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While Jo sent a text telling Arnett what she’d found, Lopez hunted down an iron. “If we set this on a medium heat, it should flatten the paper without discoloring it.”
“Won’t that degrade any DNA or fingerprints?” Jo asked.
Lopez screwed up her face as she considered. “Fingerprints, definitely. DNA, depends on how hot we get it. My guess is we need to assume it will.”
Jo grimaced. “Thank goodness I have a clear recording of her putting the bag into the can, and of me recovering it. How long do you think this will take? Our killer may be planning to strike again as we speak.”
“Could be days. We’re gonna need to start now, and hustle.”
Two hours later, they’d only managed to iron about half the strips. “And we haven’t even started matching them up yet,” Lopez said, wiping the sweat from her brow with her wrist.
Jo glanced at the clock. “We both need sleep or we’ll go cross-eyed. I say we come back and start in on this tomorrow.”
“I should be able to get us some extra hands on it tomorrow,” Lopez said.
They carefully secured the area, then headed out for the night. When Jo reached home, Matt was just finishing up a glass of wine, about to head for bed. She dropped down next to him on the couch, and reached over for a kiss. “How was your day, my love?”
“Productive. Mostly check-ins with patients, all of whom are progressing well. It’s always a good day when that happens.” His smile was tired, but proud.
“I’m so glad to hear it, but not at all surprised. You’re a miracle worker.” She leaned in for another, longer kiss.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Matt said as the kiss finished. “Did David reach you? He’s been frantic.”
“He’s been trying to reach me? I didn’t get—” Jo frowned, and pulled out her phone; sure enough, a voice mail was waiting for her. “I stand corrected. He must have called when I was wading through the piles of paper. My phone was on Lopez’s desk.”
“He said to call back as soon as you can, no matter how late it is.”
Jo glanced at the time—almost midnight. “Well, he asked for it.”
He picked up before the first ring finished. “Jo. Is Chelsea alright?”
She pushed down her irritation at his demanding tone. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“Why would you ask me? You’re the one who was with her.”
“I wasn’t with her, I was just there when she collapsed. And she was conscious before she left.”
“I assumed you followed her in the ambulance.” His words were clipped. “She’s not answering her phone.”
She paused and took a breath to keep control of her temper—it wasn’t her job to watch over his mistress. “No ambulance, the officer assigned to her took her in. And you know how emergency rooms are, David. If you’re not bleeding out of your eyes, it’s quite a wait. And you’re not supposed to have your phone on once they take you back.”
He laughed a short, bitter laugh. “You’ve met Chelsea, right?”
He made a valid point—Chelsea was the sort of person who assumed those types of rules weren’t for her.
“Did she say why she didn’t want you to call me?” he asked when she didn’t respond.
She paused. “She said she’d been bothering you too much.”
“That doesn’t sound much like her, either,” he said. “Can you try calling her? Maybe they’ll let her answer a call from the police.”
“It’s late, David. She’s either still in the hospital and shouldn’t be answering, or she’s in bed and shouldn’t be disturbed. I’ll check on her in the morning.”
“Can’t you please just try now? If she’s not picking up my call, something’s wrong. And with this crazy guy out killing pregnant women, I just—I can’t—”
He stopped abruptly, and the emotion in his words punched Jo in the gut. She pictured him, pacing in the living room he rented from Matt, ruffling the hair on the top of his head the way he did when he was agitated. He wasn’t justworriedabout Chelsea and the baby—he was terrified. The realization brought up two warring reactions in her: empathetic heartbreak on his behalf and enraged jealousy on her sister’s. If he was really done with this girl, why couldn’t he wait until morning to hear from her?
Jo pushed away the inappropriate anger; she’d have to deal with it another time. No matter what the motivation, David wasn’t wrong to be concerned. “Okay. I’ll call you right back.”
