Harrowed (The Woodsview Murders #1)

Chapter Ten

Jason's phone buzzed in his locker as he took off his fluorescent traffic vest. It was a text from Avery. We still on for tonight?

Absolutely, he texted back. Pick you up at 8 at the store.

Good, she replied. I miss you. BTW, I saw Detective Atkins today.

At the funeral? he texted back.

"Tell your girlfriend you have work to do," Ray's voice came from right next to him, almost causing Jason to drop the phone.

"Jeezus, Ray," Jason said. "How the hell do you do that?"

"You kids are so distracted with your technology, an elephant eating a bag of potato chips could sneak up on you," Ray replied. "Did she tell you I saw her this morning at the funeral?"

"Yeah—I didn't know you knew the Strodes," Jason said.

"I don't," Ray replied, "But if there's a killer out there who's taunting us and his or her potential victims, there's a chance they were at the funeral today."

"Did you see anyone suspicious?" Jason asked.

"Most of the people there I find suspicious," Ray replied. "But no—no one in particular. "Although Harriet the Spy did turn up a clue."

"Avery found something?" Jason blurted. He didn't know whether to be excited or worried.

"Seems the killer sent flowers to the family, and left a calling card," Ray replied, pulling an evidence bag out of his pocket with what looked like a business card inside it. "I was bringing this over to forensics to see if there's any prints, but I'm not hopeful. Seen anything like this symbol before?"

"No," Jason replied, "but I could do some research on it if you want. I just got back in and I'm here for the rest of my shift."

"Focus on the phone records for now," Ray told him. "What did you get off the ones I sent you?"

"Nothing special so far," Jason replied. "It's like you said, there were no calls made after the phones were taken. The killer's using wi-fi and that GhostChat app to send messages. So basically, he or she may just taking the phones to get the contact lists."

"So neither of the two victims had a password on their phone, then," Ray mused.

"I called their carriers just to see what kind of phones they had," Jason told him. Both had fingerprint ID capability. So, even after they were dead, the killer could have used Beatrice or Garron to unlock the phone, and then just shut the lock feature off."

"So obviously we're dealing with someone who's fairly tech savvy," Ray said with a sigh. "Which I am not, So, I'm gonna let you keep helping me on that angle, kid."

"Good, cause I kind of already moved ahead with some stuff," Jason replied. "I told the phone carrier not to shut the service off on either phone, but to let us know if any activity shows up. I also reached out to the GhostChat developers and I'm waiting to hear back. I want to see if there's any way they can stop certain accounts' messages from deleting off the server. If so, then we can get copies of what's being sent from either Garron or Beatrice's accounts."

"Not bad kid," Ray said. "But don't do that shit without asking me first. Like I said, the chief would have my ass if he found out I was letting you work this case. And I like my ass—it's one of my best features."

"I'll run everything by you, I swear," Jason said.

"Good," Ray nodded. Now I'm gonna head over to forensics, but I want you to call around to the local flower shops and see if we can find out where the wreath came from. There's a picture of it on my desk—lilies, roses and grapevines. I didn't see any others like it, so it shouldn't be that hard to track down."