Page 122 of Forever Dead

Connor turned toward Arnold.

“Curtis Halle?”

“Could be,” Arnold said. “If Patricia encountered him through her work.”

“Or the sender could've invented the recommendation,” Dana said.

Connor nodded. “Cheryl's checking the facility records. We need to establish whether Patricia and Halle ever had direct contact.”

Arnold said, “Convenient.”

“Very.”

Then came the final instructions: the Tully farmhouse address, a four-digit code for the guest-key lockbox and directions to park near the old equipment shed, away from the house. The sender claimed the family wanted to avoid drawing attention to the visit.

Connor stared at the screen. “They walked her straight into that house.”

Dana nodded. “Her last reply went out at six thirty-eight the evening before she was found.”

“What did she say?”

Dana opened it, and Connor read Patricia’s words.

I’ll come, but if I see anything that makes me think the girl is in danger or being forced into this, I’m calling the police and leaving.

Arnold rubbed the back of his neck. “She was trying to help.”

“Or trying to make fifteen grand,” Dana said. “Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.”

Connor said, “Was there ever a girl?”

Neither of them answered. He studied the farmhouse address again.

“Maybe the whole pregnancy story was bait.”

Arnold said, “Specific bait.”

“Exactly,” Connor said. “Whoever sent this knew Patricia was a nurse and thought she might consider private work. When she named her price, they agreed to it.”

Dana said, “The booking calendar was public. Anyone could've checked whether the house had guests.”

“But not everyone would know the lockbox code,” Connor said.

“Not unless somebody gave it to them.”

“Harold told us the code changes after bookings. We need to compare the one in Patricia's message against his records. Find out who had it and whether anyone booked the place and then canceled.”

“I'll add it to the list,” Dana said.

Connor studied the address again.

“Can you work backward and find anything about the sender?”

“I already am.”

“From what?”

“Message timestamps, whatever sender information survived in the mailbox, and any records the email provider still has. We can request preservation of those records while we establish what’s available,” Dana said. “The address doesn’t give us an identifiable person, and there’s no useful recovery information on the phone.”