  “I’m not here to talk about your apartment. I want to talk about Josh and what’s going on with him.”

  Macey flinched as if Josie had lifted a hand toward her.

  “Let’s sit down and have a talk. Your brother’s in a lot of trouble. He probably won’t be coming home from jail for quite a while.”

  “Leave Josh alone. I got cleaning to do.”

  “Macey, your brother is in jail for rape. Doesn’t that bother you?”

  “Yeah, it does. Because it’s not true!”

  “How do you know?”

  “’Cause he’s the sweetest person I know. And he would not do that to me or to anybody else.”

  Josie thought about Ryan’s description of Macey being the more intelligent of the brother-and-sister team, but Josie wasn’t seeing it. The woman had the mannerisms and verbal skills of a preteen. But she also seemed more immature since the last time Josie had spoken with her. Josie figured it was either an act to keep out of trouble, or she was doped up.

  Josie motioned toward the kitchen table. “Let’s sit and talk for a few minutes.”

  She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and checked a text from Marta. The warrant for Josh and Macey’s apartment had come through. She texted Marta. Bring it now.

  Macey pouted and led the way through a maze of boxes and piles and stacks of flea-market finds over to the table. She sat down and Josie sat in the chair next to her. She was hoping to get everything she could out of Macey before Marta arrived with the search warrant. Macey would be furious and all conversation would certainly stop at that point.

  “Tell me about how Josh got involved transporting the girls.”

  Macey shrugged.

  “Come on, Macey. He’s admitted to all of it. I just want to hear your side of what happened.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m trying to understand how you and Josh ended up working for Caroline Moss.”

  Her eyes shot open. “He told you that?”

  Josie nodded. “We know all about it. He told us about the money, about Caroline setting you guys up with Ryan. All of it. I’m just wondering why Caroline Moss picked you and Josh to begin with.”

  Macey grinned and slid her hands under her thighs so that she was sitting on them. “He was delivering salt. That’s how he met her.”

  Josie sighed and tried not to let her growing impatience show. “What do you mean, ‘delivering salt’?”

  Macey squinted at Josie like she’d asked a stupid question. “Working for the co-op. Delivering salt for water softeners.”

  “So he was delivering bags of water softener salt to Caroline’s home, and he got to know her that way?”

  “Yep. She saw he was a good driver. She said he was dependable and always showed up on time, not like a bunch of the ot
hers. So she asked Josh if he wanted to make big money driving all the way to Guatemala.”

  “How long has he been driving for her?”

  “A long time. The first time was last September, because he was gone on my birthday.”

  “Do you know how many times he’s driven for Caroline?”

  She turned in her chair and pointed to a wall calendar hanging above the kitchen sink. “I mark it on there. That’s where I mark all his trips.”

  Josie felt a surge of relief. This was the information that Holder specifically requested. And she would be able to confirm it against Big Ben’s records for deliveries.

  “Can you show me what you mean?”

  She lifted a shoulder and looked uncertain, but retrieved the calendar. “These x’s that are in red are the Guatemala trips. I thought Guatemala seemed like a red color.”

  Josie asked Macey to flip through the calendar and she identified seven different trips. “Can you tell me how many girls Josh picked up on these trips?”

  She frowned and shook her head.

  “Do you have any other information on the trips Josh took?”

  She pointed to the calendar. “Just that. Why?”

  Josie wasn’t sure how to answer, and took a moment to respond. “I’m trying to understand how Caroline’s business works. If you and Josh can help us understand how the transporting of the women worked, it’ll help Josh’s case. The judge will like that Josh helped us.”

  Her phone buzzed again and she read Marta’s text back to her. Be there in five.

  Macey looked at Josie’s phone, and then at her face, her expression changing from a childish curiosity to suspicion.

  “Are you talking about me?” Macey asked, looking at the pocket where Josie had replaced her phone.

  “Sorry about that. Just keeping up with police business.” Josie shifted in her seat. With Marta on her way, it was time to hit Macey with the tough questions.

  “Did you ever ride with Josh when he was transporting the women?”

  Macey narrowed her eyes at Josie. “Are you here to arrest me too?”

  “That depends on several things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Did you meet any of the women that Josh transported this last time?”

  Macey said nothing.

  “Come on, Macey. Don’t play dumb. I know you did. Because you were with Josh when the police picked you guys up outside of Van Horn. When you made that last attempt to deliver the girls to Albuquerque.”

  She sat up straighter in her chair, but remained sitting on her hands. Josie wondered if Macey was stilling the shakes. “The police let me go ’cause I was just riding along with Josh. He just wanted somebody to ride in the van with him for that long drive. So I did.”

  “So you convinced the police that you were helping Josh deliver those women legally. They didn’t charge you with anything because Josh took the fall. But I don’t think that’s really true, is it? I think you like to play dumb. You think it keeps you out of trouble.”

  Macey reached up and slowly pulled the hood up from her sweatshirt and pulled it down as low as she could over her forehead. She stared into Josie’s eyes in an apparent attempt to intimidate that came across as more bizarre than threatening. Too many fried brain cells.

  “Here’s the deal,” Josie said. “The judge has signed a warrant to search your apartment for the weapon used to murder Renata.”

  Macey straightened her back again, freeing her hands and forgetting her death stare. “You can’t just come in here and search my things. I’m not in jail, Josh is!”

  “We have a search warrant that gives us full access to the contents of this apartment as they relate to the crime.”

  Her mouth dropped open and she stared, unblinking. “But it’s my apartment too! They told me you couldn’t search the apartment because it’s half mine!”

  “Who’s they?”

  “Just somebody I know.”

  “Somebody gave you bad information.”

  “There’s nothing here you’d want anyway.”

  “You can save yourself a lot of time and a lot of mess by getting the gun now and handing it over.”

  “Why are you doing this? You really think Josh killed that woman?”

  “I do. And I think you were in the car with him that night. I think you drove and Josh got out of the car to find the two missing women. When he couldn’t catch them, he shot one of them, and the other escaped. That makes you an accessory to murder.”

  “No! That’s not what happened!”

  “Then tell me what did happen.”

  “I don’t know. Josh wasn’t there that night. He didn’t have anything to do with it. Go ahead and search this stupid place for the gun. You won’t find it.”

  They both turned toward the door when they heard a knock. Josie stood and Macey continued talking behind her.

  “He didn’t kill that woman. I swear to you on a stack of Bibles that he didn’t kill her.”

  Josie opened the door for Marta to enter and she turned back to Macey. “Did you kill her?”

  “No! And I don’t know who did it either. I just know it wasn’t Josh.”

  “It’s going to be a long day, Macey. We’re going to have to look through all of your collections. We’ll have to move everything until we find the gun. Unless you give it to me now.”

  “I don’t have any gun!” she yelled.

  Josie turned to Marta, who was glancing around the apartment looking overwhelmed. “This will take days,” she whispered.

  * * *

  When Otto finished at the jail, he joined Marta and Josie to carry out the search warrant. They spent three hours searching the apartment and came away with only one find. The women’s IDs and documentation from Guatemala that were not found in the van the night the police pulled them over on their way to Albuquerque. One more nail in Josh’s case, but nothing to tie it back to Caroline, and no closer to finding the murderer.

  * * *

  Back at the office, Marta was called for a burglary while Josie and Otto settled into an afternoon of paperwork. Using the women’s identities on the fake IDs, Josie theorized Renata’s last name was Carrillo and she asked Lou to begin tracking down her family.

  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 phon
e 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.