Page 26 of Witness To Murder
Leah struggled to steady her respiration. She needed to think rationally, which was difficult with her heart racing and her thoughts in a tailspin. Who would do this? “No one that I’m aware of. Isla said I was her first roommate.”
“But she could have given a key to a boyfriend or long-term lover,” he suggested.
“I guess so, but she never mentioned having given a key to anyone.” Then again, why would she? Leah felt sick at where this was pointing. “I didn’t know Raymond Douglas before two weeks ago, and I had no idea he planned to ask me on a date until one week ago.” She searched Owen’s eyes. “How am I ever going to prove I’m telling the truth?” She stared at the phone lying on the counter. “Everything keeps coming back to me.”
“This phone—” he gestured to the one he’d found in her drawer “—is commonly called a burner phone. I’m sure you’ve heard the term.”
She nodded. “On television, but I’ve never known anyone who used one in real life.” She frowned. “That might not be true. Chris…” She took a moment to ride out the uneasiness she always felt at saying his name out loud. “He and his thug buddies may have used them. I can’t be sure, but it would make sense.”
“That’s a good guess,” Owen agreed. “Whoever bought this one wanted to make it seem as if you were communicating with Raymond in a way that couldn’t be traced. And it couldn’t…not to you, except for the fact that the phone was hidden in your bedroom to do exactly that. Lead those investigating the case to you.”
It couldn’t be Isla. It just couldn’t be.
“In my opinion,” he went on, “the most telling aspect of what we have here is the fact that Raymond didn’t use one.This suggests that whoever masterminded this plot wanted it known that the user of this burner phone—you, presumably—was interacting with Raymond. That step was deliberate.”
Fighting a new bout of vertigo, Leah considered this for a moment. Owen was right. If the whole thing that went down on Saturday night was supposed to be some secret setup, all parties involved would have remained anonymous by using burner phones…exceptthe one whom they wanted to get caught.
Bile stirred in her belly.
She struggled to articulate the fear pressing against her chest. “Are you suggesting that the person pretending to be me was actually setting Raymond up to be murdered, or are you saying they both wanted the police to believe he was being set up to be murdered?”
Owen’s brow lined in thought. “This is where the situation could go either way. We have no definitive proof one way or the other.”
“What about the life insurance policy?” Leah asked.
“Obviously, that detail would make it appear as though you were plotting to kill him, since you stood to gain five mil. This phone suggests the same. Except, if that is the goal, the rest of the plan seems counterintuitive.”
“How so?” Leah’s head was spinning. None of this made sense to her. It only proved to her that someone had set her up to take the fall for murder.
“If the goal was to get the five million,” he explained, “you need a body or the patience to wait a very long time until there is irrefutable proof that the missing person is in fact dead—at least, for all intents and purposes. Why set up a scam like this if the payoff is going to be that far down the road? Or denied. There has to be an official determination that Raymond Douglas is dead before there is an insurance payoff to anyone.”
“Are you saying the insurance policy is a ruse? Just something else to throw the police off…what?”
“We can’t be sure at this point. But personally…” He gave her a critical look. “If I were Raymond Douglas, I would be worried. With what we have right now, I see no way anyone stands to win at this game without a body—hisbody.”
Leah didn’t want to believe what she was about to say, but at this juncture, what else could she believe? “The most likely scenario—for now, anyway—is that Isla and Raymond planned all this. She had access to my room, to my schedule…to my whole life.” It hurt to say the words out loud. “And she knew Raymond. She downplayed her knowledge of him for my benefit. As much as I don’t want to believe that’s possible, I can’t see any other scenario where this comes together logically.”
“It’s a difficult reality to accept,” he agreed. “But, as you say, at this time it’s the most logical theory.”
“How could Isla and I have been friends all this time—shared all that we have shared—and none of it matter when she came up with this plan?” Leah wondered if Isla had ever really cared about her. Had her taking on a roommate been a setup from the beginning? Surely she hadn’t planned this three years ago.
“Bad people do things sometimes that shock us.” Owen eased down onto a stool. “I do believe, unfortunately, that we should start digging even deeper into Isla’s background, with the idea that she is—without doubt—involved, if not spearheading this unfortunate series of events.”
“But,” Leah countered, “based on the money aspect, for this to work, Raymond has to turn up dead.”
Owen nodded. “It’s the only way the insurance policy pays out without a long legal battle.”
“But those messages and those calls were to his number.” Leah didn’t get this part at all. “Why would he go along with her plan if the only way for it to work out in an advantageous waywas if he was dead? I got the impression he’s a very intelligent man. I can’t see him being this obtuse.”
“She may have used his phone and sent the messages, then deleted them on his end. Accepted the calls and then deleted those. He wouldn’t know. Which would mean they had to spend some time together over the time frame the calls were made and the messages sent.”
“The police will be able to find out about the calls and text messages without his phone and without that one.” She nodded to the burner.
“They will. I’m sure Lambert has already gotten a warrant and requested the records for his phone. Probably for yours and Isla’s as well. Those records will show all calls, when and where they were made, and the duration. As for text messages, in some cases the content of recent text messages can be obtained. There’s every reason to believe they will have all we saw on the burner available via Douglas’s phone records. The burner phone may not have your name or any other attached to it, but its location at the time of a call or text will be available. If a call or text was sent from the vicinity of your apartment, for example, that information will be provided in the call record.”
Leah understood. “In that case, in order to point to me, the calls and messages would have needed to originate from our apartment or the library where I work.”
He nodded. “Or wherever you were at the time. If the mastermind behind this setup is as good as I suspect she or he is, then every aspect of the pieces of the puzzle will have been carefully thought out.”
