Page 48 of Trap ’N’ Trace

“Any hits on facial recognition?” Dayne folded the report and stuck it in his suit jacket pocket.

Paulson scrolled through his emails. “Here it is.”

Dayne began pacing in front of the detective’s desk. They couldn’t be so lucky as to actually get a hit from Kat’s sketch.

Paulson grunted. “No positive hits. Over a thousand people in New York and New Jersey DMV made the ‘possible’ list.”

“Great. Another dead end.” As expected, the killer’s features were too generic.

“Someone else is dead?” Kat stood in the doorway, her lips parted and her eyes brimming with shock and disbelief.

“No,” he reassured her. The need to put her fears to rest was a fierce instinct burning inside him. “A dead end. We didn’t get any database hits on your sketch.”

“Oh.” Her shoulders sagged with relief. “So the sketch was worthless?”

“I wouldn’t say that, exactly, but we were hoping to get a lucky break.” So they could put this nameless fucker behind bars where he belonged.

“We’d better go.” Paulson stood and slipped on his jacket but then sat again, staring at his screen. He clicked the mouse and frowned.

“What is it?” The serious expression on Paulson’s face put Dayne’s instincts on high alert.

“CCU sent over the call log from Rebecca’s phone.”

“Print it.” Dayne was already heading to the credenza. When the sheets printed, he grabbed them and went down the list of incoming and outgoing calls. He stared at the last line item on the third and final page. Date: Tuesday. The day she was killed. Duration of incoming call: three minutes. Time: 3:50 p.m. According to the ME’s report, that was shortly before the time frame in which Becca was murdered.

Mobile number… “No Caller ID.” Dammit.

“More dead ends,” Paulson said, voicing Dayne’s thoughts.

Or is it? His pulse ratcheted up. A symbol next to the blocked call data caught his attention—a green check mark with an eyeball. An app symbol.

He’d seen that symbol before. Not that he could recall the name of the app, but he was familiar with how it functioned. “Did CCU send over the list of apps on the phone?”

Paulson shook his head. “We didn’t ask for that.”

“Get it.” Dayne’s mind raced. “Tell them to dump all data—especially call lists—from any apps on the phone.”

When Kat touched his arm, tingles pricked his skin. “Did you find something?”

“Maybe.” No sense getting overly optimistic. “Becca has an app installed on her phone that behaves similarly to a pen register or a trap ’n’ trace device.”

“What’s a trap ’n’ trace?” Kat frowned.

“A court-ordered device that captures all incoming electrical pulses. In this case, a phone number. Even if the caller blocks their number, the app captures it in a separate log. Someone blocking their number called Becca just before four p.m. on the day she was murdered. We need to find that person. Whoever that caller was, he or she could have been the last person Becca ever spoke with.”

And, possibly, her killer.

Chapter Fourteen

The funeral home was packed to the point where Dayne could barely move. Apparently, the Haven’s manager was extremely well liked, and half the county had turned out to say their goodbyes.

He and Paulson hovered in the back of the room, searching for anyone who didn’t seem to belong there. With his height, he could easily keep track of Kat’s location and still periodically scan the room and all entrances and exits.

Sweat trickled down his back. Using his forefinger, he loosened his tie. The temperature inside the viewing room felt like it was rising a degree every second. Through it all, Kat looked as cool as a cucumber. But she wasn’t.

She greeted people left and right, but when no one was looking, he glimpsed the toll this was beginning to take on her. An occasional swipe at the corner of one eye and her chest heaving from the effort it took not to lose it in front of everyone.

The Haven must have closed down for the rest of the day, because Kevin and Fiona were there, along with Emily, Francine, and Walter. For such a supposedly close friend, Colin was nowhere in sight. You’d think the guy would remove the stick from his ass long enough to come and support Kat when she needed it.