When that was done, he noticed there were two numbers that had been used frequently in the last two days Jenny had been in town. He wondered what had happened to her phone that the calls abruptly stopped the day she’d disappeared.
“Can you look at these two numbers for me?” He showed her the list.
“This is Mary Leland, one of her coworkers from the Dollar Store, I’m waiting to hear back from her,” Autumn said. “But this number is odd. The area code is from Denver.”
He punched the numbers into his phone. A mechanical voice informed him the phone was not in service.
Jordan stared at the number. A burner phone?
Who had Jenny been talking with shortly before her disappearance?
SEVEN
Autumn’s heart squeezed at the desolation in Jordan’s face as he lowered his phone. When Bear shifted at her feet, she leaned down to stroke his fur. “Let me guess, the number is no longer in service?”
“Nope.” He scowled. “It’s bothering me that she spoke to someone but didn’t say anything to me or Sasha.”
Autumn suspected the argument Sasha and Jenny had about moving to a larger apartment contributed to the lack of communication. She reached for the sheets of paper. “I’ll see if our tech expert can find anything on that phone number.”
“You think that’s possible?” Jordan’s expression brightened.
“I hope so. According to our task force leader, Eva Gomez is a whiz at all things technical.” Emmett had sent the task force a list of everyone’s numbers, which she had dutifully programmed into her phone. She found Eva’s contact information and made the call.
“This is Eva, how can I help you?”
“Eva, this is Officer Autumn Riley with the task force. I’m going through Jenny’s phone records with her brother and we have an unknown number with a Denver area code. When we called the number we received a message that the phone is out of service.”
“What’s the number?”
Autumn gave it to her. “We’re thinking it might be a burner, but I was hoping you might be able to find out more about when and where it was purchased.”
“I’ll get right on that,” Eva promised. “Some of the stores that sell these types of phones have video surveillance. If I can identify when and where the device was purchased, we may be able to identify a possible suspect, too.”
“That would be great.” The news was better than she’d dared to hope. “Thanks, Eva.”
“She can trace it?” Jordan asked, his blue eyes filled with hope.
“No, but she will see if she can locate when and where it was purchased.” She reached over to lightly touch Jordan’s arm. “I know it seems like we’re moving in slow motion, but every step forward will get us closer to finding answers.”
“Yeah.” He nodded and blew out a breath. “I understand police work is different than what is portrayed on TV.”
“I wish we could solve every case in an hour,” she teased. Her gaze dropped back to the suspects who may be responsible for the break-in and shooting. “I have to make a few more calls, okay?”
“Sure.” Jordan stood and crossed to the kitchen counter. “I’ll make more coffee.” When Cutie followed him into the kitchen, he sighed. “I guess I’ll take Cutie outside, too.”
“Sounds good.” Autumn called Denny Oswald’s parole officer first and filled him in on her concerns related to Denny traveling to Canyon Creek and back. “I arrested him for a sexual assault,” she explained. “At the time of his arrest he threatened to come after me. I’m hoping you can tell me where he was yesterday.”
“Oswald was here for his weekly check-in and drug test,” the officer informed her. “As far as I know, he hasn’t missed any work.”
“I’d like to follow up with his boss, just to be sure. Will you give me his number?” As the parole officer rattled it off, she jotted it down.
“Let me know if he’s been skipping out of work,” the parole officer said. “I have no problem tossing him back in jail.”
“Will do.” She made the call to Denny’s boss but was forced to leave a message. Her next call, to Tomas Showalter’s parole officer wasn’t any help.
“He was arrested yesterday,” the parole officer said. “They pulled him over in a routine traffic stop and found a gun and drugs in his car.”
“What time yesterday? What color car was he driving? And what type of gun?” Was the weapon a match to the bullet that had been dug from her doorframe? She made a mental note to follow up on that.
