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“But why is he private messaging me? He calls himself The Hunter. Tiffany’s last name was Hunt.”
“Are you a frequent visitor to this board? Maybe he…or she sent private messages to other posters. The Hunter is just asking about those items, not claiming he left them. The Hunter could be referring to hunting clues or the truth.” He nudged her fingers off the keypad. “Can we see who first mentioned these items?”
What Finn said made sense, but how would anyone on this website know about the card and the doll? As Finn searched, Jessica wrapped her hand around her cup and took a sip of lukewarm coffee.
“Here we go.” Finn tapped on the screen. “A user by the name of Queenie posted something four days ago about a sympathy card mentioning Tiffany and a rag doll that you recognized as Tiffany’s left at Morgan’s memorial site. The Hunter probably just got the info from the boards, but what about this Queenie person?”
Jessica smacked her hand on the table, rattling all the leftover breakfast dishes. “Queenie is Ashley King. Because of her last name, Tiffany used to call her Queenie. I told her and Denny about the card and the doll, and she turned around and blabbed about it on here.”
Finn forked the last piece of French toast into his mouth. “There you go. Not optimal but not the killer.”
“I’m not that easily convinced. I’m going to go comb through these message boards and find out what else Queenie and The Hunter have had to say in the past. Maybe Denny is the The Hunter.”
“Before you do that, maybe you should read your boss’s emails.” He circled a finger around a message at the bottom of her screen. “That’s about the third emailnotification from your boss that’s popped up since we’ve been sitting here.”
She sighed. “Why doesn’t he just call me?”
“The sheriff’s department has your phone, remember?”
She clicked on the three emails from Michael in succession, each plea for her to call him more demanding than the previous one.
“It sounds like he really, really wants you to call him.” Finn slid his phone toward her. “Knock yourself out.”
“I don’t even have his number memorized.” She hunched over the phone and tapped in the personal cell phone number at the bottom of Michael’s email. “Voicemail. Hey, Michael, it’s Jessica. I’m calling from a friend’s phone, as you know very well mine was confiscated last night. You can call me back on this number.”
She placed Finn’s phone on the table and turned her attention back to the message board. “I’m going to go out and see Ashley again and ask her what the hell she’s playing at. I’m pretty sure I told her not to tell anyone about what I’d found.”
Finn’s phone rang. “That was fast.”
Stepping away from the computer to stretch, Finn said, “Help yourself, but you’re going to need to get yourself a temporary phone.”
“Hello, Michael. Before you rip into me about last night, I did call 911 on my way to the Art Garden, and the sheriff’s department grilled me thoroughly. I gave them everything I had—including my phone.”
“It’s not about that, Jessica. Detective Morse relayed all that to me.” He cleared his throat. “It’s about that DNA sample, from the red fiber.”
She waved one arm in the air to get Finn’s attention,and then tapped the speaker icon on his phone. “Is there a match? I thought we weren’t sending it through CODIS yet.”
“We’re not, but there’s an internal match.”
Jessica’s mouth dropped open. “Internal? You mean like someone in law enforcement?”
“The sample was a partial match to your sister’s DNA—Tiffany Hunt.”
“What?” Jessica put her hand on top of her head just in case it exploded. “The DNA is a match to Tiffany’s? How can that be?”
Michael groaned. “I saidpartialmatch, which means it’s yours, Jessica. You contaminated the evidence. You’re off this assignment. You’ve been too distracted by this whole thing. You’ve insinuated yourself into this investigation, and now you’ve compromised it.”
“That’s not possible, Michael. I handled all the evidence with care.”
“Really? Like the card and that doll? Those could’ve been important to this case, but no attorney worth his or her salt would ever allow that in a court of law.” Michael’s voice softened. “I know this has been hard on you, Jessica, but you need to take a step back for the integrity of this case and…your own safety. Take a few days off.”
Michael wouldn’t listen to her weak denials or excuses, so she ended the call with a half-hearted apology. She rapped on her forehead with her knuckles. “I can’t believe I did that. Michael’s right. I’ve been treating these cases like my own private investigation. I’m doing a disservice to those young women.”
Finn rubbed a circle on her back. “Don’t beat yourself up. Your boss is wrong. You didn’t insinuate yourself into these crimes, the killer dragged you into them. Like youtold Plank last night, you didn’t ask for this. Anyone would be rattled.”
“Ugh, I can’t believe I left my DNA on crime evidence. That’s Forensics 101.”
“That’s also why your DNA, and that of other CSIs and some law enforcement personnel’s, is in a local database outside of CODIS. Those checks have to be run first to rule out the people who may have handled the evidence.”