Find Her Alive (Detective Josie Quinn #8) - Lisa Regan Page 0,78
going to play his game.”
Gretchen nodded. “She’s definitely not just talking about this DUI segment.”
“Right,” Josie agreed. “Her words don’t exactly fit the situation, do they? That’s why Keating gives her that side-eye. Plus she went on a bit, didn’t she?”
Gretchen bookmarked the video. She made a note of the date in her notebook. “If she signaled him here, it was about a week after Hayden got his note, but a week before she was killed—”
“And before Robert Ingram’s remains were found,” Josie interjected.
“He might have contacted her again.”
“And she might have given him some type of signal again,” Josie agreed.
“But what? We only knew this one because we knew what the Bone Artist’s note said. If he communicated with her again and if she continued to engage him, how would we know?”
“We wouldn’t,” Josie said. “But it might be worth watching the rest of the videos from that week-long period. Something might jump out at us.”
They trawled through more footage. Josie fought to stay awake as they watched different segments. As co-anchor, Codie Lash was on television for several hours a day. After the third cooking segment in three days of footage, Josie started thinking about the bottle of ibuprofen in her nightstand. She rubbed her eyes and shifted in her seat, trying to stay awake. The video continued into the day’s final segment which was about cheap vacation spots.
Gretchen said, “Boss, I can do this myself if you want to get some rest.”
The vacation segment ended, and the next video was Hayden and Codie kicking off the show by reading the day’s top stories. Stifling a yawn, Josie said, “No. I can do this. I need to see whatever Trinity saw—whatever it was that helped her make the Codie Lash connection. We’ve watched three days’ worth of footage since she gave the Bone Artist his first signal. If there’s anything else to be found, it has to be—” She lurched forward, fingers scrambling over the mouse pad to pause the footage.
“Oh my God,” Josie said. “That’s it. That’s definitely it.”
Filling the screen was Codie’s face, her expression one of somber seriousness. In her short brown hair, on her right side, was a large, French-style bone-colored comb.
Josie’s heart pounded double-time as she pointed to it. “There,” she said.
They both stared for a long moment. Finally, Gretchen said, “Wow.”
She took a screen shot and then tried to zoom in to get a better look at the comb. The photo blurred the more she zoomed in, but Josie could see that it was extremely similar to the one Trinity had received in Josie and Noah’s mailbox. Gretchen wrote down the date in her notebook. “This is two days before Robert Ingram’s remains were found and three days before Codie and her husband were killed. She played his game, and he killed Robert Ingram anyway. She must have been devastated.”
“Look at the timeline though,” Josie said. “Robert Ingram was probably dead before the Bone Artist sent the letters to the press. He never had any intention of letting anyone go, just like Drake said.”
“But then the Bone Artist just stopped,” Gretchen said. “He got a member of the press to play his game. Although she didn’t mention his case specifically on television, she engaged with him. He got what he wanted. Why stop?”
“He didn’t get what he wanted, though,” Josie said. “Not really. He wanted attention, notoriety and the only way to get that was if the press did a story on him. Codie played his game but not in the way that he wanted. The only people who even knew they were playing a game were the two of them. Without press coverage, he wouldn’t get to flaunt how smart he thought he was.”
“Maybe it would have continued if she hadn’t been killed,” Gretchen mused.
“Maybe. Or maybe he was so angry with her for not making their game public, he retaliated against her.”
Gretchen raised a brow. “That’s a stretch, boss. Both she and her husband were killed in a mugging.”
“A mugging that’s never been solved,” Josie pointed out. “It’s worth looking into. Maybe Drake could get us whatever there is in the murder file. I mean, is it really that much of a stretch? A reporter makes contact with this guy and a few days later, she’s dead? That doesn’t bode well for Trinity, though, does it?”
Gretchen bumped her shoulder gently against Josie’s. “We’ll find her, boss. We won’t stop until we do.”