Page 7 of Close Her Eyes

Josie smiled. “You don’t say.”

On their last big case, Mettner had given Josie quite a bit of ribbing over her use of geo-fence warrants and yet, a clue Josie found among the results of those warrants had led to a break in the case.

Mettner gave her a tight smile and tapped away at his notes.

A geo-fence was a location-based technology police used to draw a virtual boundary around a specific geographic area and then trace which smart devices, such as cell phones, were inside that perimeter during a certain time period. Geo-fence warrants had first been used by law enforcement in 2016. In other states privacy concerns had been raised, but as things presently stood in Pennsylvania, they were viable tools police could use in their investigation. A geo-fence would give them the phone numbers of any cell phones that were on and operating near the creek trail where Sharon Eddy’s body was found in the hours before Jeanne Wack’s son saw her purple coat.

Josie said, “LPRs, geo-fence, and we need a warrant for the contents of her phone as soon as possible. We also need to establish a timeline. She left for work at six thirty this morning. We need to find out if she got there or not.”

Mettner looked at his phone. “It’s after business hours. You think the animal hospital has someone on-site after hours?”

“I know the place,” Josie said. “It’s an emergency facility for animals, so yeah, they’ve got staff on around the clock. Let’s head over there now and see if we can find out whether or not Sharon Eddy showed up for her shift this morning.”

He pointed to his car which was parked a few spaces back from hers. “Want me to drive?”

Josie shook her head. Popping her trunk open, she found a flashlight. “No. I want to walk.”

Mettner scratched the side of his face. “Boss, I’m pretty sure it’s below freezing now.”

She closed the trunk and flashed him a smile. “What’s the matter, Mett? Can’t take a little cold?”

Before he could answer, she set off. In her mind, she calculated the most direct route from Sharon Eddy’s home to the animal hospital. By the time she turned onto the pitch-black Hempstead Trail, Mettner had caught up to her.

“Why are we walking?”

Josie snapped on the light and panned it back and forth across the trail as they walked. “Why do you think?”

“We’re following in her footsteps.”

Josie slowed down when they came to the area where Sharon had been found. The vehicles were all gone, but a slip of crime scene tape still fluttered where it had been tied to a tree. “You got it.”

Mettner kept pace as she increased her walking speed, the torch now moving back and forth across their path like a metronome. The only sounds were their feet crunching on the ground, the gurgle of Kettlewell Creek to their right, and an owl hooting in the distance. It wasn’t hard to imagine they were the last two people on earth. Just before seven in the morning, it would still be somewhat dark since the sun didn’t rise this time of year until a few minutes after seven. Although there was some traffic from residents who lived within a few blocks of Hempstead, it wasn’t a well-used trail. It was entirely possible that Sharon Eddy had walked to work that morning without being seen by anyone.

Soon, the trail curved on to a residential street. “You check that side for cameras,” Josie told Mettner. “I’ll keep an eye out on this side.”

Two of the houses they passed had cameras affixed to the sides of their front doors. Josie took one house while Mettner knocked on the door of the other. Ten minutes later, they met back in the street. “You get anything?” Mettner asked.

Josie shook her head. “Theirs is motion-activated and only goes off if someone comes onto their porch, so they didn’t have anything. You?”

“Same thing,” he sighed.

They trudged on. A block later, the back of the animal hospital became visible, a glowing neon sign announcing: “Juno’s Pet Emergency Care.” Three cars were parked near a set of doors. A sign affixed to those doors told them to go around to the front. Hot air whooshed around them as they stepped through a set of automatic double doors into a large lobby. A couple waited on a couch, faces pale and exhausted. The woman clutched a leash in her hand and stared across the room at a closed door. Josie’s heart immediately went out to them. She and Noah had been lucky so far that Trout hadn’t been in any accidents, or had any health issues that couldn’t be cleared up with a course of antibiotics or some ointment. On the other side of the lobby sat another woman with a cat carrier in her lap.

They walked past all three people to the front desk where a man with a headset tapped furiously at his computer keyboard. His name badge read “Bryce.” He fired off a barrage of questions into his mouthpiece as his fingers moved. He was so fast, Josie almost didn’t register it when he told the person to please hold. Without looking at them, he shoved a clipboard across the desk. “We’re not expecting anyone, so I know that you didn’t call ahead. You really need to call ahead so we’re ready for you. Fill this out and I’ll get you in as soon as I can. I can’t make any promises as to how fast you can be seen. We’ve got these two ahead of you plus several full rooms in the back.”

When neither of them took the clipboard, Bryce looked up at them, probably realizing they had no pet. “Who do you have with you today?”

“Just us,” Josie said. “We’re not here for a pet emergency.”

She handed him her police credentials. Mettner flashed his as well. Bryce’s face paled as he took in their identification. He pressed a button on his keyboard and gave rapid instructions into his headset to his caller on what to do upon arriving at the ER. Then he clicked off and said to them, “What’s going on?”

Mettner said, “We understand Sharon Eddy is employed here. We’d like to speak to someone about whether or not she showed up for her shift this morning.”

“Sharon? She didn’t. In fact, I was called in early to cover her shift.”

Josie said, “She never showed up at all? No one saw her?”

Bryce pushed his mouthpiece away from his lips. “I was told she didn’t show or call. The nurse on duty waited a half hour, called her cell phone, and got no answer.” He waved at the waiting room. “I know it looks empty but trust me, this place is never slow. Not ever. This morning was a madhouse.”

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