“Thanks, but I can handle it.” She pressed the green button to answer. The haunting melody she’d come to know played in the background, and her dinner churned in her stomach.
The same altered male voice sang the words.
In the darkness whispers fall,
I’ve found you again, now heed my call,
Turn yourself in and don’t you bail,
Or in the stillness, nightmares will prevail
“Who is this?” She shouldn’t use such a testy voice, but she didn’t care. “Quit being such a jerk and identify yourself.”
The call ended.
She took deep breaths and looked at Micha. “Sorry I was so rude. I probably made him hang up.”
“More likely he never planned to speak to you. He’s just trying to play mind games. Don’t let him get to you. Especially when he calls because then he’ll know he’s succeeding.”
“You’re right.” She set her phone on the table. “Next time, if there is one, I’ll play it cool.”
Micha faced Colin. “If we record the next call, can you remove the distortion on the guy’s voice?”
“Probably not.” He frowned. “But I can use EQ to try to clean it up. Doesn’t always work and it’ll still sound off.”
“But might be enough to ID the sender?” Micha asked.
“Could be.” Colin glanced at Ava. “I’ll have to install an app on your phone for you to record calls. Then I’ll teach you how to do it, or I can do it for you.”
“I’m sure I can handle it.”
“You can now, but what about when that music is playing and the song starts?” Colin held her gaze. “You could freak out.”
Micha’s SAT phone rang in his hand, and Ava jumped.
“Like that,” Colin said. “Only worse.”
“You have a valid point.” She didn’t like to admit she couldn’t handle a simple task, but whoever was calling her to sing this song was succeeding in freaking her out.
“It’s Sierra,” Micha said.
“At this time of night?” Ava shook her head. “Wow, they really do work late.”
Micha answered on speaker and told Sierra as much.
“I hope I didn’t wake you,” she said. “Figured I’d get voicemail, but I have appointments all morning and wanted to share the results for Layne Boyle’s DNA report you sent before I go home for the night.” Her usual cheery voice came over the speaker loud and clear. “Unfortunately, Layne Boyle isn’t a match to the catapult.”
“Not surprising,” Micha said. “I don’t like him for setting the catapult, but I’d hoped he at least touched it at some point and we could link it to him.”
“Sorry, he didn’t.”
“And the blood we found at Buck’s place?” Ava asked. “Did he match that?”
“No on that too.”
“So back to square one, then.” Micha planted his hands on his waist. “We’re going to upload his DNA to an ancestry site. See if we can find any family matches.”
“Good idea,” Sierra said. “But you’ll want to be careful not to alert any potential suspects of your search.”
