Her Final Confession

Chapter Fifty

Josie was still sifting through the threads on the discussion boards when the first hint of daylight drifted across Trinity’s apartment. Fifteen minutes later, an alarm clock sounded from the recesses of the hallway. It was abruptly cut off a moment before Trinity emerged, her pajamas wrinkled and her hair in disarray. She squinted at Josie as if she wasn’t sure what she was seeing. “Dear lord, Josie. You’re still at it?”

For the first time, Josie noticed her eyes were burning and her back was achy and stiff. Blinking, she clicked on a new thread labeled The Neal Family. “This is the last one I’m reading,” she said to Trinity. “Then I’m getting some sleep.”

Trinity pointed to the digital clock on her microwave. “Better make it fast. You won’t have much time to sleep before you catch your train.”

“I’ll sleep on the train,” Josie said.

She had spent hours devouring information about the Seattle Soul Mate Strangler and all of his victims. She had abandoned the forum a few times, using her browser to search for any connections between the killer and James Omar or the victims and James Omar. There was nothing. It was easy enough to make a case for the killer having come out of retirement to murder the Wilkinses, leaving Gretchen’s travel mug at the scene. She might have thought he had nothing at all to do with the Omar murder except for the photo that had been pinned to Omar’s body. If she could find a connection between the Neals and that photo, she might be able to convince the chief to take her theory seriously and possibly take an important step toward freeing Gretchen.

Starkey had said the Neals hadn’t had children, and from the reading Josie had done on the discussion boards so far, this was borne out. In fact, even though the murders of Amy and Justin Neal were the most recent, they were the one couple no one knew much about. The only threads she’d found to do with the Neal couple so far were centered around why the killer hadn’t taken anything from their home. Some theorized that he had intended for the Neals to be his last murder, and that’s why he hadn’t taken any trophies. It was his signal to the world that he was finished. Other people theorized that he had, in fact, taken something, but that no one knew the Neals well enough to be able to identify the missing item.

Josie wondered if this discussion would be more of the same, but when she opened it, she saw that it appeared to be a collection of court documents. They were in PDF files. Josie clicked each one and read through it. Both Justin and Amy Neal had had criminal records. Almost all the charges were drug-related except for an assault charge, which it appeared Justin was on probation for when he was killed.

There were several more PDF files, and Josie fought fatigue as she clicked and read, clicked and read. She almost didn’t bother with the last few, but she couldn’t leave them. Not after she had wasted so much time already. The very last PDF was a Petition for Adoption. She knew at once this was a sealed, confidential court document. Whoever had gained access to it and posted it on the forum had done so illegally. No wonder the person in charge of the forum didn’t allow law enforcement to peruse it.

“Coffee?” Trinity asked.

Josie had nearly forgotten she was there. “No,” she said tersely. She didn’t need coffee when adrenaline was shooting through her veins faster than lightning. Amy and Justin Neal had had a son, and they had given him up for adoption several months before their deaths.

Josie stood and went over to her purse, which she’d thrown onto the couch. She dug out her notepad and wrote down the names of the couple who had petitioned the court. The Neals’ son’s name and other information had been redacted since he was a minor, but Josie had what she needed to track his adoptive parents down. She checked the clock in the lower right-hand corner of the laptop. It was too early to start making calls. But once the sun came up and she’d had a few hours of sleep, she’d start with a call to Jack Starkey.