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Dr. Feist moved to the other side of Trudy Dawson’s body and for the first time, Josie had an unobstructed view of Trudy’s lap. One hand rested on her thigh, palm up, holding a wooden puzzle box shaped like a gift.
Acid burned in Josie’s stomach. “Noah,” she said.
He walked around the desk for a closer look.
Hummel emerged from the hallway. “Hey,” he said. “I left it because I wanted you guys to see it. I’ll get it processed and opened as soon as I can.”
Josie said, “Thanks. If there is anything inside, I’d like to know as soon as possible. What about Trudy’s phone? Is that here, or did he take it?”
Hummel said, “You mean, is this guy a collector of phones? No. It’s here. So is her purse. The whole place looks pretty undisturbed.”
Josie walked back to the front door and surveyed the room again without the rush of adrenaline that accompanied finding a dead body and without her anger. Her eyes traveled from the desk to the hallway. All Trudy would have had to do was stand up and walk four or five steps to get from her chair to the hall. The rear door was at the end of it.
Noah raised a brow in Josie’s direction. Then he glanced down the hall and back to her. Following her thoughts before she voiced them, as he often did, Noah said, “She had a clear line of sight to the back door. It would have taken her seconds to get there.”
Josie looked around at the chairs and the table. All of them looked perfectly in place. “There couldn’t have been any appointments today. Beau announced on air yesterday that Claudia had passed away. Trudy would have come in to contact any patients who might not know.”
Josie went back to the door and then walked slowly toward the desk. “Did she know him? He got close enough to kill her. She didn’t run.”
Noah said, “Maybe she didn’t have time to run.”
Josie looked all around the desk, bending over to look beneath it. “She didn’t fight. Or if she did, he covered up the evidence. Put everything back into place.”
Dr. Feist said, “From this cursory exam, I don’t see any evidence of any other injuries, but I’ll let you know once I’ve finished the autopsy.”
Noah said, “If we could make the case that she knew him, we might be able to convince a judge to sign a warrant allowing us to see the names of some of the patients.”
Josie shook her head. “They’d probably only let us see the names of the patients who had appointments for today that had been scheduled prior to Claudia’s death. We should get a warrant for those. We need to talk to them, make sure none of them were here today.”
Hummel said, “They weren’t. Nobody was except for Trudy and the killer. Her computer screen was on when we got here. The security system app is on her desktop. It was open.”
Noah said, “She was checking the cameras when this guy showed up?”
“Don’t know,” Hummel said. “All I can tell you is that the program was open. I did a quick review of the footage. Someone was here around seven forty-five although you can’t see them. But it was around that time that the nozzle of a can of spray paint appears in the field of view of each camera. Each camera was spray-painted. The killer was careful enough not to be caught by any of them before or during.”
“Great,” Josie sighed. “Just great.”
Noah said, “That’s why Gretchen went to canvass the other businesses along this road. If we can’t get anyone on film here, maybe one of the cameras from a nearby business caught something. A vehicle, maybe.”
“I’ve seen enough,” said Josie. “Hummel, let me know if you get any hits on any prints you’ve pulled. I need to know what’s in the box as soon as possible.”
“You got it, boss,” he said.
The front door swung open. Officer Brennan’s voice carried across the threshold. “Detective? Lieutenant? Detective Palmer’s back. She says she’s got something.”
FORTY
Josie smoothed her hair back as she and Noah crowded behind Gretchen around a small laptop screen behind the counter of a rental car company. Prime Car Rental was situated across from the Collinses’ building, and while it did not line up directly, their cameras had caught a sliver of the practice parking lot entrance. The manager sat directly in front of the computer, queuing up the footage for the second time.
Noah said, “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes,” Gretchen said. “Watch again.”
The manager pressed play. The screen filled with the parking lot just outside the front doors where several cars were parked. Beyond that was the road and on the other side of the road was the rise of a curb and then the smooth surface of blacktop where the entrance to the Collinses’ parking lot began. The view only showed part of it. Josie knew that from this vantage point, facing the Collinses’ office from across the street, the half of the entrance they were able to see was the side to the south of Denton proper. The timestamp on the bottom right of the screen read 8:28a.m. As they watched, a car passed along the road, then a van, both traveling northbound, toward the city. Several more cars flew past moving in the other direction, away from the city.
“Here it comes,” said Gretchen. “Keep your eyes on the entrance to the Collinses’ parking lot.”
Another couple of seconds ticked by and then something blurry blipped across the screen, appearing for a second in the part of the entrance visible to the camera. Then it was gone.
