Page 103 of Pretty Broken Dolls

“How? I have it with me all the time. I never set it down.”

“I’m not sure—this isn’t my area—but I know that you would have to be in close proximity of the person and phone that it needs to be cloned to.”

“What’s spoofed mean?” she asked.

“It’s when a person falsifies their caller ID and then submits it when dialing your phone—it’s more common than you might think. Just about anyone can do it with a criminal mind and motive to do it. It’s usually done by spam callers to make someone answer their phone so they can do some phishing techniques.”

“Can you trace it to find out what phone it came from?”

“From what I understand, you can call your cell phone carrier and put in a complaint. It’s a long process and doesn’t usually render any solid results.”

“So I have to take this crap? Never knowing if my friends are really sending me a text?”

“You could change your phone number. Or, you could speak with a security expert and see what they say.”

“Maybe John can check it out,” she suggested.

Katie’s mind spurred through several scenarios that might explain this happening to her phone. The first person who came to mind was Special Agent Campbell. He would have the right software on his phone to do that, know all the ins and outs of cloning and spoofing, and he had been in close proximity on several occasions. Katie grabbed her jacket. The anger was rising. It wasn’t just anxiety symptoms, it was real annoyance and she was going to get to the bottom of it. And it was going to be right now.

“Wait. Where are you going?” he said.

“To the source.”

“Wait a minute.”

“I’m not going to tell you where I’m going because you’ll stop me.”

“C’mon, Katie, sit down and tell me what’s going on.”

Her cell phone rang.

She didn’t recognize the number and answered, “Scott.”

“Is this Detective Katie Scott?” said a woman’s voice.

“Yes?”

“My name is Ruth West and I’m a nurse at the County Health Care. One of our patients, Sadie Caldwell, wanted me to call you.”

“How is she doing?”

“She’s doing much better. She’s asked if you could visit her today.”

Katie thought for a moment. Her anger was subsiding, and her curiosity was piqued so she agreed. “Yes. I can do that.”

“Wonderful. I’ll tell her. Thank you.”

The call ended.

“Who was that?” said McGaven.

“The health facility. I guess Sadie is lucid and she wants to talk to me.”

“Maybe she’ll give us some insight into the killer?”

“Maybe. Let’s go.”

“Road trip.”