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She forced her thumbs to type out a simple response:I’ll call you when I can.
Then she hefted up her bag and trudged to the door. If that response wasn’t enough for him—tough shit.
CHAPTERFORTY-NINE
“Are you sure there’s not a mistake?” Jo asked. “Some fault in the cell tower system that relayed the signal over there rather than the tower closest to Naomie’s house?”
“It’s possible, but unlikely.” Lopez tapped on the map again. “Especially since if something like that happened, this tower here would’ve been the one to take over based on proximity.”
“Maybe Naomie just forgot to text him before she left for the walk,” Arnett said.
“God knows I forget to text Matt all the time,” Jo agreed.
“Except look at the wording,” Lopez said.
Jo studied the text again.Had a stressful day, can’t seem to shake it. Gonna go for a walk to re-center. Shepherd’s pie needs an hour in the oven, pull it out if I’m not back.
“No, you’re right, she wouldn’t have worded it this way if she were already in the park,” Jo said. “It says she’sgonna gofor a walk, not that shewentfor a walk to help her re-center.”
“But the ping shows shewasalready in the park at that point.” Lopez stroked her ponytail.
Jo’s hand flew to her necklace. “You don’t think she sent the text.”
Lopez shook her head. “I do not.”
“That’s a leap,” Arnett said. “Simpler explanation is she didn’t want him to realize she forgot to text before she left. Maybe that’s an issue they had in their marriage, her forgetting things like that. She might not have wanted to deal with the fight if so.”
Jo shook her head. “Except that doesn’t fit with the timing of the dinner. A standard-sized shepherd’s pie takes half an hour in the oven when fresh, an hour when frozen. So it had to have been frozen, and there’s no way she’d tell him to cook it longer than that. If she was trying to mislead, she would have cut the cooking time down.”
Arnett held up a hand in surrender. “Not gonna argue with the cooking expert. So, what, we think the killer sent the text?”
“Or he could have forced her to send it,” Jo said. “Either way, it means she was in the park half an hour before the earliest time we thought she could have been killed.”
“We’ll need to go back over everyone’s alibis,” Arnett said.
“And if the killer sent it or forced her to send it, that means the killer is somebody who knew she was cooking a shepherd’s pie,” Lopez said.
“If they were watching her through her kitchen window, they might have seen her put it in,” Arnett said.
“True.” Lopez’s brows pursed, and she took a pull from her Rockstar.
“But why bother to even mention that in a text?” Jo said. “That’s a strange detail to add in, and you have to know something about cooking to get it right. Why bother?” Jo asked.
“Authenticity?” Lopez said.
Jo shook her head. “It strikes me as risky, unless the person involved knew Naomie well enough to know she was careful about those things, and that she’d text Chris about it.”
“So, a friend or a co-worker?” Arnett asked.
“Or family member. And something else about that text isn’t sitting quite right with me, but I’m not sure what.” Jo reached out her hand. “Is that a printout of all her texts?”
Lopez passed it to her. “Yep. Why?”
“I’m not sure, but something’s bothering me. Do you mind if I borrow this?”
“Let me print out copies for you.” Lopez tapped on her keyboard. The printer came to life, whirring out white sheets. “Here you go.”
“Thanks, Christine. This is amazing.”
